Arkady's Thoughts

In the wake of Obama’s controversial missile shield decision, it is important to consider the big picture. America spends a lot of money on military expenditures and both the Right and the Left feel strongly about this figure. As of 2008, America is spending a quarter of it’s expenditures on Defense and about 9% on welfare (this number is important) out of roughly 2.5 Trillion. Missile defense is the single most expensive DoD project costing over 8 billion dollars annually, twice as much as the F-22 Raptor procurement. ( Source : Page 5) with a significant portion of the costs going overseas. It remains unclear how much of that figure is spent on our allies, but that portion needs to be cut. Moving on to Europe. In a report on social welfare comparison , citing the OECD as evidence we can see that the major European countries spend considerably more on welfare than we do. Bloated public spending is often seen as a key fault of the "European Social" model. Britain’s social we...

“Speak softly and carry a big stick." Except when dealing with the Russians . My veins pump with Russian blood and today was an inferior foreign policy strategist bending under the might of the Russian hammer. There are two very distinct approaches to today's move and both have to be considered. If you think scrapping Bush's missile shield was anything other than a gift to the Russians, think again. This is a country whose population and leadership crave power and control, always have and always will. With their economy reeling and their influence marginalized they will do anything in their power to exert influence over the inferior European countries. Just like they plowed into Georgia for the sake of expansion, they will do the same in every other region under the pretext of unification. Of course after they have wrongly implanted their brethren in every corner of Europe, this pretext becomes hard to swallow. We must never forget that the Russian people in large part c...