Well lets look at Guyana a country that sits on the northern part of the South American continent. Population is 750,000 with a blazing temperature all year. The country abuts the Amazon and is poor with poor sanitation. The capital which is below sea level consists of a maze of trenches and canals that serve as open sewers draining the effluent from septic systems. Frequently, other trash, dead animals and murdered humans are also conveniently deposited in these waterways. There in Guyana you can find the following diseases: Malaria, filaria, yellow fever, dengue, Chikunga, black water fever, ague, dysentery, bush boils, flies that lay their eggs in your skin, poisonous insects and frogs, ring worm, intestinal parasites, zika, chagas disease which eats the flesh of the face and other diseases yet unknown. The country fronts Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname with border lines that are lost in a wilderness of jungle that has never been trampled by a human foot, white or Indian.

The country is about 50% black which means murders, robberies, beatings, machete attacks, rape, child molestation, auto hijacking, acid attacks, immolation, assaults with firearms, knives and other weapons run into the thousands. Go to the market to buy meat and watch the flies buzzing around the butcher stalls or the vendor who scratches her armpits before selling you those juicy tomatoes.

The country is now shut down because of Corona. Total deaths =4. Now we add insult to injury. Here we come now to the dishonest reporting. When the death toll was 1 person and another person died ( a 79 year old obese woman) "Corona virus ravages the country. Death toll increases by 100% in one day". When the third person passed away "Corona virus out of control. Death toll rises by 50%, persons told to social distance".

In a country where human life is of little value, where the population is immune to some of the most deadly diseases in the world, the whole place is closed down. How come ? In a country where the heat is immense year round and is supposed to "kill" the virus, the country is shut down. How come ? Well, you see, there is international money to be had "battling" the virus but you gotta declare war on the virus. The problem is that millions received for grants in "The War on Corona" like most things in that country tend to end up being used for other things and in other places, like Swiss Bank Accounts ??

If there was no money on the table there would be no emergency. Is it any different in any other country in the world, hot, cold or temperate weather ??

Replies: @The Wild Geese Howard

Thank you for the valuable information. Terrible news about the low screening rate.

So we have enough money to occupy Afghanistan, occupy Iraq, bomb Syria, send ships to threaten North Korea, send troops near Russia's borders for "exercises", etc., but we can't afford to screen more than four freeking percent of cargo coming into our country?

I'd be curious to know what kind of staffing and funding would be needed for us to screen, say, twenty percent of all cargo coming in. Substantial, to be sure, but I'll bet it's nothing compared to the cost of the unnecessary, non-defensive, unconstitutional wars and occupations just mentioned.

Quite true, the West's political class is mostly composed of failed lawyers who took to legal chicanery to enrich themselves and along the way started to believe their own BS like McCain, Grahm and others in the Senate. The military side is even worse. You don't make general in today's military without being a political hack and asskisser like Patreus, McAffrey and Wesley Clark.

They all forget the enemy has a vote and no plan survives contact with the enemy. They also neglect to understand that our military hasn't had a major fight since Vietnam. Panama, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan don't count. We were fight impoverished people with no real military - even so they bled us real good given their lack of resources and our total military dominance.

The closet we ever came to slugfest in recent times was Falluja(which strained the Marine Corps to it's limits) we suffered comparatively minimal casualties, yet the experts have spun that battle to the equal of Stalingrad.

The point is, we really can't do a conventional slugfest anymore. Yeah I know the "experts" say otherwise including the legendary McMasters. But McMasters sole combat command experience was rolling up a 3rd rate Iraqi tank army in 91. BFD.

Russians = Iraqis. Sure sparky.

Fact is we're a couple million men too short overall. We cannot sustain any sort of moderate to heavy casualties, we cannot rotate units(we only did it in Iraq because the fighting a on and off affair). Nor can we support a logistical train into Belarus and Russia, it's too long and too vulnerable. It would take the bulk of our military just to keep it secure.

Fly stuff in? Not for long, you have any idea how much a mechanized infantry brigade consumers in fuel alone in a day while going full tilt? Won't work. They'll be out of fuel in less than a week and dead meat the next without their high tech toys.

Worse we did not refit our gear after Iraq and Afghanistan(most of the money is going to worthless new weapons like the F-35) and we shit canned a lot of experience combat troops in the draw down. But we now have gays, bull dyke lesbians and trannies serving.

Wow. Maybe we'll make the Russians laugh themselves into surrendering.

With the loss of that 4th generation stealth drone in Iran, was a disaster for American military aviation. The sensor suite and LO material is a gold mine of data. It represented the apex of Stealth tech. When we roll in with F-22's and B-2's it won't be a surprise to the Russians at all.

BTW if we're tied up with Russia, what makes the U.S. high command think the Chinese won't take advantage of that and say take Taiwan and Vietnam?

Also what happens if the Russians bring the war to the U.S. with it's special ops doing selective wet work on leading political and business leaders?

Replies: @nonSense, @Dinky Wang, @Johann, @RadicalCenter

This article completely misses the point about why the US spends so much money on the military. A western military today is simply a jobs program, just as the space program is a jobs program.

The 'Military Industrial Complex" makes huge profits when the 'defense' budget is increased. Money is given to politicians, especially in the Senate, to help increase the defense budget. You need an enemy to justify spending more money on the military, so Russia and China are convenient 'enemies'.

Rational countries (like Germany) know there's no threat from Russia, and so are unwilling to spend more money on their rather impotent militaries. Since there's no threat, there's no problem, and their energies go into more productive things.

Understand military 'strategists' for what they are - shills for people who want bigger defense budgets. The Saker tries to analyze the US steps from a military point of view, but this is a waste of time. It's just a way to get more money into the pockets of the US defense contractors.