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The Economic Cost of the Military Industrial Complex

ian4: I think we're in a lot more agreement than posts back and forth would ever be able to cover, if for no other reason than sore fingers. :-)

To the author: Another balancing thought though, have you also considered the incredible number of technologies that have been spun out of the DoD? to name a few:
The internet (funded by DARPA, not al Gore)
medical technologies
Advanced materials (kevlar among them)
GPS
fuel cell technologies
nanotechnologies
solid state storage
imaging technologies

While it certainly can't be listed entirely here, an incredible number of the things we use today, started as a DoD sponsored research project at some point, either in development or in basic research - half of MIT, and other leading universities have been BUILT with defense money.

The Economic Cost of the Military Industrial Complex

Great article but how does this make it into an investment portal exactly?

Inadvertently ommitted facts are that we engaged in WW2 for example because of the INTERCONTINENTAL missiles that Germany was testing, not just developing.

Vietnam? well, that was unnecessary. Interesting however that a Democrat was killed and then another Democrat escalated the war and left that mess for others to work out.

After several dozen bombing attacks (under a Democrat ) culminating in one final attack 9-11, (that would be waiting until the enemy got to our shores) we finally had some adults in office who didn't care whether a counterattack "polled well."

Bottom line: I agree, we are WAY overextended and should pull back significantly (bye bye Middle East and Japan), however consider the alternative scenarios, regional conflict with lots of smaller armies (see Africa) that is constantly destabilizing? Witness Russia/Georgia and now Ukraine? I think one big way for us to be able to reliably disengage is mining and drilling in our own backyards and not have to go to Saudi Arabia's aid when they snap their fingers.

As much as you dislike it, this is still about freedom vs. communism. And it will take volunteers and guns to defend freedom.

The more we engage these countries via trade/exchange, the better off we will all be. Great article.

Equally up for consideration for future articles - the education/industrial complex and the "healthcare" industrial complex: As an example health and human services is 3 times the DOD budget. Food for thought.