I had a conversation earlier today about the military force of the United States of America, and I made the assertion that the USA could provide for its legitimate self-defense needs with about 10% of the current military spending.
What do you think about the legitimate self-defense needs of the USA? I am not talking about defending imperialism. Just regular old basic self-defense. What's reasonable?
My understanding is that military, and military related, spending by the federal government is now up over the $1T mark (that is one trillion dollars: $1,000,000,000,000 (yes, that is 12 zeros.))
I wonder if the USA could provide for its legitimate needs for self-defense on a far slimmer budget. Yes, I think it could. Sounds like a good idea to me. By spending less on military - 9/10 of which (I postulate) is unnecessary and unrelated to legitimate self-defense - more money would be available to promote lasting and sustainable economic endeavors, broadening opportunity, and prosperity for all.
As far as imperialism goes, imperialism is actually anathema to national security - it's a destabilizing economic influence. With imperialism, although some may (perhaps) benefit — a great many others suffer, their well-beings (collective and individual) jeopardized and harmed.
Showing posts with label self-defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-defense. Show all posts
15 March 2009
20 September 2007
Kicked a Dog
I don't usually write about personal stuff on this blog. But something happened today that I want to share. It's personal and has some emotional consequences. First let me tell the story.
I was on my bike heading to the shop this morning. Everything was as usual, except that I was listening to music on my headphones, which I don't usually do. I was on my normal route. I was approaching a driveway, in which sat a dog with an intent posture. It was eying me, it appeared to be sizing me up.
As soon as I was parallel with the dog's position in the driveway it took off after me. I took my foot out of the toe clip on my bike pedal and waved it so the dog couldn't hit the moving target. The dog was chasing me on my right side and barking. It decided to get in front of me, but I didn't stop. Why was it doing this? Did it want to play? Was it just happy to see me and barking aggressively was its way of demonstrating affection? Did it sense in me a threat? Was it trained to bark at and intimidate strangers?
After failing to stop me, the dog kept barking and approached the right side of my bike, and my right leg. It got up very close to me and I took action. I don't know if it was attempting to bite my leg, but it didn't get a chance, because I wound up and booted it in the head. I hit it moderately hard - it wasn't a super hard kick, but it landed solidly. It responded by yelping and running back to the house that it apparently belongs to.
I felt pretty bad. I still kind of feel bad, although I think I was justified because the dog might have been attempting to attack me. The key word is might. I don't know. Was I wrong? I think my action was in self-defense, but I can't prove that the dog was going to bite me, it might have just wanted to scare me, or something (which is totally unacceptable, but not worthy of a kick.) Was my action a pre-emptive strike comparable to the Bush Administration's attack on Iraq? Was my kick justified?
I don't like it so much when dogs make it their business to bark and fuss and attempt to intimidate strangers. What caused this dog to act like such a menace? I don't know what I'll do next time an aggressive dog postures an attack on me. But I do know that I don't want to get bitten by a dog. And I will defend myself to the best of my abilities against aggressive dogs.
I was on my bike heading to the shop this morning. Everything was as usual, except that I was listening to music on my headphones, which I don't usually do. I was on my normal route. I was approaching a driveway, in which sat a dog with an intent posture. It was eying me, it appeared to be sizing me up.
As soon as I was parallel with the dog's position in the driveway it took off after me. I took my foot out of the toe clip on my bike pedal and waved it so the dog couldn't hit the moving target. The dog was chasing me on my right side and barking. It decided to get in front of me, but I didn't stop. Why was it doing this? Did it want to play? Was it just happy to see me and barking aggressively was its way of demonstrating affection? Did it sense in me a threat? Was it trained to bark at and intimidate strangers?
After failing to stop me, the dog kept barking and approached the right side of my bike, and my right leg. It got up very close to me and I took action. I don't know if it was attempting to bite my leg, but it didn't get a chance, because I wound up and booted it in the head. I hit it moderately hard - it wasn't a super hard kick, but it landed solidly. It responded by yelping and running back to the house that it apparently belongs to.
I felt pretty bad. I still kind of feel bad, although I think I was justified because the dog might have been attempting to attack me. The key word is might. I don't know. Was I wrong? I think my action was in self-defense, but I can't prove that the dog was going to bite me, it might have just wanted to scare me, or something (which is totally unacceptable, but not worthy of a kick.) Was my action a pre-emptive strike comparable to the Bush Administration's attack on Iraq? Was my kick justified?
I don't like it so much when dogs make it their business to bark and fuss and attempt to intimidate strangers. What caused this dog to act like such a menace? I don't know what I'll do next time an aggressive dog postures an attack on me. But I do know that I don't want to get bitten by a dog. And I will defend myself to the best of my abilities against aggressive dogs.
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