But, to quote another great rocker, now sorely missed, “Dream, dream, dream. . .”

The greater the light, the deeper the darkness. It’s inevitable. It has nothing to do with Leftist propaganda, although they took advantage of it when they needed to. But that was before the Left gained absolute supremacy in the land of Obamaca, no longer America.

Even for the ones that want to trust in the US, local domestic patriots are re arming and wanting to stand on their own security arrangements, without owing the US anything (like Kurdistan) or having to rely on US power. That kind of socialized welfare doesn’t produce strong patriots, just resentful and bitter sheep.

Russian patriots, Chinese patriots, South Korea patriots, Japanese patriots, and Indian patriots won’t be able to stomach the idea of working with the US, when the peace promised isn’t even real.

Neo, it is worth repeating that the “peace sign” was created from semaphore for the letters N and D which stood for nuclear disarmament; and was initially used by those, as you say, who wanted to disarm unilaterally.

Ray, “we don’t want a fair fight. We wanted to use overwhelming force to smash our opponents quickly.”

So true, and it is for exactly that reason so much of the world has seen peace since World War II. American power has given the world a Pax Americana of sorts. Sure, there have been smaller wars here and there; but nothing of such great magnitude that the world has been radially changed.

Also, have Obama and others forgotten that it was the American Navy that was among the first on the scene after the Christmas Day Tsunami in the Indian ocean? Who else could have gotten there with fresh water and food in such a short notice?

Further, given the attempted rise of China in East Asia, India flexing it muscles in South Asia, and Russia (under Putin) dreaming of former glories we should NOT be diminishing our military. period.

Without American military muscle, there will also be a lot of smaller wannabe thugs.

I do fear that by the time we realize it we will, yet once again, have to enter an international conflict which will cost more lives and cause more hardship because folks like Obama didn’t see fit to consider American Exceptionalism as valid and as a way of preventing the world from going up in flames.

Lastly, I would like to add that one of the great things about your site, Neo, is not just your interesting and insightful blog postings, but, so many of your commenters have some great insight as well, despite my scroll wheel sometimes getting a hefty workout.

In 2011, the defense budget represented 4.7% of total gross domestic product; this year’s percentage will be 2.7%. In real dollars, US defense spending is set to plummet from $705.6 in 2011 billion to $496 billion. That represents a budget cut of approximately 30%.

While FDR increased government spending in virtually every other area of American life, FDR slashed defense spending from the beginning of his administration, from $752 million in 1932 to $531 million in 1934. He even cut veterans’ benefits 40%. By the time of World War II, America was thoroughly unprepared to make war, with an army sized just smaller than that of Portugal, ranking 16th on the planet.

its not about his next office holder
its about not being able to fight the war they are setting up.. .(even if its only to reset the ecvonomic books!!!) as i have said from 8 years ago…

After World War II, during which the United States spent 43.6% of its annual GDP on defense in 1943 and 1944, spending declined dramatically — all the way down to 14.3% of the annual GDP in 1949.

and what happend NEXt year?
the korean invasion.. ie. the forgotten war

maybe we should remember?

As the United States consolidated its victory in Vietnam, Democrats in Congress, angry at the re-election of President Richard Nixon, decided to defund the military. Where defense spending had represented an average of 19.6% of GDP during the period 1967 through 1972, the budget really began falling after 1968 and the election of Richard Nixon. The result: American helicopters lifting off from our embassy in Saigon as the country fell into Communist hands

showing that teh same thing is good for AFTER A war starts… but better BEFORE…

it was Reagan who upped the spending and suddenly those invasion wars stopped.

now we are cutting it
and we got georgia invaded
ukraine invaded
and china may take taiwan, senkakus and singapore

can you imagine the technological boon of corporate secrets they would get from singapore and taiwan?

In 1988, the United States government spent $557.5 billion (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars) on national defense. That statistic slowly declined under George H.W. Bush, to $489.2 billion in 1992 — but then it collapsed under Bill Clinton, who slashed the military budget to $378.5 billion.

and what happened?
invasion of afghanistan

SEE A PATTERN?

At the time, Bush was reluctant on the DHS and TSA concept.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101117062003AANk8Vl

Most of it now is a Leftist smoke screen used to deflect blame.

Look at that Democrat super majority down there. What did people use to call it?

How long did it take the South to break free from the shackles of Democrat slavery? It wasn’t one or 2 or 10 elections.

What was the percent of Jews that voted Dem? What was the percent of DC residents that voted Hussein? The percent of blacks for Democrat lords?

America cannot call itself the land of the free with such huge swathes of the population under slavery, torture, and serfdom. The counter insurgency methods researched and tested in Iraq could have broken those chains, at least the strongest ones.

Democrats weren’t about to let blacks be free or vote as they liked. Democrats weren’t about to let whites treat blacks as equals in Jim Crow. Democrats weren’t about to let the South forget that the civil war chaos was the fault of Northerners, holding 90+% of the population in tortured captivity like Patty Hearst. And even now, they won’t let you forget about homosexual pleasure cults, that say Jim Crow is the reason they are here putting the boot on your face.