[TheRealThing]

We are these days constantly fed the line that the US is the world's most formidable superpower, the like of which has never been seen. And we are. But the edge or the margin we once enjoyed has been pared down significantly in some vital areas.

Though Russian claims of nuclear superiority are obviously not true, we have allowed our own deterrent to erode owing to ordinance retirement and aging technology. We have to upgrade. But military hardware is aging across the board and meanwhile our potential foes are catching up. Both Russia and China have new aircraft that can kill the F16, F14, F15 and F18 which are 4th generation fighters. The 5th generation fighters such as the F22 and F35 were meant to give the US air superiority for the next 3 decades, but are meeting fierce resistance from the left who have argued mostly on financial grounds, that the US does not need the new fighters to neutralize the tactical threat.

The same shortfall in hardware is true for the US Navy, Army, Marines and Coast Guard. But the corker is in military personnel. We've pink slipped away many of our best and brightest and in so doing, have set back our capability to train a viable force to a point dangerously tenuous in the face of real threat.

Thus IMHO we come to the real threat to our national security, and that is in the fatal error of underestimating, or understating our enemy's military capabilities. Quite the rosy picture had been painted several years ago, by folks like former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and various officials of the present administration. But at the end of the Obama era, that picture isn't quite as rosy as we the people were led to believe. The F35 is way late for deployment, as it is admittedly over budget. And the overall preparedness of our Armed Services, though ready to repel terrorist nations of the Middle East, is not ready to face off against the big powers. According to Obama et-al, as was revealed in his scoffing chastisement of Mitt Romney, the threat of large scale war is gone. To him, everybody has evolved in their thinking, (21st Century style) and now rejects war. Isn't that nice?

Such is the real problem behind our shrinking US military. The unfortunate encroachment of the liberal into the political arena has had it's affect. It's a matter of perceived realities. The liberal can rationalize any welfare program, while they can cut any existing component of national defense.

Thankfully we now have a President who will listen to our generals, and not voices from La-La Land where everything is daffodils and lollypops.