Reparations for Wars in the Gulf

Don

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Hmm... no mention of the invoice from the U.S. for 'protective' services.

Lightbulb! I have the solution to our economic crisis.

Nations of the world: Please remit $10Billion weekly to the following Federal Reserve account. Failure to do so in a timely manner may lead to broken infrastructure and/or bones.

Hey, it worked for the Mafia for generations, why not for us? Apparently our job in the International Community is going to be police force anyway. We'll make a much better living as rouge cops. :D
 

dgiharris

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Hmm... no mention of the invoice from the U.S. for 'protective' services.

Lightbulb! I have the solution to our economic crisis.

Nations of the world: Please remit $10Billion weekly to the following Federal Reserve account. Failure to do so in a timely manner may lead to broken infrastructure and/or bones.

Hey, it worked for the Mafia for generations, why not for us? Apparently our job in the International Community is going to be police force anyway. We'll make a much better living as rouge cops. :D

You know, actually, this may have some interesting possibilities.

What if the US charged for its 'protection'.

I.E. if you want our military protection and to be considered an Ally who falls under our umbrella of military protection, then that will cost you 5% of your GDP or "x" billions of dollars.

Considering that if a nation wants to develop their own military it will cost significantly more than 5% GDP, especially if we're talking about a military that can face down Russia, North Korea, or Iran.

Now that's capitalism. You want our friendship, pay for it :)

THe other way to look at it is, "Well, since the world doesn't like us, might as well get paid"

What do you think??? :)

Mel...
 

Don

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Mel, that's not capitalism. That's trading our youth's lives for protection money from other countries. Are you willing to take that job?

Instead, how about bringing our troops home from the 150+ countries where we've been doing that free-of-charge, and spending the money maintaining those troops here, on things we need done at home?
 

Higgins

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Hmm... no mention of the invoice from the U.S. for 'protective' services.

Lightbulb! I have the solution to our economic crisis.

Nations of the world: Please remit $10Billion weekly to the following Federal Reserve account. Failure to do so in a timely manner may lead to broken infrastructure and/or bones.

Hey, it worked for the Mafia for generations, why not for us? Apparently our job in the International Community is going to be police force anyway. We'll make a much better living as rouge cops. :D

Believe it or not, the US is not the only country on the planet with money and armed forces. Plenty of US allies (such as NATO) contribute forces and funding to actions and maintenance as part of the alliance. NATO maintains armed units and infrastructure and has sent forces to Bosnia and Afghanistan as part of alliance actions.
 

Sarpedon

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In fact, I believe that the #1 contributer to UN peacekeeping forces (in personnel at least) is India. Maybe we should write them a check.
 

dgiharris

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Originally Posted by dgiharris
What if the US charged for its 'protection'.
it already does.

Not really, and no where near 'market value'.

I'm being facitious of course, just in case it's not obvious to some on here.

Mel...
 

kuwisdelu

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Mel, that's not capitalism. That's trading our youth's lives for protection money from other countries. Are you willing to take that job?

Okay, so it's not capitalism technically, since it's the governments doing it and not a private army.

But it's exchanging money for a service. Seems pretty capitalistic to me... :Shrug:
 

HeronW

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The US grants favored nation status to 'allies', sends troops to keep the local peace, loans or writes off billions of dollars in aid, grants: think rebuilding Europe after WWII, Japan, So. Korea, etc.

The US has given her soldiers' blood over decades for many countries' chance for democracy and it still does.

Yes, getting paid for it would be nice but hardly realistic.
 

Don

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Okay, so it's not capitalism technically, since it's the governments doing it and not a private army.

But it's exchanging money for a service. Seems pretty capitalistic to me... :Shrug:
The free market is where exchange of money for a service occurs. It's a component of a capitalist system.

Blackwater hiring out as mercenaries would be a free market operation. I don't see any way to squeeze the US military into either definition.

Nice try, though.
Capitalism: An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
Free Market: An economic market in which supply and demand are not regulated or are regulated with only minor restrictions.
 

Higgins

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Okay, so it's not capitalism technically, since it's the governments doing it and not a private army.

But it's exchanging money for a service. Seems pretty capitalistic to me... :Shrug:

The US grants favored nation status to 'allies', sends troops to keep the local peace, loans or writes off billions of dollars in aid, grants: think rebuilding Europe after WWII, Japan, So. Korea, etc.

The US has given her soldiers' blood over decades for many countries' chance for democracy and it still does.

Yes, getting paid for it would be nice but hardly realistic.

Well...as the op notes, we can always run getting beaten as a capitalist venture like Kuwiat has done and have whoever overruns us and blows us up pay us for the service of capitulating to their insatiable demand for stuff to blow up.
 

Bravo

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Not really, and no where near 'market value'.

I'm being facitious of course, just in case it's not obvious to some on here.

Mel...

i know you were being facetious about the US getting paid for our services, but the simple fact is that the US does demand payment, in the form of cheap oil from the gulf states and also by having those states buy an enormous amount of unnecessary weapons (none of them have the militaries or expertise to use the crap).

we dont have troops over there out of the goodness of our heart, we're getting paid economically and strategically for it.
 
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dmytryp

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i know you were being facetious about the US getting paid for our services, but the simple fact is that the US does demand payment, in the form of cheap oil from the gulf states and also by having those states by an enormous amount of unnecessary weapons (none of them have the militaries or expertise to use the crap).

we dont have troops over there out of the goodness of our heart, we're getting paid economically and strategically for it.
Wow, I agree with Bravo. The idea that US does things that are not guided by US interests is naive. This is in no way a slam of US. It is no different than any other country in this respect.
 

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Wow, I agree with Bravo. The idea that US does things that are not guided by US interests is naive. This is in no way a slam of US. It is no different than any other country in this respect.


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