[quote=TheEvanCat]
Militaries are good things for a lot of reasons. Like A-A-Ron said, they're humanitarian tools.In addition, they're good places for people to end up in. Where else in America can you start again, get out of the ghetto, and be treated the same if you're white, black, gay, straight, male, female, rich, or poor? The military is, in the long run, focused on the precision application of violence. But there's so much more to that that nobody ever thinks of: you need so much to run a military. You need clerks, acquisition guys, finance guys, doctors, police, fire departments. And militaries generally teach you these things for free, and give you an opportunity to get those job skills.At least the US Military will pay for your education, healthcare, dentistry, housing, and utilities. Then they'll give you the steadiest paycheck you'll ever have, since you generally aren't worrying about downsizing. You leave when your contract is up or decide to reenlist and give four more years of your life.They're not evil constructs of war crimes, they're probably the best thing to happen to someone in this economy. It's more than fighting, it's a good shaping force on people. They need to be kept.
[/quote]

I disagree. Sorta. You need a standing army just in case some shit goes down, and you need the infrastructure that allows you to mobilize, but the rest of the military is an economic liability.

Whereas it is true that the military employs people, it employs people to be a drain on the economy. The military doesn't actually produce anything - quite the opposite, actually. It tends to just destroy. So with the military, we have jobs, but no tangible end product. The only product is economic waste - maimed people, potential markets that are burned, foreigners actively interested in working against the west after have their lives destroyed, soldiers for who have their educations payed for by taxes only to have them killed, or at least rendered helpless, thus representing another form of financial loss.

The same sort of energy would be better used domestically. If the government took the people who would be come soldiers and instead payed for their education in technical fields, with guaranteed employment in those fields once they graduated, our money would be better spent. We need engineers, and architects, and doctors. People who's work actually produces something tangible, that could be used to better life for all of us. Let them rebuild the ghettos instead of making new ones across the sea. 

The American military, as it stands, seems to exist for two reasons: for the continued health of a defense industry who pays politicians to keep it in business, and for the masturbatory quality it gives to patriotism.