Pentagon says deploying Marines and National Guard to LA will cost $134M | Hacker News Reader

Pentagon says deploying Marines and National Guard to LA will cost $134M

apnews.com

29 pointsgeox16 comments

That's about 6.5% of the equivalent daily defense budget of the USA. I.e., a rounding error.

This is not a comment on whether this is "right" or "wrong", but rather a comment on the gigantic mountain of money the US spend on defense anyway. In addition, I suspect that this is just an accounting cost as most costs would have been incurred anyway to maintain the equipments and human resources.

Our army is the largest standing army in human history and our domestic police force is the third largest standing army in human history.

That’s true.. assuming by “our” army you mean China’s army: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/military-...

Oh, I was going by budget. Our military budget more than triples China's and doubles it as a % of GDP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest...

Once they are deployed, the ratio of overhead may be lower. Not to suggest that having a long term deployment is ideal.

>...costs would have been incurred anyway to maintain the equipment and human resources.

Fair point. How much would they spend on similar training exercises?

Would be interesting to see how many deportations are high profile in big city type of raids vs how many are seasonal farm workers in the south?

It’s a high cost, to be sure.

But it’s past time to restore order to American society. Burning, looting, and attacking cops have almost become normalized. Violence is simply unacceptable.

What do you base this claim on? I live very close to the epicenter of one of the major COVID-era US protests.

It was a dark week, no question, but that which you claim as normalized is anything but. Frankly, there's a much much louder push for "backing the blue".

I had out of state friends and family whose perspectives mirrored yours to the point where they denied the lived experience of me and my neighbors until they visited for themselves.

How does this cost compare to the cost of the military hardware in DC that this might be supposed to distract us from?

Let me guess the Porto-potties cost $1 million each

Wait, 700 Marines?

$191k EACH to get to LA for a few days?

I'm sorry but that sounds like administrative bloat. I mean I guess there is a LOT MORE govt waste that needs to get going. DOGE?

700 Marines are just the jarheads. All the admin people required to handle logistics will be another 2000 easy.

They gotta bring all their toys and outfits for this.

> Wait, 700 Marines?

> $191k EACH to get to LA for a few days?

and National Guard, reportedly 4100 of them. That's 4800 people or about $28k/person. Why did you only count the Marines when the report is about both?

So, it now apparently requires the US Marines to deport some Mexican dishwashers 8-/

At $134M, maybe they could just offer each one $100K to leave?

But how will they continue their claim that there are millions of them, if they take such an approach?

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