Martha Raddatz shows her bias.

[Plane]

He never got to 600.

But to have the policys Clinton had , a Navy had to be big.

Are we still obligated to defend Japan?
Tiwan?
Our allies of NATO?

If we are going to shrink our Navy , we will have to shrink our obligations also, aznd who do you throw off of the sleigh first?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The US cannot defend the entire world with a Navy. Eventually, Taiwan will be a part of China, but it will be a slow process. I don't think Japan is in any danger of invasion, and can defend itself quite well, So can South Korea.

The Navy is much larger than it needs to be to defend the country and its interests.

What in NATO needs defending, and from what?

[Plane]

For thousands of Years Europe is almost constantly at war.

This year Europe gives itself a Peace Prize.

The award amounts to 1.2 million and there are about 500 million of them , so the bonus won't clear their debt much.

They can pat their European Union on the back , but the peace is an OTAN product.

Tiawan will be negotiated because taking it by force is expensive , the process would not need to be gradual at all if there were no treaty that comitts the USN.

The US is the worlds first policeman, you and I might be able to imagine a better policeman , but where is this guy gonna come from?

If you favor a weak USA , you may not know it , but you favor war.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The EU has prevented wars between the members that once fought each other relentlessly. NATO was simply a deterrent to the Soviets.


I do not favor the US as being the world policeman. The World Court and the UN peacekeeping force would be more appropriate. The UN needs to do away with veto powers for all members.

I do not buy your theory.

The US military does NOT need to be any bigger than it is. Much of it is obsolete and essentially useless.

[Plane]

If much of our military is obsolete, this is not a good reason for shrinkage , replacement and refurbishment rather.

You don't know how right you really are , a lot of USAF aircraft date from 60's 70's and 80's, the replacements for normal wear and tear amount to a slow attrition , steadyly reducing the number and strength.

I don't think you know that you have been getting things your way for many years now, the military is smaller and is scheduled for further reduction.

At the point that the military is no longer large enough to meet our treaty obligations , the world will have no policeman at all.

Remember the fighting in the Balkins during the Clinton years? Europe could and should have taken that project, but it isn't in their nature to keep peace.

I don't think we have a member old enough to recall the pre- WWII US and world situation, but most of us are likely to live to see its repeat.

[Xavier_Onassis]

At the point that the military is no longer large enough to meet our treaty obligations , the world will have no policeman at all.

---------------------------------------------------
We are quite far from that point.

Tell me, in what way has the US been debilitated by having to leave the base in Manta, Ecuador?
I can see none. The barmaids of Manta are the only people that seem to have suffered as a result.

I imagine that there are LOTS MORE bases we have no need for.

Drones will replace most aircraft for offensive purposes. We are wasting huge amounts of money on piloted fighters and bombers the training people to pilot them.

I imagine that nautical drones are also a possibility to replace at least some ships.

Romney wants to piss away MORE money on the military. The military has not even requested this. Are we to assume that Romney knows more about the military than those who run it?
I oppose more money for the military. They need to retire and stop maintaining obsolete equipment and to replace it with more efficient weapons and hardware.

[Plane]

We have closed a lot of bases , we had major capability stragicly located in the Phillipines , we left because we were invited to leave.

Oh well , at least we are saving the money.

No one is proposing that we return to the purportion of the budget the military had in 1987, not even half.

You have had it your way already , and don't know it yet.

Before 1938 the US Army was too small to be considered a threat by any of the other major powers , your theroy of what causes war and peace ,would lead one to think that this weakness was the cause of the peace that the world enjoyed for the next few years.

If our military strength continues the trends it has followed for the last three decades ,in one more decade, we will be looking at a world that overmatches us again as it has not done since 1945.

[Xavier_Onassis]

This is not 1938, get serious.

[Plane]

This is not 1938, get serious.

What is better about now?

You get serious , why isn't it more dangerous now than then?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Duh.

Iran is not Nazi Germany. Iran has never been expansionist, the Nazis proclaimed that they were from the start. The Germans were technologically advanced, the Iranians have not been able to produce any weapons in seven years, if we assume that they have been trying all the time the nervous nellies have all been talking about it. The Manhattan Project did not take a fraction of the time that the Iranians have been working on it, despite the fact that needed equipment to produce a bomb has all been designed now and was not designed then.

Iran MIGHT threaten puny Israel. The Nazis threatened everyone, and not just with words.

No sane person could believe that 1938 and now are even remotely comparable.

[Plane]

Duh.

Iran is not Nazi Germany. Iran has never been expansionist, the Nazis proclaimed that they were from the start. The Germans were technologically advanced, the Iranians have not been able to produce any weapons in seven years, if we assume that they have been trying all the time the nervous nellies have all been talking about it. The Manhattan Project did not take a fraction of the time that the Iranians have been working on it, despite the fact that needed equipment to produce a bomb has all been designed now and was not designed then.

Iran MIGHT threaten puny Israel. The Nazis threatened everyone, and not just with words.

No sane person could believe that 1938 and now are even remotely comparable.

So .. you now , are like Lindburgh was then?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Again, Iran now is nothing whatever like Nazi Germany. There is NO similarity.

Lindbergh was rather pro German. Hitler gave him a medal.

I am certainly not pro=Iranian, and have received no medals. I don't like the Ayatollahs or Amedinejahd at all. But they are no danger to me.

So, no.

[Plane]

Islamists are highly expansionary.

Islam has more territory now than Fascism ever did, even if you include Japan.

In Packistan the Islamists are a very strong faction with friends in the government, they are our "friends " right now , but it is shakey we could loose this situation and see a real hardliner win a coup or an election in Packistan. Packistan already has an atom bomb.

You do not feel threatened? You arn't listening to them.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Nothing anyone does in this country to Iran has one bloody thing to do with Pakistan.

We are not at war with Islam. We should try to avoid such a war at all costs. Islam is not the enemy.

[Plane]

Nothing anyone does in this country to Iran has one bloody thing to do with Pakistan.

We are not at war with Islam. We should try to avoid such a war at all costs. Islam is not the enemy.

Oh yes it is a lie, but it is an oft told lie that Islamists tell, because they are at war with us even though we are not at war with Islam.

Peacefull Muslims who want to mind their own business get called shirkers by Islamists who insist that expantion is scripture.

The national affiliation of Islamists is fluid, what borders and jurisdictions are to them is fluid too.

Packistan has atom bombs and it has serious political problems. If the Islamists take over in a coup or in an election there what would we do about it?

Iran has serious political problems , the revolutional Islamists are already in controll and our President has promised to do whatever it takes to prevent them from feilding atomic bombs.

I see converging paths .