In the debate about small wars, the long war against Islamic extremism (I'm not a big fan of the "GWOT" label), and where the defense budget should be going, can anyone really point to a plausible peer competitor even twenty years down the line? I'm probably too influenced by Martin Van Creveld, Bill Lind, and the current environment, but I have trouble seeing any state realistically attempting to match the U.S. on the conventional battlefield, given the two Gulf Wars and the obvious supremacy of the U.S. at putting firepower on targets.

Even the Chinese, as much as they're spending, are still decades behind us, some of you guys probably know that better than I do. As much as people were justifiably pissed about the Israeli help in their newest fighter, I think it was the J-10, it was still outdated before it even entered service. If you're scared of Russia, look at their demographics. Not too many future soldiers coming down the pipeline.

Not saying we can ignore conventional warfare obviously, and we have to prepare for the "unknown unknowns," but does it make sense for us to be spending a quarter of a billion dollars per F-22 (not Air Force bashing, just the best example that springs to mind) when we're struggling to fight two small wars and staring at the huge readiness issues SWJED has posted about?