Is the US military spending too high?

[GamezRule]

Again, thank you for playing, but every time you hand wave you just admit you have no position to retreat to.

The simple fact is that there was no major difference between the Soviet state institutions Stalin operated and that of his successors, yet one was a dictator and the others weren't for some reason. Reconcile. Face it, it was a repressive Orwellian nightmare of the first order.

 

[BasketCase]

I always do the same thing - if I don't it's usually through forgetting to tick the "Quote" button, but I always mean to - but your mention of US military spending being "just about right" was in direct response to what I said. In fact, I believe you said "that settles it" beforehand. It was clearly indicated that you were responding to me. If you weren't, you should have mentioned you got the information from elsewhere, or written that particular statement above the part of your post in which I was quoted.

As you said, the U.S. needs to be properly prepared for the threats it faces. (Which you should have amended to say, MIGHT face)

You said it with the implicit assumption that the answer is no. Big mistake.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Again, thank you for playing, but every time you hand wave you just admit you have no position to retreat to.

The simple fact is that there was no major difference between the Soviet state institutions Stalin operated and that of his successors, yet one was a dictator and the others weren't for some reason. Reconcile. Face it, it was a repressive Orwellian nightmare of the first order.

Because I don't study that as my concentration, of course not. I couldn't possibly know more than you about the USSR.

You may ascribe my positions to sympathy, but I assure you it is not the case. I have far more reason than you to see the Eastern Bloc with a critical eye, because I want to draw conclusions from their experience and will have to teach the young 'uns about it for years to come. You use it for nothing more than a pat on the back for how awesome the US and capitalism are.

And I assure you, my eye is quite critical. Just ask some of my comrades.

 

[RedRalph]

Patroklos, if you honestly think that Mikhail Gorbachev and Joseph Stalin both used the same power structures and forms of rule, you are so uneducated about this that I'm not even discussing it with you. There's disagreements, and there's "this guy just hasn't a clue what he is talking about".

I'm actually very surprised you believe this (I strongly suspect you don't believe it, but cannot stand to back down even though you know it isnt true). Maybe refine your assertion and we can see if there's anything to discuss.

 

[red_elk]

I'm sorry, did you just call Karzai a dictator?

We can argue all day as to how successful Afghani democracy is, but there is no doubt that is in fact a democracy.

Let's argue all day about how successful is modern Chechen democracy under Kadyrov rule instead.

Of course it is, as Cheezy very clearly said created and maintained by the US. Neither is true for Saudi Arabia.

Cheezy gave a list to you. Sorry, I'm not going to argue about whether n-th member of this list was only supported by the US or also created. This is irrelevant to the point of discussion.

Impossible to disprove?

Seriously, point out a state analogous to NK (another Soviet invention, though not solely theirs) that the existed in the US sphere. Sorry, you can't even find an analoge to Hungry let alone Cuba.

Define what is analogous. Was Batista's Cuba analogous to Castro's Cuba or to NK?

The fact that the second part of your statement is irrelevant to the first, I never made such a claim (though much of it is valid). Cheezy said, and I quote:

Do you agree with this or not?

I never made such a claim (though much of it is valid).
Seriously, I tend to agree with Cheezy's statement, though I don't see how I can prove it to you, or how you can prove your point to me. Such type of discussion "USSR-USA, who was right?" would be pointless in our case.

I pointed out things which in my opinion are obviously false and I have arguments and facts to confirm this. In brief, the real goals of American politics are far from declared ones (distributing democracy and freedom). Lots of dictatorships, supported (and currently supporting) by America is one of the arguments.

Face it, it was a repressive Orwellian nightmare of the first order.

BTW, Orwell's book was not about USSR, but rather about how totalitarism could look in Britain.
For example, in USSR prols were privileged class. Salary of miner was comparable to salary of university professor.

 

[eoc]

Look through from page11 to page 13, how powerful the spell of "mass-taunt" that our great mage Patroklos owned !
Your New-American-Nationalist(Since "seems like Nazi" is forbidden) is so well trained to propagandize.

 

[Patroklos]

You realize that using a proxy and then telling us it is a proxy is in reality not using a proxy at all, right? Please, call me a Nazi all you want, it is self defeating on your part.

So, when are you joining the glorious PLA?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I was hoping RRW would address the supercarrier issue, and bring us back to the original topic.

 

[Patroklos]

This thread is a few days old, and there is fresh meat on the boards. So little time...