US Military Budget On Our Shoulders

Essay by shurushaJunior High, 9th gradeA-, December 2009

download word file, 2 pages 5.0

Our country no longer needs to be afraid of other countries. The cold war is over and the United States can stop putting most of the citizen's tax dollars into the military. Our government spends 965 billion dollars on the military which as an astronomic amount. Every year military technology is outdated and we spend billions to update it. Since we stopped fighting over land years ago, we began building up our weapons to be the world's most powerful country. There is no need to be the most military dominant because we are years ahead of every other country anyway.

To begin with, the U.S. has 5,400 warheads loaded on intercontinental ballistic missiles at land and sea, 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers and 1,670 tactical nuclear weapons. That is just ready to be fired, but we have 10,000 nuclear warheads held in bunkers around the United States.

This amount is enough to eliminate all life on planet earth many times over. What is the country trying to protect its citizens from? It is enough to have a small navy, army, and air force to be safe from attacks by foreign governments or terrorists. Consider the amount of money we spend on the military when we can be spending it on cancer research, scientific advancements, and reducing our debt which has now reached 11.8 trillion dollars. From 965 billion the government should reduce the military spending to at least 500 billion. The government spends 129 billion on military personal and should continue doing so, but can reduce a lot of money and areas such as research, production, operation & maintenance, nuclear weapons, and the war on terror. It is wrong for the US government to be spending 7 times less money on homeland security then the war on terror. Terrorists gain where we lose in security. If a terrorist really wants to cause damage and deaths they will bypass any security measure. A lot of money can be spent in important things such as healthcare, environmental protection, and different research projects. If groups finding cures for diseases had the funding of the US military we would be sickness free. Many countries that don't have such huge military budgets are safer and more well off. The US can support free college level education, healthcare, and many public buildings that would make life much easier for the citizens.

So where do you want your countries tax dollars to go to? Do you want them used to create better life or to produce unnecessary weapons which cause death and misery for many families? The answer is clear in my mind, now you imagine what you would do with 965 billion dollars instead of spending it on military to help the US and the world…Works CitedInfoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help. Infoplease.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. .

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