The Strain
If the military is not being strained in war time you have too many men (and women) under arms. In any case Congress controls the purse and authorizes staffing levels. The Democrats have an opportunity to do it right.
Of course this war in Iraq is optional. Just as a war over the re-occupation of the Rhineland was optional for Europe in 1936. The Europeans passed up that option in favor of 1939 to '45.
I don't think they chose the right option.
Of course with history there is only one way to test a proposition like that. Me? I'd vote for smaller less expensive wars. I'd hate to see us in a situation where 50% of the GDP and 10% of the citizens were under arms.
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Umm, according to the warresisters site, military spending on Iraq and Afghanistan accounts for 7% of the budget. And total uniformed military is still under 1.5 million, for a country who population is north of 300 million.
We are fighting a less expensive war, relative to our historical experience. In absolute terms we've had the lowest casualties of any significant conflict we've ever been in.
"We are fighting a less expensive war, relative to our historical experience. In absolute terms we've had the lowest casualties of any significant conflict we've ever been in."
All that matters is that the ending of the Ba'athist regime and the preventing a failed state from forming was another small defeat for those who pin their hopes on "alternatives" to capitalism and who desire centralized control of societies. Nations like Saddam's Iraq and the remaining dictatorships, totalitarians realms and pariah states are considered by many to be a form of cultural diversity and should be preserved like an endangered species. The leftists and such will never forgive those who they rightly see as responsible for depriving them of an alley against "American hegemony". If you had done it all without loosing a soldier, killing anyone or spending a single dollar they would not forgive you or willingly permit a single positive piece of news about Iraq to slip through.
Just continue making progress in Iraq and Afghanistan and continue research into making war and nation building more more efficient, less bloody and faster processes. Let the media and the war opponents get further and further away from reality - it will take away from their ability to convince anyone of anything. The more one needs to confabulate to maintain a false set of beliefs, the harder it is for them to seem sane. That will be their undoing.
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