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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Suma who wrote (48214)	2/6/2008 4:55:12 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 541361

To me the type of wars that we are fighting now do not need a large Navy. Just preparing for the current, or the last, war doesn't make a lot of sense. To the extent that we don't face a serious naval threat, one of the big reasons is that we have such a powerful navy that no one was to challenge us head on on the high seas, and generally would be reluctant to challenge us even near the shore or in various gulfs and bays. Our naval forces have been used against our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, but your right we don't need a navy the size of ours against such threats (which are relatively small, and have no significant navy). But these are not the only potential wars we face. What if North Korea attack the south again (carried based air power would be very important even though the invasion would be over land), or what if China tried to conquer Taiwan? These may not be likely but one of the reasons they aren't likely is that we are prepared for them. Also "not likely" doesn't mean impossible or near impossible. And we don't need just enough forces so that our entire navy brought to bear can deal with such situations. Why not? 1 - If you have more than you need it increases deterrence and makes it less likely you will have to fight. 2 - If you have more than you need it decreases your casualties. 3 - If you have more than you need it increases the chance you will win. 4 - When something happens only a part of our force will be near by, we have interests around the world. 5 - Even after we have time to move forces in, we don't want one situation to take up all of our reserves, leaving us completely unable to respond to any other contingency. 6 - Having fewer forces would put more strain on the forces we have from small wars, or even from peace time deployments. Having said all of that I've already poster here to the effect that I am not calling for or supporting any large increase in our fleet. But I would oppose any large cut backs.