Yes, the U.S. could spend half of what it spends on the military and still be perfectly secure. It just has to give up the empire idea. From David Stockman at davidstockman.substack.com:
Wow! These are the most powerful and consequential 36 words spoken by any US President. Ever.
“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that.”
Yes, from the Donald’s lips to god’s ear and all that. The practicalities and obstacle-strewn path from here to there may well be insuperable.
But what our twice-baked President has actually done is to blow the Overton Window of permissible national security discussion wide open. Indeed, once you say that you intend to table this fear-obliterating idea at a joint summit with the two endlessly demonized leaders of America’s purported leading foes, everything—and we do mean everything—heretofore prohibited is on the table for fresh, open discussion.
After all, you don’t need to be a student of the intricacies of the $850 billion defense budget to recognize that when you cut the Pentagon’s rations by half the whole globalist national security framework left over from the Cold War’s demise 34 years ago collapses.
That’s because you would have to bring the Empire home—and all the national security apparatus that goes with it. To wit, 750 foreign bases and 173,000 US troops posted in 159 countries; globe spanning Navy and Air Force 0perations; and alliances large and small, from NATO to the Taiwan Straits, to so-called peacekeeping missions throughout the Middle East and north Africa.
Stated differently, what you can fund on just 50% of today’s defense budget, as we amplify below, is an invincible strategic nuclear deterrent and an impenetrable defense of America’s coastlines, airspace and sovereign territory.
