Good evening hkbajwa,

I can't help smiling when I read that, in light of the recent Wahabbist cartoon debacle.

Very little (except the wherewithal to defend your country so a foreign army doesn't come and take you as slaves).

I just realized, you must think I'm really paranoid

All armed to the teeth to guard the home and now anxious to defend against enslavement !
But honestly,
It's like indago once wrote: better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Scandinavian countries are so small that they really couldn't defend themselves from a large power even if they were armed to the tooth anyway... military spending is certainly not needed as a priority.

They have more friends in the world than enemies and many countries would come to their aid should the need arise.

Okay, but how can we pretend that is true of our country, or even of most countries who enjoy enviable resources?
Also,
the Third Reich would inevitably have thrust its long shadow into Scandinavia, had intervention from others not been forthcoming...no matter how friendly and well liked Scandinavia was.

We could cut our military spending to half and still spend more than every other country in the world. We have gone well past our threshold for what is necessary to defend our homeland. Schools are falling apart but the military gets anything they want? Sounds like we have become a military state in my opinion.

Europe would have handled the Third Reich without us.

I didn't know that part about how we could cut it by half and still spend more than the others, but...
I don't really disagree with anything in your post

http://www.truemajorityaction.org/oreos/

Looks interesting, but unfortunately my rabbit has chewed the cords of my speakers and I can't get any sound at the present time.

Let me know if there is a version for the deaf.

Well i can give you the down low on that as well. It just so happens that my uncle is a sub-editor in the newspaper that printed the cartoons.
This cartoon issue was cleared up in a few weeks in denmark. The issue was taken up by foreign extremist groups several months after they were printed.
The only reason the danish government got involved was because muslim nations were demanding that the danish government intervene and punish the newspaper. This the government refused to do as the danish constituion does not allow interference with the free media. This is what the debate was about. Most danes supported the fact that the danish prime minister would not intervene. As to whether they agreed with the substance of the cartoons was irrelevant at the time. Indeed it is irrelevant even now. The cartoons themselves are forgotten.


Well you are right you do sound a bit paranoid . But point taken. Better to be prepared. However what about priorities? As hev has already said, the US army is far far FAR more advanced than any army on the planet. How much more does the military need? the US has 10,000 Nukes and China 100. Do you know what the maintenance of such a huge arsenal costs the US tax payer?
How about 500 nukes with the rest of the money going to healthcare?

Many other steps can also be taken that are more effective than increased military strength. For instance a non-stupid foreign policy that wouldn't piss people off around the world. Less intervention in local affairs of other nations. Fewer wars on foreign soil. Less exploitation of client states. Less support of dictators. A bunch of things.

In the past century, the US has led more invasions into foreign soil than any other nation on the planet. WHo the hell would come and make you slaves? you are spectacularly secured militarily on account of taking up a full continent. Tactically no nation can attack the US and win without the use of nukes. And if any nation was crazy enough, the US could use a couple of nukes ( out of the 10,000) and it would be over and done with. I mean even during WW2 the japanese got to pearl harbor and no further.

That must have been a great month for him !

Alright smarty, it's called literary hyperbole.

See above. I already agreed with hev on that point.

I agree that our present foreign policy is part of the problem but it is clear that in certain quarters we are hated equally because of the culture we export (and many times I don't even blame them when I look at our movies and so forth).

Yes, thank you for reinforcing my point so eloquently. Who would come and make us slaves...precisely because of the military hurdle we present.
Even so,
as I wrote above I agree that the sheer # of nukes is ludicrous.