Irishlady4ev...you can’t put a cost on a life saved. Taking the emotional aspect out of the equation, the experience, training, and leadership lost with every casualty is far beyond the cost of a single armored vehicle. Waging war is never convenient or practical, but we must always be ready. The lessons learned form every minor/major skirmish has gotten us to the point we are today with our equipment (quality/survivability). We don't want a fair fight; we must always send our forces in with overwhelming odds in our favor. The price is never cheap but every life is priceless!

thekai thanks for serving our country. its greatly appreciated. my soon to be wife also did in the army thanks again

As someone who just got done spending four years in the Marine Corps, I can assure you that we are in desperate need for an overhaul of the HMMWVs. Those things are pieces of crap. The actual standard HMMWV right now won't protect anyone from an IED. We have to put all sorts of up armor kits on them, which in turn end up weighing them down and making them even slower. With all of the extra weight that was not originally accounted for when they were first built, simple things such as door hinges start to break. It causes a whole MESS of problems.
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Pouring money into the military helps the civilian sector out quite a bit, too. Who do you think is going to be building these trucks? Other people in the military? No, we're too busy training for or fighting in wars. Civilian contractors, as this article clearly points out, build these machines. Many of these civilians have families to support, too. Huge building projects for the military also stimulate the economy quite a bit. There is a lot of money to be spent there, and civilians take a huge piece of that pie.
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I know that some military spending can sometimes seem like a bit of a waste, but I promise you this would not be one of those projects. This project is long over due. It would be a big mistake not to go through with this.

Perhaps we should declare war on Mexico. It would solve the illegal immigration problem, reduce illegal drug trafficking somewhat, and provide manufacturing orders for defense contractors, who could hire more people. We would stimulate the economies of states bordering Mexico and promote jobs with the creation of POW camps.
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Once we conquer Mexico, we can shut down all the plants NAFTA caused to be moved there and move the equipment north to America, seize PEMEX and let someone else buy OPEC's oil.
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It might cause Hugo Chavez to be quiet.

$400,000 spent on the military sits and waits for war to be used up. $400,000 spent on infrstructure or school or ???, is an investment that create a return to the economy. dont get me wrong, we need to defend our interest, but a dollar spent there is not the same as a dollar spent out side the military.

Why? Because you want employees at defense contractors laid off too? People are losing their jobs because of all these cuts. More cuts in spending mean less wages paid out, lower demand for other products and the cycle continues! Don't you get the fact that we are in a spiral because no one spending money? If the Stimulus package wasn't full of pork it might help but $50 million for Pelosi's marsh mice gets us no where. Cut everyone's federal withholding in half would get the money into the hands of the people not our crooked politicians and their agendas.

At 400.000 a pop

With the economy putting everything on hold the building of these should be put on hold as well.