What if the United States stopped all military spending for one year and spent that money on infrastructure instead?It sounds reasonable—until you actually think through the second- and third-order effects.The U.S. military isn’t just tanks, jets, and bombs. It quietly underwrites disaster response, flood control, medical research, GPS timing, cybersecurity, education pipelines, and global alliances. You can’t turn it off like a Netflix subscription and expect everything to still work when you turn it back on.In this video, I break down what really happens if you try to “pause” the military for a year, and why the damage wouldn’t be temporary.We’ll talk about:Why talent loss in the military is permanentHow defunding the National Guard cripples disaster responseWhy cutting the Army Corps of Engineers actually hurts infrastructureWhat happens when GPS and space-based timing degradeHow ROTC, service academies, and STEM pipelines collapseWhy medical research and cybersecurity suffer immediatelyAnd why dumping money into infrastructure doesn’t magically build bridgesYou can debate how much we should spend on defense. That’s fair.But the idea that we can zero it out for a year without consequences is fantasy.