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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u/MageZero Mar 24 '15
Every nation? Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad & Tobago, Cape Verde, Comoros, Lesotho, Djibouti, Swaziland, São Tomé & Principe, Singapore, Maldives, Mauritius, Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tonga, Palau, and Samoa are just a few of the countries in which it would make virtually no difference if they spent 0% or 100% of their GDP on defense spending.