As for the border, lock it up. I met a girl this summer whose parents are here illegally and they regularly drive BACK AND FORTH to Mexico for Christmas. Stuff like that's intolerable.

@Jack-Klien: "Everything should be on the table, period. If you don't think there is massive waste in the defense and "homeland security" areas, you're living in a dreamworld. " Generally I am 100% opposed to you. TODAY....I am in 100% AGREEMENT! CUT the fucking dfense budget...and let our fucking "allies" pick up the slack. CUT "Diplomatic" payments to out UN haters. YAY!

@ Invictus

"We will never march through Shanghai, or even Tehran."

Hopefully, it will never come to that. Diplomacy is great at keeping the peace, but it is no substitute for sheer muscle.

"keeping thousands of troops in the Persian Gulf was a strategic tar baby is ever there was. The only reason we've ever been there is to ensure just enough political stability to keep the oil flowing out of there."

I agree with you on that. Why stay in Iraq? We already have Alaska. I think we should get the hell out of Iraq and divert those resources to Afghanistan, where the real war is.

"As for India, let 'em get as powerful as they like! In fact, let them run Afghanistan for all we care. India is a rock solid democracy whose interests align with ours like ass-cheeks in almost every area of geopolitics. Apart from lingering Third World solidarity feelings as they demonstrated in the Doha Round, India tends to be on our side in most everything. We should hope and pray India rises as a military and economic power to counter China."

Yeah, I kind of just threw the word "India" into my last post so someone wouldn't get the idea that I'm a Chinaphobe. (Liberals love the suffix "phobe"). We should try our best to befriend them, but we shouldn't depend on them. If/When things get dicey geopolitically, we should be able to look after ourselves and the rest of the free world.

"we need to get our fiscal situation under control, and that can only happen with responsible cuts to the military."

Wrong. Entitlements are the real meat of the problem.

"As for the border, lock it up. I met a girl this summer whose parents are here illegally and they regularly drive BACK AND FORTH to Mexico for Christmas. Stuff like that's intolerable."

Right. Lock it up. We can't let guns and money flow south, and we really can't let people and drugs flow north. All of the gang violence in Mexico is mostly our fault.

When you're feeling under pressure, do something different. Roll up your sleeves, or eat an orange.

Entitlements are a bigger part of the problem, yes. You do need to do more than just reform entitlements, though. You need to do things like close a lot of superfluous bases in Germany and be more discriminate on weapons systems where you can and even (as wildly unpopular as it would be) reduce the benefits that FUTURE members of the armed forces would get after retirement. Excepting cases like wounded and widows, of course. Where possible.

Tough sacrifices need to be made everywhere they can be now (effectively meaning 2013) so that the future is secure.

As for Afghanistan, to the flames. We'll never make that medieval society into Utah on the Oxus. I see no need to send twenty year old Americans off to die in a war that started when they were in grade school for an impossible goal. Bin Laden is dead. We need only a drastically reduced presence to keep a stable government in power so that region of the world does not threaten us. This means keeping an eye on Pakistan as much as it does the Taliban. Indeed, the best the Afghan commies ever did was after the USSR got out and was just paying for the local government's war. We can do that with much less risk of blood and treasure than with the decade long exercise in wishful thinking we've been at so far.

If you want a brilliant vision of American relations with China in the 21st century read "On China" by Henry Kissinger. Absolutely Brilliant.

@ Invictus

"You need to do things like close a lot of superfluous bases in Germany"

Why? Those bases might be important someday. Keep them manned with skeleton crews.

"be more discriminate on weapons systems"

Are you referring to future weapons systems?

"even (as wildly unpopular as it would be) reduce the benefits that FUTURE members of the armed forces would get after retirement."

I wholeheartedly disagree. We need to make sure that we take very good care of our servicemen after they are discharged.

"As for Afghanistan, to the flames. We'll never make that medieval society into Utah on the Oxus. I see no need to send twenty year old Americans off to die in a war that started when they were in grade school for an impossible goal."

We're not trying to make Afghanistan into a 51st state. We're trying to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda. If the Afghan people are afraid that we're there to Westernize them, then that's a problem. Did you know that 80% of illiterate Afghans (which is a big chunk of the population) do not know about 9/11? We need to focus on hearts and minds, and make sure they know why we're there. How is that an impossible goal? Besides, we can't afford to look weak. I don't think America's reputation can handle another defeat.

"Hyperinflation might pay off our debt, would ruin the value of the dollar."

yes, and ruining the value of the dollar would force producers to rely on locally produced goods, which would force the economy to provide these goods, which would boost the value of the dollar (eventually, as all the exported goods would still be fetching great prices, another economy boost)

basically it's win win! unless your economy happens to be entirely dependent on foreign oil supplies... hmm.

We need less than half the presence we have now, if that. The Cold War ended twenty years ago, it's time Europe defended itself.

I agree we need to take care of our servicemen. We just need to be more discriminating about it. Should a guy who peeled potatoes in North Carolina for a couple of years be entitled to a lifetime of hearth care benefits like a man who was mangled after jumping on a grenade? I think not. Have a cutoff where after, say, 2020, anybody joining the military will not have the same level of benefits after retirement as they do now. Of course wounded and other cases would still be given anything they need. This idea harms none of the current recipients and gives anyone thinking of joining a chance to factor in the change in their planning. If we're gonna be radically restructuring civilian entitlements we can't leave unwounded veterans unaffected.

We have defeated the Taliban and we have defeated Al Qaeda. What we can never do is exterminate them. With bin Laden dead and a non-Taliban government in Afghanistan we need to pare down our presence drastically. This is no defeat because we have achieved our original goals. Only by making the transformation of Afghanistan into anything besides the medieval hell-hole it is a war goal can it be argued we've been defeated.

europe does defend itself, both the UK and france have nuclear deterents... US bases serve US interests, including the ability the supply and transfer troops. without needing to pay rent to the germans, i bet...

@ orathaic

Hyperinflation doesn't work in real life. Look what happened to Germany after World War One.

"US bases serve US interests, including the ability the supply and transfer troops. without needing to pay rent to the germans, i bet..."

Exactly. Europe is an invaluable staging area for Southwest Asia. Who cares if we're not paying rent to the Germans? The Germans are NATO members, so they are obligated to assist us in Afghanistan and Iraq. If that means letting us borrow air bases without rent, then they have to do it.

@ Invictus

"We just need to be more discriminating about it. Should a guy who peeled potatoes in North Carolina for a couple of years be entitled to a lifetime of hearth care benefits like a man who was mangled after jumping on a grenade?"

You're right. I disagree with you on who exactly should get what benefits, but that's mostly technical stuff that I really don't want to waste my time on =P

"We have defeated the Taliban and we have defeated Al Qaeda."

I disagree, but I can't really prove it with anything. I also don't have a solution of my own, so I yield to you on that particular issue.