Quote from: TECSHARE on August 09, 2013, 09:57:02 AM

I can do better, I can show the US hurting MANY Iranians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_sanctions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

I thought we were talking about modern times. And eight years before that the Iranians supported the Nazis, so who started the aggression?

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Did I say the money comes from defense or did I say our largest export after garbage is defense? While clearly we don't profit from exporting garbage, no one would deny a lot of it leaves US borders. The same goes for defense SPENDING, not sales. Remember it doesn't have to be profitable if they can spend into endless debt tacked onto tax payers who can never repay. The bankers still get their cut from the volume of money flow and various investment instruments. I suggest you look at US military and economic aid, both forms of spending, you will see military aid alone outpaces your soybean export figure. Don't forget that does not include commercial defense sales exports.

https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1299.pdf
http://breakingdefense.com/2012/03/16/the-military-imbalance-how-the-u-s-outspends-the-world/

Wait, so first it was about profit, but now it doesn't matter if the US profits? I showed that soybeans and Walmart are bigger industries domestic and foreign and you say that doesn't matter?

You said:

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It is a fact war is profitable

But then you turned your argument around:

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Remember it doesn't have to be profitable

If war is not profitable, why do it? Who wins exactly? I thought that the government wanted money. Seems like the best option would be to build Walmarts, not bombs.

After all, Walmart is more profitable. Weapons manufacturers can't compare.

Yes, our spending is high, but that's because we have more than double the gdp of any other country on the planet. Our % spending is more reasonable. It's about the same as Russia (4.7% and 4.4% respectively), another major country. If we compare to the middle east, we spend less money on defense than some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Jordan, and Israel. Syria and Yemen are also very close at 4.0% and 3.9%.

In case you're wondering, Iran does spend much less than us at 1.8%

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

It would appear that the US does not spend an unreasonable amount on defense in terms of percentage.

In fact, the highest country is Eritrea at 20.9%. Eritrea, oppressor of all of humanity.