Re:Astronomers want public funds for intelligent life search
by timwaagh on Saturday February 15, 2020 @05:56AM
(#22334526)
The Iranian navy is mostly famous for its usage of rubber dinghies. That's not a serious threat that needs 10 supercarriers to counter. If they decided to change that, then no problem, nobody wants the strait blocked so it will be easy to find allies to pressure the iranians into a deal. The panama canal doesn't need that either. It should be in range of US based aircraft. Current US spending can only be justified by pursuing multiyear wars, occupation of territory halfway around the world, complete domination of the seas, the ability to fight a war on two fronts (and win), the ability to obliterate earth ten times over and guarding others borders (thanks, by the way). I'd say a military the size of spain's would be sufficient given a more basic definition of security needs.
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Re:Astronomers want public funds for intelligent life search
by anewhope on Saturday February 15, 2020 @06:32AM
(#22334651)
It’s not clear the force size you suggest would result in a stable equilibrium. You’re missing one key justification: the ability to dissuade future military competition. A defense force the size of Spain’s would face substantially more threats given the value of US targets and interests, so we’d then need to increase spending. It’s hard to predict what that world would look like. In the past it wasn’t great. Outspending everybody else from the get-go works.