Our current military spending is a mere 3.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; this percentage is down from 6 percent in the Regan administration and from 8.9 percent during the height of Vietnam war (Brown par 4). Loren Tompson, a defense analyst, once remarked, AIt takes a lot of inducements to get people to risk their lives for a living@ (qtd. in Sorrells par 14). Increased military spending is essential to keep our society thriving. More counter terrorism training for the new kind of war is needed (Sorrells par 38). A smaller, quicker and more lethal military power that uses state of the art communications and weapons is the goal (Sorrells par 38). Increasing the military=s budget would justify the c ...view middle of the document...
Eric Weltman, a Cambridge writer said that Awe=re spending billions of dollars to protect our country militarily, but not spending the money necessary to protect our communities in other ways.@ Even though the Cold War ended decades ago its weapon programs are still being funded in the current military budget (Brown par 14). An additional 5.7 billion dollars would provide a million families with federal housing assistance (Weltman par 2). The Head Start program need 7 billion dollars to stay current (Weltman par 2). School systems need 112 billion dollars for necessary building repairs (Weltman par 2). For every dollar spent on housing assistance nine dollars go to the defense (Weltman par 5). The Pentagon pays for 41% of the planet=s military expenditures (weltman par 6). It could be argued that our military budget is taking away from the advancement of our people.The defense of our nation and people should be our top priority. The defense budget does not solely go to military members; civilian programs take 48.5 billion (Sorrells par 13). We need to provide servicemen with better pay and board to face the new terrorist threats (Kilian par 2). The defense budget has already been reduced by 70 percent (Kilian par 22). The defense of our nation covers everyone, not like the Aunderprivileged@ special programs that only cover a few individuals.Our nation=s Military Budget should be our top priority. We need extra funds to support more counter terrorism training. Additional funds should be provided to make up for the cuts the military has been taking. Money is more importantly needed for our troops and their weapons systems.
