That might be worth it if air superiority were in any way a threat in U.S. conflicts, but aside from the Eurofighter developed by our allies in the European Union, no fighter exists that can match current U.S. capabilities. In fact, many of the more developed Middle East air force programs, such as those in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, are all equipped with aircraft of Western or Soviet-era origin.

Some of those are even used U.S. Air Force planes, such as the F-4 Phantom, a relic of the Vietnam era. Even older American fighters like the F-14 have undergone numerous avionics upgrades — not nearly as expensive as the F-22’s price tag. The Government Accountability Office called the F-22’s history “a case study in increased cost and schedule inefficiencies.”

That said, the brute force strategy employed by US forces, from tanks to fighters to nuclear weapons, is quite clearly not the most effective strategy for the decidedly unconventional war in which we are currently engaged. The urban guerrilla warfare in Iraq should be combated, if we are to stay to combat it at all, with intelligence, cultural understanding, and if necessary, covert operations in concert with locals by special forces operators trained extensively in local language and culture.

China’s military might is not to be underestimated, but the more imminent threat from the East comes in the form of the economy – an area where the United States is clearly falling behind — in no small part because of the billions we’re borrowing from the ever-growing superpower to pay for our Middle East fiascoes.

Contrast these numbers with the $57 billion our government spent on K-12 public schooling, with an estimated five percent increase in 2008, as opposed to the military’s estimated 10 percent increase. The military budget will increase another 10 percent in 2009, whereas education will likely receive less money.

Then consider that we are virtually the only industrialized, wealthy country on Earth without socialized medicine. Contrary to what many conservatives will have you believe, many countries have not only a dominant public sector but also a private sector, allowing premium health care to those willing to pay.

Furthermore, consider that the U.S. military budget is fueled by taxpayer dollars and foreign debt. If, as many experts say, we are less safe because of the Iraq invasion, and indeed we are lagging behind the rest of the developed world in education and health care, we are effectively paying our government to neglect the health and education of our citizens in favor of dumping our weakening dollar into diplomatic disasters abroad.

With such disparity in our own country, and largely needless defense spending, where the money will emerge to combat our domestic problems should be obvious.

But, as Noam Chomsky says, politicians pursue agendas with political support, and public desire hardly equals political support. Although between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans favor universal health care, the issue does not have political support because big business, the largest contributors to political campaigns, do not favor it…for obvious reasons. Disparity in public education funding demands an equally grand overhaul, but the result of a population capable of critical thinking would be disastrous for much of the public-policy lobby, who would sooner have us flipping switches to make iPods at minimum wage so we can drive to work every morning cheering propaganda videos of our military blowing a colossal hole in the Middle East with weapons we don’t need.

The ideal citizen is branded head to toe in corporate logos, flag in one hand and Bible in the other, too upset over a sporting event or celebrity breakup to think at length about our children receiving substandard education, the fact 16 percent of the population (in 2005) was uninsured, and teenagers fighting and dying in vain.

In return for our mismanaged tax dollars, we plump the pockets of defense contractors who salivate at the idea of useless defense budget contracts for bloody campaigns in the name of spreading democracy. It’s time to trade in for a smaller hammer and buy a first aid kit.

Drew Robert Winter is a State News columnist. Reach him at winterdr@msu.edu .