As with much of what Trump suggests and/or announces, his suggestion that the United States might set up a space force branch of the military was viewed almost as science fiction, and was largely seen as a joke or farce.
Apparently, the Trump administration is dead serious about established a "space force," which would then become the sixth branch of the military.
Last Friday, Vice President Mike Pence published a commentary strongly advocating the official creation of a new, American space force. If this is done, it would be the sixth branch of the American military in existence.
It would also be, at least for now, far and away the smallest.
However, military spending in this country has long been completely out of control. That was the case long before Trump ever got to office, or even thought about running for office. However, military spending went up dramatically under Trump, as he granted the Pentagon even more money than it had requested.
The problem is that the United States spends so much money on the military, that it leaves little to no room for anything else. In fact, the United States spends so much on "defense," that you begin to wonder if it is actually being used on "defense." After all, the United States spent more than the next leading ten military budgets of nations around the world combined in 2014, and again, under Trump, military spending has spiked.
Here is a chart that illustrates just how much more we spend on military in comparison to other leading countries in terms of military spending:
Image taken from the article by Michael B. Kelley, and is created by Peter G. Peterson Foundation, 2013.
It is impossible not to notice just how much more then United States spends than any of those other countries. It has far and away more military equipment than any other nation. By itself, the United States had more aircraft carriers (19) than the rest of the world combined (12 in all by other nations).
In other words, we are far, far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of our military. It seems to me that many Americans take clear pride in this dominance, as it seems one of the last vestiges of a period when the United States led the entire world in almost every conceivable category. Decades ago, the United States had unchallenged dominance not just militarily, but politically, culturally, and socially, as well. On top of it, the United States enjoyed the highest rated education system in the world, and enjoyed the highest standard of living of any nation. No nation before or since enjoyed such a dominant status in comparison to the rest of the world, and so Americans probably began to feel special, and to take some understandable pride in this.
Things have changed, however. Other nations began to catch us, and even to surpass us, in terms of standard of living. In fact, quite a few nations - including the Scandinavian nations, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Japan - regularly rank higher than the United States does, in terms of overall standard of living. This decline has also not only been seen, but has been more pronounced when it comes to education, where American children receive a noticeably inferior education to the one received in other developed nations. Many of these same nations, particularly western Europe and Japan, also have far better public transportation systems. The United States is the only developed nation that fails to provide it's citizens with some form of universal affordable healthcare and a single payer system, and in fact, the American healthcare system has the dubious distinction of being far and away the most expensive one in the world. Many have noticed that we are not getting a lot of bang for our buck, and Americans remain the only people among advanced nations where people regularly either lose their jobs or homes or have to pick up staggering debts just to pay their medical bills, or simply cannot afford to receive adequate medical care altogether. Our national debt, as well as the deficit, are lopsidedly in the red, and have reached the point of crisis.
In short, things look bleak.
Except, that is, for this one area, in the military, where some people feel we have effectively become hired guns for private corporations, in a de facto realization of what President Eisenhower warned us about: the military industrial complex.
My point, by now, should be obvious: we Americans spend far, far too much on our military. Clearly, we are making a profit somewhere, either by selling outdated weaponry to other nations, and/or by indeed fighting private wars in other nations. Trump made this quite glaringly obvious by claiming that other nations should increasingly foot the bill for the privilege of an American military presence in those countries where there is one. We have gotten involved in unnecessary and costly (in every sense of that word) wars of various scale, and this has not helped the rest of the world either to trust us or to like us very much, for understandable reasons. People of all political persuasions are beginning to feel that we get involved in far too many conflicts around the world, and that it is time to start reining this in a bit.
All of this weaponry from our excessive military spending has to go somewhere. At times, it has been used against us, such as during the war in Afghanistan, when the weapons that we once provided Afghan rebels when they were fighting the Soviets back in the 1980's were suddenly being used against us. At other times, these weapons are also being used against Americans in a different manner, as we have seen an increasingly militant police force within the United States, that a growing number of people feel is excessive, and starting to resemble some hostile occupying power, more than a police organization designed to protect and defend American communities.
So, is this the time to start another military branch? A space force, in order to go fight some imaginary enemy where we have none (at least for now)? Would it not be better to continue to fund NASA, a science branch of the government with some proven results, in order to continue space exploration for peaceful purposes?
This seems like yet another attempt in an already numerous, and apparently growing, list of areas where Donald Trump is trying to build his name up in order to leave some kind of a legacy. But could we not invest a bit more smartly, and improve living conditions here within the country first? The gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and we have fallen so clearly behind in so many different areas, that we could use a bit of that money presently reserved for the military to improve the quality of life for all Americans here back home.
A space force is an interesting idea. Indeed, some scientists and other have actively taken an interest in it, and have speculated as to what it might mean, how it might work. But again, we have space exploration with NASA, and if anything, we should continue in this regard. If anything, we can increase our expenditures towards legitimate exploration of space, and other areas of science, rather than militarizing everywhere and everything, including space now, as the Trump administration proposes.
We Americans seriously need to start scrutinizing the expenditures more closely, to see exactly where our tax money is going. Trump has already tried to use these funds on a vanity project with his border wall, which he promised Mexico would pay for. Let us not allow him to once again pursue what amounts to yet another vanity project which he hopes to be remembered for. Let's recognize that we are nowhere near the level of space exploration and do not have anything resembling the permanent space presence that might make a space force necessary.
This is yet another in a long line of gimmicks by the ultimate master of scams. We can do better. At this point, we need to do better. We owe it to ourselves, and to our future generations.
Here are the links to articles that I used in writing this particular blog entry about Trump's proposed "Space Force:"
Commentary: Vice President Pence: America needs a Space Force by Mike Pence, March 1, 2019:
Space Force Set to Become Sixth US Armed Forces Branch by 2020 by BALLISTIC STAFF, August 10, 2018:
American Military Dominance In One Staggering Chart by Michael B Kelley Feb. 26, 2014:
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