Hi twfowler; Re: "We are more militarized then most other countries. We have about 20% of the worlds gross production, and maybe 30 to 40% of the world's military power."
Instead of "power" the word you're looking for is "expenditures", which is quite another thing. It costs the US hundreds of thousands of dollars to destroy a pick-up truck that costs $1500 with four guys in it with another $1000 worth of rifles and maybe $2000 worth of RPGs. So while we have maybe 40% of the world's expenditure in weapons, in terms of warfare our capability is a lot lower. Maybe 5 or 10%. That's the largest chunk of power in the world, but it is not overwhelming.
Re: "An argument could be made that it was never a legitimate excuse, but if it was, then IMO it still is."
Excuses are only legitimate to the extent that you can sell them overseas. That is, what we think is legitimate doesn't matter. Every country is self-righteous with regard to its own actions, at least until they have their nose fully rubbed into it. From the perspective of real politics, legitimacy is obtained from the international community. The international community says we shouldn't attack Iraq. Note that this is in complete distinction to what the International community said, overall, with regard to our war in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War. While there was some complaints with both, the fact is that the EU was with us in Afghanistan, and most of the world was with us in the first Gulf War.
-- Carl |
