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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (191459)	7/12/2006 11:01:00 AM
From: neolib	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

One good result would be the dismantling of huge standing armies because, what the heck is anyone going to do with them anyway? I have a suspicion that this is somewhat similar to Rummy's thinking although I think Rummy's motivation is to privatize everything and pocket the change. The whole subject is very interesting IMO. Take Iran, or for that matter Iraq under Saddam. Airforces and navies are basically worthless to those guys. They are expensive equipment which will be worthless within hours or at most a few days of any engagement with the West. There is not IMO, much strategic thinking going on in the ME wrt military budgets. The only thing they should spend money on is air defense, and smart anti-personnel devices. Both would be way cheaper to develop than the offensive weapons systems these blokes waste money on. Further, such defensive weapons, while making the country unassailable by the West, would in fact defuse tension with the West as well, since they are not offensive weapons. Kind of the Swiss army approach: Make sure a large fraction of your civilian population is a formidable obstacle for any invasion force.