In the USA we tend to equate military preparedness with security. What we are learning is that real security cannot be achieved by spending trillions on weapons and wars. In 2016, Russia managed to really mess with us using only information (misinformation) and social media. If their aim was to weaken us, I think we can all agree that they succeeded, by merely stoking the divisions we already had. Not a single shot was fired.
The current COVID-19 pandemic is another wake-up call. If we had spent a fraction of the money that we lavish on the Pentagon on our health care system, we would be miles ahead of the curve. What good is a massive military machine when the enemy is an invisible virus? We worry about spending too much on kids’ school lunches or on Medicaid costs, but giving the Navy billions for aircraft carriers and tanks is approved immediately without discussion.
A country’s budget reflects its values, and we spend more on our military than any other country and we have very poor public health care systems in place. We are about to find out if the greatest military in the world can make up for the weakest public health system in the industrial world.
