BTW, I compose all my articles in my head before committing them to “paper”. It’s an odd process but it has always worked for me.

P.S. Good to have you back and sorry you’ve been through so much lately!

Things have (hopefully) settled down and I will soon be back in the fray. I have been composing articles in my head for the last couple of weeks – and I suspect I will start posting again later this week.

God knows the freakin’ Democrats need me…..

– hp

Hope all finds you well at the university old friend. Rock on!

He deserves it.

Sigh – another blanket statement.

Traditionally, conservatives are advocates of a strong military. liberals, not so much.

Since getting into office, Gates, under Obama has canceled the F-22 Raptor program. In an 6 April 2009 press conference, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is recommending the cancellation of the planned second ABL aircraft and that the program return to a Research and Development effort.

But even Republicans are realists which goes to nullify that blanket statement.

In May 2008, the $11 billion Crusader artillery system, targeted for extinction by White House budget-cutters but fiercely defended by high-ranking Army leadership, was formally killed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Cheney reduced the number of Stealth bombers the Pentagon requested to 75 from 132.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney’s decided in January 1991 to cancel the A-12 attack plane because of delays and cost overruns.

RE:You’re eager to send 40,000 more troops into Afghanistan.
Yep, and I’d be willing to wager more Americans are killed while Obama stutters and stammers on this decision. You had better hope nothing happens to our boys here and abroad by Obamas failure to support them.

RE:Ever done an ROI analysis n it?
Nope. Have you? What is the actual ROI on war and how does one actually begin that calculation while the variables are still yet to be fully known?

What was the ROI of developing and using the bomb in the Pacific War? It’s a lot easier to do that calculation; it saved millions of lives.

Yes, war is hell, but god damn it, once you start to wage it, win the mother and win it sooner than later. Never waiver. Ever.

RE:We still have troops in Japan and Germany. Why?
By the nature of the question, it’s clear you don’t understand the history of those wars.

In a nut-shell, it’s generally called an instrument of surrender and is a legally binding document. We were involved in setting the conditions for both of those surrenders.

There is also the Cold War and the importance of our continued presence in the European theater. NATO was a large part of that.

RE:Tell me how much you’re willing to trim out of the Pentagon and then maybe I can grant you more credibility on other areas of the budget.

Unrealistic of you to ask me that. I have little or no access to the Pentagon’s budget or knowledge of areas of classified R&D programs.

In general, I would probably be thinking about the daily (cyber, verbal, literal and overt) threats coming from China, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran,
Islamic nations engaged in state-sponsored terrorism, other nations which support them (Venezuela, Cuba) and then make a decision beginning with that. That sounds pretty real to me.

And you? Stick a finger in the air? “Feel” like America is the bad guy and wonder why we can’t “just get along” as Rodney King puts it?

Wake up.

Tell me how much you’re willing to trim out of the Pentagon and then maybe I can grant you more credibility on other areas of the budget.