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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (159760)	2/1/2003 11:43:15 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1583384

During the Clinton years the economy was so good many in the military left for the private sector. The pay was much better there. That was a symptom of Clinton's success, not a decision to cut military. If you remember, that is why Clinton hiked military pay, to try and keep our servicemen in. Nevertheless, the reductions weren't that bad, nowhere near 60%, maybe 6%. Also bi-partisan agreement was to close military bases wherever possible. Thatactually started under Bush Sr. because of the Reagan debt. We still cannot fight three wars at once, nor should we want to. If we get to that point maybe the real failure is on the diplomatic front. Another important point, during the Gulf War we had a solid UN coalition with 60 countries backing us and many foreign troops helping. Ditto Afghanistan. With Iraq we have little help. Turkey we had to buy. So that diminishes our military strength right there much more than Clinton ever "diminished" it, if he did at all. Get my drift? You are looking at the military solely with a partisan eye. The military doesn't change that much from administration to administration. Up or down 10% maybe but that's it. Except when we have a draft then it fluctuates more. What changes though is the agendae of the administrations. And whether we're fighting a real war or a series of smaller interventions. Ideally we dont want any wars at all, but sometimes they're necessary. Bush seems to want wars. Maybe he's bluffing or maybe he's serious. We don't know. But that scares a lot of people about him all over the world. The other question is how the hell can we afford a bigger military and more wars? And if we cant afford it why are we pushing it? The Axis Of Evil speech may end up costing us dearly. Hopefully not though. I remain optimistic Bush is bluffing and just wants to look tough. But he he backs up all his talk with wars we're in for dark, dangerous times ahead.