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I was referring to the Cold War era.  
by corncam on Thu Aug 18th, 2005 at 09:21:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Which is over. Spending more money on tanks and guns now certainly won't do anyone any good.

Idiot/Savant
No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog

by IdiotSavant on Thu Aug 18th, 2005 at 09:59:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Indeed.

The only field where I'd favor more military spending is humanitarian interventions. But, apart from transport planes and a unified Euroforce (which are coming), what this would need most is not more spending and more weapons, but more training (to avoid civilian casualties, and to not rish long-term negative economic, social and political consequences with short-term force protection decisions) and much deeper policy pre-planning, and of course strong checks and balances to prevent the abuse of this power for other goals (economic, geopolitical, dominance). Possibly best done under a UN umbrella, the EU delegating power.

Only, by today, I am growing increasing doubts that this is realistically possible. That is, would politicians ever agree to something like this, or would be able to do sufficient policy pre-planning.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 07:03:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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