Have we learned anything over the past 10 years? May God have mercy on our souls because we have not.

In 2010, the total amount of money appropriated for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars equaled over a trillion dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States military spending equaled 42.8 percent of the world’s total military spending in 2010.

In other terms, the U.S. spends 11 percent more than the other top nine foreign states combined. In real numbers, the total U.S. military spending in 2010 equaled $698 billion.

Lacking an exact number, an April 12 article in the Daily Kos reports that the United States “has military presence in about 150 [countries], and more than 700 bases in at least 60.”

You would think with all this spending on the military and given the current budget debacle, there would be some spending cuts to defense. Reported by Romesh Ratnesar of TIME magazine, in an April 11 article, there were none; instead, an increase of $5 billion.

How ignorant is the country? We sit and fight with each other over crumbs: unions and Planned Parenthood. If you think that this country spends too much on entitlements, then I ask you to google “Death and Taxes” and click on the link hosted by WallStats. There you will find a nice picture (icons included) of where our money goes.

If you do not think that the Department of Defense has more room for cuts than the funding of our entire system of health centers, then you are what is wrong with this country.

FYI, funding all of our health centers costs the average tax payer (with an income of about $44,000) $12.18 a year.

Robert Gates has put forth a plan to shrink the Department of Defense starting in 2015 by cutting $100 billion. The military branches that will mainly be affected are the Army and Marines.

These cuts, however, do not go far enough. In light of Afghanistan and Iraq, we need to rethink the direction of our military strategy.

Boots on the ground are ineffective and future intervention strategies should be based on our action in Libya. The United States should cut appropriations to defense across the board and eliminate the Army.

The Army’s budget is almost $244 billion, costing the average tax payer a little over $1,200 a year. Why do we have the Army? I would consider the Army necessary only if we were facing a threat of invasion from Canada or Mexico. Otherwise, it serves no purpose other than nation building.

God forbid we ever have another attack on our soil, but that is unlikely. If that time comes, all the U.S. should need is boats, bombs, planes and special forces. If those options are ineffective, then we have nukes.