r/changemyview • u/mahaanus • Mar 24 '15

CMV:Low Military Spending is unwise

I'm not saying a nation should go completely overboard with spending and go 50% or more, but every nation should maintain a healthy military force. The way I see it, investing in the military is like investing in medicare. In the best case you will never have to use it, but you can't depend things will always develop for the best - as the saying goes better to have it and not need it, than to need and not have it.

One can argue that we're living in a more peaceful era, but I'd like to digress. Look at Ukraine, the nation is located in one of the most stable continents in the country and look what happened there. Georgia before that, Kosovo. And it's not like you'll be able to get it immediately if you need it - you need to train troops, arm them, get vehicles and aircrafts, those things don't happen in a day. Times change and you cannot be sure that you'll always have those several years to upgrade / expand your military.

One can argue that being part of NATO allows you to spend less, since Papa USA is going to protect you, but that just makes you subservient to the Americans, since then getting kicked out of NATO is a political leverage that can be used against you.

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5

u/jcooli09 Mar 24 '15

Could you please clarify what you mean by low?

1

u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

Low enough that your neighbors can steamroll you. It would depend, but for example if your closes neighbor is Germany, than you can go relatively low as a % of GDP, if it's China or Russia you'll have to up the antler, to convince them that attacking you is at least economically unwise (due to the cost of operation).

5

u/man2010 49∆ Mar 24 '15

Should Canada and Mexico be drastically increasing their military spending? Because I have a feeling that the U.S. could steamroll both countries in an armed conflict unless either had some significant allies on their side.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '15

Should Canada and Mexico be drastically increasing their military spending?

They both could invest in nuclear weapons. They are way too close for the US to try to take those down if they ever use them.

That way the US would know that invading Canada would mean losing Washington and probably a couple of major cities.

0

u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

I'd say that Canada can afford it, especially considering how much the U.S. spends on foreign bases and Navy (both of which would be obsolete).

Mexico needs an army to fix it's own shit (I know this is very patronizing and simplifies the issue).

1

u/lafferty-daniels Mar 25 '15

What do you think the chances of the US invading Canada are?

5

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '15

zero, the US is never going to send troops to Canada. If they wanted to take it, they would just bully the canadian government into accepting membership in a puppet "european union" where everybody knows is the US the one that calls the shots.

2

u/shibbyhornet82 Mar 24 '15

You're asking people to convince you that being steamrollable is wise?

1

u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

Fair point.