Is the US Military Affordable? In a word, yes.

I do not, in totality, consider the so named Military-Industrial Complex to be
overly expensive on the grand scale, given the scope of the present "Garrison Earth".

Geostrategic policy is the most necessary requirement for continued global stability.For his part Secretary Gates should be investing in his legacy by crafting the successor policy to Containment, which should serve to fill the present vacuum about the Eurasian Earth Island.

Additionally; another premise I would not accept is that of the necessity of a
profession of arms to the defence of any nation-state. Were such the case the US would have lost every war before WWII, to include the Revolution. I am convinced of the moral snd strategic benefits of the Cincinnatican system of warfare in which great men set down their civil careers as planters, scholars, business leaders for a period of conflict sufficient to defeating an enemy, but not so lengthy as to defeat themselves through a backward minded militarism which over-rides the economic & social order of a healthy culture (ex: Imperial Japan).

Yes, such men are still to be found about the US & The West & the Cincinnatican system of warfare is still being successfully applied (ex: Guardsmen/Reservists who meet the same standards as Professionals/Regulars & execute the same wartime Missions).


I see recommendations you've made here, some with which I wholeheartedly agree. I would further recommend the follwing cost saving techniques at the policy level:

-disestablishment of the DOD, for redundancy. I recommend reversion to the Military of 1776-1947, led by The War Department, which still exists as the Department of the Army which embosses it's documents with the official seal of the "War Office". ref:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...artment_of_War

-establishment of a staff for the Sec'y of Defense/War more in keeping with LTG Gavin's NME/DOD Staff than with the Calhoun Bureaus although I find both practicable. Ref: The back of his book War & Peace in The Space Age.

-transition to an Air-Mech Strike Force, highly mobile & deployable world-wide, prepared to win decisively & rapidly in land warfare on a three dimensional battlespace.

-development of specific & flexible response courses of action in order to satisfactorily replace "Massive Atomic Retaliation at a Time & Place of Our Choosing" with Maneuver Missions

-discontinuation of the bonus programs which dilute patriotic fervor & zeal with self centredness in the worst expression of the "me" generational impact on our land.

-expansion of military operations into space exploration for purposes of resource exploitation, scientific achievements, research & development & strategic defense.

In conclusion, I should like to keep this discussion in perspective by recalling that the "US Military" whose costs we are debating is simultaneously the most genuine charity, greatest engineering operation, most giving aid organization, best friend to the opressed & enslaved of Our Earth & the single greatest force for goodwill & peace in the history of man. Let these
facts be candidly evaluated with a mind toward unintended consquences in the budgetary process.

With my best wishes,

-B.