Military spending bleeding us dry

Richard York, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

The U.S. role of world policeman has been a reality for decades. We have military bases stretching around the globe, supported by thousands of military personnel and multibillion-dollar defense contracts.

We provide billions in foreign aid so that we can buy influence and have a say in decision making. We freely give advice on what values other societies should have, plus stern lectures on what is right and wrong with the way they do things. We have all the answers.

All of this at taxpayer expense. We know that a select group of Americans profits from this activity, but what does the American public get in return? Are we safer by being involved in every problem on the planet? Is our activist role in foreign affairs placing this country in jeopardy?

While China builds its economy by having a cost-benefit foreign policy, we are doing the opposite. Each year the U.S. is spending about $500 billion on policing the world.

Thinking of what Thomas Paine once said about war, I believe the true enemy of the U.S. budget is military spending, which has opened up a vein of debt that is bleeding our country to death. And it is not right. Just because we have been doing it for decades does not make it right. If we want to balance the budget, save jobs and repair the U.S. economy, each of us must demand that the bleeding stop.