[TheRealThing]

Agreed. We need to revamp our military again. But the liberals are howling like werewolves about cost. In point of fact, the combined services need about 2,500 F-35's. The price tag for those 2,500 F-35's is 382 billion. Now, call me overly pragmatic. But being prepared is far less expensive than not being prepared.

Take the 9/11 attacks. 19 guys with box cutters were able to permanently change the skyline of Manhattan, and further inflict 3 Trillion dollars in damages to the US and her economy over the following 3 years. And we got nada for that 3 Trillion, certainly not any new military hardware, it just went up in smoke. Imagine what a crack division of Russian infantry, backed up by a naval force with a carrier with comparable jet fighter aircraft might do if such a force were able to make a landing in Mexico for example. Maybe a little off the wall, but say they just moved that force to Cuba, while Iran made it's move on Israel. In that day 382 billion in the face of the 3 trillion that 9/11 cost, or a Russian occupation in Cuba might cost, suddenly becomes pretty darn affordable. Say affordable about 10 times for us there Nancy. We have to keep our foes at bay. I guarantee if North Korea gets the door open far enough they will make a hole where Japan or Guam used to be. Which conflict we would be automatically drawn into by treaty. And that says nothing about Iran and the Middle East.

I hope Trump pushes the at least the F-35 program through. And if I had my way the F-22 program would get a restart too. Like the guy famously said on the 6 Million Dollar Man, "We have the technology." Let's use it. But that is the fallacy of liberal foreign policy, we can duck spending for the short term, but it will come back to bite us one way or the other. It's cheaper to do what Trump says, and have a military force too terrible to go up against. At least American soldiers would be paid a living, military contractors would provide thousands of jobs, and we'd have the military hardware to show for it.

Or I suppose we could just send our enemies pallet loads of cash in the middle of the night to bribe them, and then they can built up their own military.