Within the past 20 years, has the military of any G8 country done anything to better their country?

The only answer that comes to mind is swiftly responding to natural disasters.

Has a military contributed to their own country in any other manner?

Within the past 20 years?

In terms of combat and "war", no. There really hasn't been a war in a while, for any nation.

I guess some armies in Africa have had victories here and there, but I don't keep up with current events, so I don't really know.

I think our military does a lot for our country. First off, our military power makes helped make us a great nation. The US military offers job opportunities to its citizens. Not only that, it funds its members to pursue higher education. Many skills military members obtain, often end up in the private sector.

The military community and units support schools, and people with special needs. We provide weather information to civilian meteorology institutions. The US military does countless things to indirectly better the nation. However, one needs to remember that the military's job is the profession of arms, not bettering of the country.

No, they have served as street cops for would-be warzones, dropped rice and corn from planes and blew up several countries. "good" and "army" aren't good friends.

The army is a pure waste of time and a thing of the past. Modern conflicts prove that even a poorly organized small militia is more effective than a gigantic war machine.

Why ? Because much like any dog of the state, a soldier will be indoctrinated procedures to follow. Once he does he becomes predictable and is therefore already dead.


I guess some armies in Africa have had victories here and there, but I don't keep up with current events, so I don't really know.

Small groups of savage, genocidal armed apes don't make an army.

Within the past 20 years, has the military of any G8 country done anything to better their country?

The only answer that comes to mind is swiftly responding to natural disasters.

Has a military contributed to their own country in any other manner?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology

It was definately driven by military needs.

The U.S even has an agency set up for new technologies:

http://www.darpa.mil/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA

Keep in mind most of the technology we have today decends diretly from the military in one for or another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology

It was definately driven by military needs.

The U.S even has an agency set up for new technologies:

http://www.darpa.mil/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA

Keep in mind most of the technology we have today decends diretly from the military in one for or another.

To expand upon the above post... although an extreme portion of our technology comes from military, I would also like people to take note that NASA is also a contributor in this field.

I'd say the military and NASA are responsible for many breakthroughs.

To expand upon the above post... although an extreme portion of our technology comes from military, I would also like people to take note that NASA is also a contributor in this field.

I'd say the military and NASA are responsible for many breakthroughs.

Well one of the more recent things that has been declassified that my Grandfather worked on was this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS

He did work with the Defense mapping agency to confirm the accuracy of the new system. What he did was fucking amazing because they did most of it the remote areas of central america.

As has already been pointed out, I'd like to emphasize it:

The Internet.

The military created facebook

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h2Un74P0Ym0

:p

Armed forces do bring relief and help with reconstruction in cases of natural calamities.

Any tech advances are purely a side-product of the huge amounts thats get poured into the "defence" budget. Which they then sell for civilian applications for more money. Any actually useful technology that has come about from military spending is but a tiny fraction of what they've spent on developing new missiles and fighter jets and nuke subs and aircraft carriers..

Yeah but a lot of the new technologies developped for the military have dual-uses, they can also be used by the civilian sector.

Developments on fighter jets could then be used to improve civilian planes and so on, just think about satellites, now they have several civilian uses, however they were developped originally for military purposes.

Ah, in terms of technologies and civilian advancements. Weather detection, cancer treatment, computer systems, microwaves, and more recently, research and development of alternative fuel sources (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB121134017363909773-lMyQjAxMDI4MTIxMTMyNDEwWj.html).

Also the slinky, if I remember correctly. ;)

Not only that, much of the research and production the military requires, is done by civilians and civilian contractors employed by the DoD. This creates great job opportunities FOR civilians, and helps the economy.

It's difficult to say how much the military contributes to the economy. Obviously the technology developed for warfare has trickled down to the private market and improved the quality and quantity of consumer and capital goods, and although it does provide jobs for people, that money could also be dedicated to other sources of employment.

The problem is that the purpose of the military is not to produce goods and services for the economy, but to destroy the wealth of other nations.

Also too, the military pays for a program called Youth Challenge (http://www.ngycp.org/). This is a program designed to help at-risk kids get somewhere in life, rather than continue getting in trouble, and going down the wrong path in life.

Oh, I almost forgot...

The U.S. navy originally designed tor (http://www.torproject.org/) and then financed its creation.

Oh, I almost forgot...

The U.S. navy originally designed tor (http://www.torproject.org/) and then financed its creation.

And where does the US navy make its money?

Sure they financed it...

Not only that, much of the research and production the military requires, is done by civilians and civilian contractors employed by the DoD. This creates great job opportunities FOR civilians, and helps the economy.

Are you saying that stealing tax dollars from your pocket and using it to pay you is a valid way of "helping the economy" ?

Getting paid with your own money helps you... That's new...

last time I checked the military was funded by taxes. taxes=stealing from everyone else. Privatization is the way to go. Then bush can invade iraq through mercenaries. The military/oil/industrial/congressional complex has gotten too big. They are just asking for it over there in the ME.

Are you saying that stealing tax dollars from your pocket and using it to pay you is a valid way of "helping the economy" ?

Getting paid with your own money helps you... That's new...

Someone's never heard of Keynesian economics...

Besides, the job of the military isn't to directly help the economy of the nation, but rather to be ready and able to wage the wars the civilian leadership of the nation tell it to.

However, as has been pointed out, it is a nice side effect that the military research also happens to benefit the people in a more tangible way as well.

last time I checked the military was funded by taxes. taxes=stealing from everyone else. Privatization is the way to go. Then bush can invade iraq through mercenaries.

Finally! Black Water will be able to do whatever the fuck they want... Oh wait...

Not only that, much of the research and production the military requires, is done by civilians and civilian contractors employed by the DoD. This creates great job opportunities FOR civilians, and helps the economy.

If you dont mind, I'd like to expand upon this.

Back home in Arizona, I grew up outside of an Army base. The entire town's economy was based off the military. On 9/11, about 2/3 of the city was caught in a traffic jam trying to get on to base. The rest of the 1/3 was doing other jobs that were recruited due to military families, retirees, and prior service members who stuck around. This town now has a population of 60,000 people, completely dependent upon the US Army. Base realignment scares the shit out of that town because if they close the base, they essentially shut down the city.

And before I continue on - a lot of mininum wage jobs are maintained by the base, aka burger flipper who works at a McDonalds in town. Right now, the town is facing a labor shortage, and so now the local places pay quite nicely. So the base maintains literally everyone in that town in some shape or form.

Now, 15 miles South of that base is Mexico, and the state has activated its National Guard to help assist the Border Patrol. So now not only has the Army keep that town alive, the Army National Guard is helping protect it.

Consider how many jobs are created to create all the equipment. A lot of military equipment is made in the U.S. because we don't want the enemy to know the intimate details of our equipment.

Lets take the upcoming Joint Fighter - look at how many jobs have been created to not only develop the desired technology, but to produce it, test it, improve it, and finally mass produce it.

Then as many people have pointed out already - the amount of technology developed from the military passed down to the civilian world. Take dive gear for example - Navy SEAL diving gear has been converted to normal scuba gear.

And here's another thing - Law Enforcement. With the creation of SWAT, you have a lot of paramilitary police forces that adapt military tactics and equipment, to help keep you safe...or in totse's case - arrest you.

So, the short version:
Tons of jobs created
Loads of money into the economy
Technology
Protection

Tons of jobs created
Loads of money into the economy
Technology
Protection

Uhm sorta..maybe...well

actually no.

Or rather all the benefits you list are at the expense of other things and often other people.

What would happen if your government put all the money it spends on the military for one year into into curing cancer?

Last time I checked cancer still kills more people than Hammas.

That's really be protecting us from a real danger.

Would it bring shit loads of money into the economy? Well seeing every fucking person on the planet would want to buy the pills then probably yes.

What if the government spent the same on developing peaceful technologies?

It seems a bit retarded to try and stress the benefits that we supposedly accrue from having a military when it is a major drain on any country's wealth and stifles research into really important areas.

Its like a mugger stealing the money you needed for some life saving drugs but giving you a really cool leather wallet back that he nicked from someone else.

Sure the internet grew out of the military's arpanet but chances are if the government had invested with the same fervour into civilian computer programs then it would have developed anyway.

Just checked wiki

US annual spending on the military is $548.9 billion.

Anyone care to seriously argue that the US military has given anything like value for money in terms of contributing to society?

Btw I'm not picking on the USA, this goes for all G8 countries I'm sure.

Anyone care to argue that that same sum invested in finding solutions for the real problems and dangers we face would bring just as many jobs and new technologies?

There are very few problems that can't be beaten to death with a large sum of money.

I'd guess within one of two years at that level of investment we could find a cure for cancer..hell probably for almost all diseases, solve the worlds energy problems (ie find a cheap clean petrol substitute), maybe even 'cure' old age.

Any benefits society has got from obscene amounts of spending on the army pales in comparison with what we could have had.