to invade an ally of ours and Pugs somehow see this as Libs' fault.

Reality is reality, guys. We're broke and we're all tied up in the ME, so desperate for troops that we're accepting anything that crawls through a recruiting staton so long as it's got two legs and two arms, no matter what the criminal record, intelligence, etc.

This is what war mongering gets you. Especially, war mongering on a budget.

Maybe we can get back to the real world, now, and stop the fantasy about America being eternally invulnerable because Jesus loves us the best or something?

Why am I kidding myself? Pugs will always be pugs - dumb and mean spirited.

Increase the Military Budget, and 'rebuild' our military?

Sounds good to me, but I did not know that that was part of his platform....

hey, but we're getting that missile shield in poland - that's gotta be worth at least 2 divisions right there, right?

that'll sure make putin think twice before he gobbles up kharkov or the crimea, right?

I would hope the Commander-in-Chief, whoever he may be, would be bright enough not to start a war with an insufficient number of troops.

That was Rumsfeld/Bush's greatest crime.

He has announced that if Poland cooperates with us on that one, they will "be punished".

Bush has re-started the cold war.

As he reduced the military budget greatly.

NOT that I neccessarily disagreed with it: We were at Peace, we had the Peace Dividend to spend on other things.

Since 9/11 we have steadily been rebuilding our military, although NUMBERS are not always the most important thing.

Weapons systems, technology, strategic command, etc. are also very important.

My biggest worry, is that we are not putting enough into the new "cyberwarfare." We should also study Artificial Intelligence and robotics....

People are sKeered of the "tear"-ist any more and know the Bush admin is talking crap when they leave the borders as porous as they've been.

Nick_Danger:

He has announced that if Poland cooperates with us on that one, they will "be punished".

Bush has re-started the cold war.

actually i think that's all bluster because i bet putin doesn't view the missile shield as a deterrent so much as a boondoggle - a 21st century maginot line...

ctbiker:

actually i think that's all bluster because i bet putin doesn't view the missile shield as a deterrent so much as a boondoggle - a 21st century maginot line...

Agree.

We had a huge, expensive military that we didn't need.

But if we were going to go to war(s), we'd have been smarter to wait until we had built up our military to the point where we could win the wars.

At the very least, start a war effort, including a draft, if it was actually necessary.

At the time - 2003 - it wasn't. Clearly.

Now, it's beginning to look like it may well be.

I don't see how "Slick" is responsible for bush's blunder, and an obvious blunder at that, but if it somehow makes you feel better about things, then fine, blame "Slick".

...the Ukrainians might it a bit more of a fight....

Studies have been done on U.S. military spending; the high end, as I recall, put the estimated amount of wasted military spending at something like possibly 40-50% of the military budget. I once had a link to this but I'm about to be out of here anyway.

I am convinced that the military could streamline its operations significantly. I don't hold any special disgust toward the military for this; we want them to be good at fighting wars, not accounting. Nevertheless, some military spending is obviously wasted. Numerous projects have been greenlighted by Congress that even the Pentagon doesn't want, most likely as favors to lobbyists by politicians.

is perfectly happy to "bluster" is worrisome.

Russia has kept its mouth shut for 20 years now.

the third strongest military power in the world, I forget?

The poor little Ukraine?

I'm sure they would defend themselves nobly before they are reclaimed by the non-Soviet Union.

either. See, Iraq et Afghanistan.

And there "bookkeeping" is atrocious, as President Eisenhower warned us it would be when he, a military man of the first order, first warned us against the dangers of the military-industrial complex back in 1961.

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