Response to Ben Corben video of TrueMajorityAction

Note: These thoughts are not necessarily true.

In this day and age, with the advent of nuclear arms, it’s obvious that no nations are going to invade and conquer another. The “axis of evil” needs to spend a mere $7.5 billion to kill a couple thousand people in the U.S. If the U.S. wanted to, we could wipe them out. But that’s a terrible sin and a definite act of war. Problem is, we’re not fighting against nations but just a couple specific people. That’s the nature of terrorism. They’ll never kill all of us, in fact they’ll only affect less than 1%. But even a single lost life is a huge deal to us. That’s where the problem lies. It’s clear that it takes a lot more money to defend everyone in the U.S., even $400 billion or more, than to kill just a few thousand in an act of terrorism. We need to protect every life while they need only kill one. Plus, they don’t care about death; suicide bombers have proven that.

Thanks to nukes and globalization, nations will never again fall like the Roman empire, etc. did. It might happen in third-world countries, but not to the U.S. or China for example.

Why War is Good

If you look at history, you’ll find that incredible technological and economic advances are gained in war. It’s an amazingly effective motivator that gives everyone passion. The U.S. only rose as a world power thanks to WWII. And if war is expensive, why have living conditions always improved after reconstruction following each war? During the Civil War, engineers developed some of the most sophisticated missiles and other advanced technologies. After the war, these carried over into consumer electronics. It revolutionized the media and the world.

It’s tough for me to say “no” to war.

The movie does, however, fudge some numbers. According to these budget reports, the defense budget in 2001 was 302.5 billion whereas the education budget was 40.1 billion. Using those numbers (and the ones for subsequent years), you get slightly different piles of Oreos. True Majority might, then, be using numbers to their advantage: the budget of k12 education or Head Start is always going to seem miniscule when compared to the entire defense budget. Most years, however, the education budget is second only to the defense budget, from what I can find out.

Video’s numbers –
400 billion Pentagon
32.5 billion education