Furiously scratching in the sand, ianparker2@gmail.com wrote:

As it pertains to China, agreed.  But consider that all major
manufacturers of war planes are doing very well selling "old tech"
fighters and tactical bombers all over the earth.  Sad, but true.
These include the F-16, among other platforms.  And, as we have seen
in Venezeula, it sometimes does not take much to turn a friend into an
enemy.  It would be wise to insure that we always have the technical
advantage, wouldn't you think?

Yes indeed. This is where the process of "ratcheting begins". The US is
spending as much on defense as the next 17 or so countries put
together. You do not need a military establishment of that size to
fight countries armed by the salesman.

And yet it is not large enough to be more than margonly effective in
Iraq.  Of course, we shouldn't have gone there in the first place, but
now that we are...

Do you not think that the activities of the CIA in Latin America in
general and Venezuela in particular are part of the reason for
resentment

Probably part of the problem, but the real reason is the dunderheads
who are currently running the show in DC.  Our foreign policy these
days seems to be "we don't really care what you think of us,  Bow down
and obey!"

I think that any country has to have enough conventional foreces for
its legitimate defensive needs. The disparity between the US and other
countries is what gives rise to the perception that the US is
determined to wage wars of aggression. 

Up until 2000, that was not what Washington projected.  The general
attitude for 25 years was that we would use our military to help our
friends, and we would not be terribly shy if they were attacked.
You'll find that under Carter, Reagan, Bush the Elder and Clinton, the
US was not percieved as an aggressor.  The 1st Gulf war is a good
example.  

But since Junior and his bully-boys have been in power, that all
changed.  It not so much how good your army is, it is how it is used.
Junior and Co are textbook examples of what happens when the wrong
people get control of the biggest toys.

A large disparity is also a
temptation for politicians to get themselves into situations they
cannot easily extracate themselves from.

Junior was a history major, but now we know whay he got Cs.  

A disparity in military force on the scale of the US is destabilizing
for the world as a whole. UFOs only serve to incease the unease about
this disparity.

If the military superiorty that the US has is intelligently used, the
effect is the exact opposite.  Greedy and aggressive countries are for
the most part neutralized.  While there will always tensions among
rivals, the presence of superior forces will usually cool things off.

Look at history.  All long stretches of peace has been the result of a
superior military power.  


EW



If you add up all known religions
and cancel the contradictions, you are left with only one invariant
universal message: God needs *your* money.
  ----Uncle Al