$680 billion military budget an affront to God, the poor

SO GLAD TO SEE THIS ISSUE BROUGHT UP!
It should be on each and every newscast each and every night.
Bill Bradley (Senator) brought up the possibility of even a 10% reduction during the 2008 election.
And remember that most of the money does not go for Veteran's benefits, families, housing, health, etc... it goes to the builders of the warmachines - Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, etc...

We can end all the war-making we want. There will still be people in this world who want American's killed. That's the reality whether people want to recognize it or not.

When I read statements like "climate justice" in this article, that clues me in to a political agenda at the heart of this commentary, not the gospel.

It would be better if Mr. Laffin were simply honest with all of us that this comentary is politically motivated.

My God, you are a big fool. Do you realize how miserable life on earth would be without a strong, effective American military? Thugs would rule the world. The American military that you so despise is the primary moral force enabling you to live peacefully and entertain your silly, childish notions of pacifism. The American military should have won the Nobel Peace Prize, not Obama. You'd rather steal money from hard working people for your pet causes, yet deny them the safety of a strong military. One wonders how idiotic ideas such as yours are considered fit to print.

National defense is God’s work.

Just as a reminder to your readers, the defense spending of the United States at present goes primarily to deter and fight Islamic radical fundamentalism – a cause whose explicit goal is the destruction of Christ’s Church and the conversion (by force or death if necessary) of all Christians to Islam. I’m not an academic or scholar, and I’m not as bright as all of you enlightened people, but I would say that we probably don’t want that to happen.

The other big part of U.S. defense spending goes to counter Communist and radical Socialist-based threats against Democracy (China, Russia, etc.) – again, these movements historically have not been very favorable to Catholics – in fact, in modern times these causes have imprisoned or murdered millions of Catholics for their beliefs.

Defense is a big picture issue, long term investment to defend the Judeo-Christian faith worldwide.

It is difficult to imagine the U.S. ever shedding its warrior mentality. It is essentially built into every fiber of our national psyche. It is revealed in our "pride" (note: "humility" is not in our vocabulary) in the "brave men and women" who "keep us safe," and "protect our freedom," and "defend democracy," and, while they're at it, help secure the profits of Exxon-Mobile, McDonald-Douglas, Goldman-Sachs and all the rest. It is a false idol perhaps destined to bring the country to a violent end. Unlike other empires, I fear we will go out with a (nuclear) bang, not a whimper. Problem is, we'll take the rest of life on the planet with us. And it will be a matter of reaping what we have sown for so long.

It was President Eisenhower who warned us in his last speech as he was leaving office about the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex. The chickens have come home to roost.

Your umbrage is incomplete Art without including the American Christian contribution to the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people. Indeed many a Gazan child was torn to pieces and vaporized in December '08 and January '09 with killing machines bought and paid for by the tax revenue of countless American putative followers of Christ. I think the ethos of Dorothy Day is needed by America as critically as that of Gandhi was needed by India.

The Diocese of Portland, ME, spent $550,000 opposing granting same-sex couples equal marriage rights. The diocese also collected $86,000 in a special collection to be used to oppose same-sex marriage. The Knights of Columbus added another $50,000. I know nearly $700,000 doesn't compare to $680 billion, but the principle is the same - instead of using the money to help the poor, both the church & the government is using the money for destructive causes.

I don't disagree that the United States is entitled to a strong military to protect it's interests. My question is when is enough enough?

Are 9200 nuclear warheads, most over 100 times more powerful than Hiroshima enough? A rational person might think that's far more than enough.

What is going on in New Mexico at places like Los Alamos, Intel, and Sandia that the DOD spent nine trillion dollars during the eight years of the Bush administration? Compare nine trillion to the cost estimates of the senate health reform bill for ten years.

How is this money being prioritized that we send our most precious military resource, our actual ground troops into Iraq and Afghanistan with substandard or deficient equipment? Were those resources going into sustaining the production of the F22, a fighter plane whose design characteristics never met the actual needs of our current military because it was designed for aerial combat against Soviet MIG's?

Is national security just a blank check for a form a state supported socialism for the military industrial complex, a sacred cow that demands we bleed this country dry?

As a nation we need to start grappling with these questions because maintenance of this status quo as our only alternative is as frightening as total disarmament.

After this country established a Department of Homeland Defense it should have been apparent to one and all that we don't have a Department of Defense - We have a Department of War. Some people may think $680,000,000,000. is a nice amount to soothe our warrior egos but some of it could probably be better used to provide grandma with decent nursing care.

"National defense is God’s work."

Statements like these arise more from a Christianity that is so infused with patriotic narratives and nationalistic ideology that they are difficult to take seriously.

It is one thing to give a reasoned explanation for why we should support national defense as Christians. It is quite another, and teetering on blasphemy, to boldly proclaim that any type militaristic industry is 'God's work'.

It also ignores Jesus' call to love our enemies. Once you begin to marry patriotism, national defense and other jingoistic narratives with the gospel, you lose sight of the radical call of Jesus to be different.

But at it's core, using phrases like you did are a sign of intellectual and spiritual insecurity, a way for you to avoid responsibility for a weak argument.

How's that hope and change working out for you now?

The author's rhetoric is over the top in his judgmentalism but his basic point is correct. We, the USA, are spending over $680 billion per year on the military and weapons and defense, more than the entire rest of the world combined. Yet, in the media these days, we hear only about the $900 billion -- over ten years, not one year -- on covering 36 million Americans with health care. The latter is said to bankrupt the country but the former, eight times as much, was passed by Congress without a peep by Republicans or the US bishops while both are doing their best to sabotage universal health care. No wonder the US is in decline with such myopic leaders, both church and state.

God's work is expressed in the simple "love your enemies." Show me a Biblical citation that substitutes "national defense" for that simple tenet. What an abomination in the eyes of God!

"It was President Eisenhower who warned us in his last speech as he was leaving office about the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex. The chickens have come home to roost."

He also warned of a scientific-research complex also. I have been reading a book "Seeds of Change" about GMO food. Old wealthy families like the Rockefellers formed their Foundations to avoid taxes and influence Public policy in their favor. They supported Eugenics (including Nazi Eugenics) and lobbied for intervention in other countries as the thought was in their interest. A lot of what passes as news in just propaganda from different think tanks.

It is time to get rid of the labels "Left" and "Righ" and pick options that return economies to a Human Scale and also stop slaughtering children both those in the womb and those in war zones. Pray also for our Church which is a bulwark against the forces of death.

It is because of the military that all of you have the luxury to drive your Prius and log onto the NCR to complain. Last week was Veterans Day. Did you thank those men and women who served our country, or did you protest them and go spit on their graves?

In this discussion it is important to remember that the $680 billion is only the public budget. The "black" budget, the money set aside for secret projects, is typically another 20%.

If, as has been suggested, this ludicrous sum is marked for a struggle against Muslim extremists then we are complete morons. The world wide number of Muslim extremists is estimated by US Intelligence to be no more than several thousand. Even if the high-value guys number 10,000 and only half of our budget is oriented to handle this supposed existential threat, then we are dropping $34 MILLION dollars per extremist every year.

Can we really borrow money from the Chinese fast enough to sustain this paranoia?

Bin Laden is counting on us to do so. Like the CIA-trained operative that he is he knows that the best way to defeat America is to have us do it ourselves.

Until we try things the way Jesus taught we will be doomed to failure.