The 2010s, a decade full of immense progress.

Quote: missedhervee

Consider allowing Japan and Germany to fully re-arm and allow them to have nukes.

That would certainly change the balance of power, and no doubt would scare the hell out of Putin.

I am of course aware that post-WWII the allies have taken great pains to prevent Germany and Japan from ascending again, but hey, it's expensive being the world's cop: our infrastructure is falling apart and we could use the cash infusion which a smaller defense budget would allow.

History teaches that no country, no empire lasts for ever.

Both of those countries lost the right to chemical and nuclear weapons, and rightfully so.

They were both the aggressors in WWII. And, there are many layers of treaties and agreements in place to prevent them from becoming such aggressors again. Which includes restrictions on certain weapons and certain types of military units.

Our infrastructure is falling apart, but how much of that is on the Federal government versus States and municipalities? If a State is not maintaining its roads, and causing the grade to scale down, what does the Federal defense budget have to do with that? (By the way I fully supported the infrastructure stimulus bill). And, I think the post-WWII interstate program was perfect (even if it mostly was passed for defense purposes). We have a C- (as a nation, some States are far better) infrastructure grade (by the society of civil engineers, which to be fair have a vested interest in more spending....) , but much of that low grade is not the responsibility of the federal government.

Should the Federal government really be influxing money to states over world security? .... (Some would say yes, and some short term boosts are fine, but its not a longer term goal, other than infrastructure the Federal government is explicitly responsible for).