SURFACE EXERCISE - The Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Warramunga engages the Ex-USS New Orleans with her 5-inch gun during a surface engagement as part of the Rim of the Pacific Exercise in the Pacific Ocean, July 12, 2010. The biennial, multinational exercise is designed to strengthen regional partnerships and improve interoperability. Australian Defense Forces photoFrom Jed Babbin:
Barack Obama rolled out the ultimate weapon in his arsenal last week when he accused al Qaeda of racism. But Obama's apparent belief that an accusation of racism is the ultimate weapon at his disposal may soon be a commonplace among American leaders because Obama's spending spree will soon bring us to the point where words are all we can afford to shoot at our enemies.
Rich countries can lose wars, as Harry Truman taught us to do in Korea and Lyndon Johnson did in Vietnam. Concomitantly, poor nations -- and poorer-still insurgents -- can win them. Truman and Obama have a lot in common. The Missourian jokingly sought a "one-armed economist" because he was frustrated by economists' penchant for saying, "on the other hand…"
Read more ....
My Comment: I have been saying the same thing for years in this blog. The financial crisis is having a direct impact on our ability to protect ourselves and our allies. Trillion dollar deficits are not sustainable, and while it is easy to just cut the defense budget rather than entitlements, the problem has gotten so big now that even if the defense budget is completely abolished, the U.S. Treasury will still be be in the red by hundreds of billions for years to come.
Niall Ferguson's comments in this piece are also a must read.
No comments:
Post a Comment