The US Military Budget Should Decrease

The US Budget's Place in the WorldThe current budget, being 611.2 billion USD is nearly the same as the rest of the world[1]. Additionally, the US has [2] about 1.374 million active troops and 990000 reserve. This totals 2363675 people. We have 13762 total aircraft strength. We have 5884 tanks, 41062 AFVs, and more than 3000 total artillery. The US has 19 AIRCRAFT CARRIERS! The rest of the world combined has less than that! Furthermore, the US is more than 3 million square miles in area. Thus, it would be nearly impossible for a full scale invasion to succeed. Countries like Russia, with over 20000 tanks, simply cannot afford to deploy them all, given their military budgets. But let us ask ourselves... DO WE NEED SUCH A HIGH BUDGET?Certainly, America is currently in a complicated military situation. [3] The country is involved in 3 wars- NW Pakistan, ISIL war, and the war in Afghanistan. But we don't need to be in these wars, which simply drain money from our economy. Actually, the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (War on Terror which envelops and started all the previously mentioned wars) costed taxpayers a total of $2.4 trillion by 2017[4]. The Afghanistan war, according to the same site, costed $1.07 trillion. So, with the total cost approaching $3.5 trillion, we must realize how wasteful these efforts have been.Increasing the budget certainly won't change that. It costs $2.1 million per year for 1 single troop in Afghanistan. So, if we invade with even a small 10000 troops over 2 years, that would cost 42 billion dollars. We don't need to feed the dragon. We don't need to continue funding to the extent that we are what ultimately brings us down.The money that would generate from any decrease- 25 billion, 50 billion, 100 billion, 200 billion, or more would be substantially incredible. Take a look at this pie chart. If we decrease the budget by 111.2 billion dollars, what I am proposing, we could add fuel to the EPA, FDA, general government, education, and more. We could do so much with that money.Of course, one may want to consider the quality of our national security. Our country, as previously mentioned, is not likely to be invaded. Period. Thus, we do not need such quick speeds for mobilization.Today the U.S. military has over 700 bases (some say it is actually over 1000 bases) in 130 different countries around the globe. It is estimated that it costs about $100 billion a year to maintain these bases [6].41.6 million of those dollars goes to ridiculous things like Viagra [7]. The US has 100 billion dollars that goes to waste in the military, so we should definitely cut that. Also, we have a lot of bases in Europe, a region with nearly no US enemies. If we got rid of those bases, we would be OK. And even if one of our allies like Germany or the UK was to be invaded, not only would this invoke the NATO treaty, but we could just ship troops there. It is far less expensive than having permanent bases there.The very next country below us who spends the second most amount on their military, is China. They spend only $215.7 billion a year on their military. If we cut our military budget in half, we would still be spending $306 Billion, which is greater than what China spends by $100 billion.ConclusionWe don't need to waste money like this any longer- it is time to cut the waste and begin focusing on our priorities.Sources https://en.wikinews.org... http://www.globalfirepower.com... https://en.wikipedia.org... https://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.nbcnews.com... http://www.businessinsider.com... http://www.denverpost.com... https://en.wikipedia.org...;