Tipping the Democrats hand Congressman Barney Frank is calling for a 25% slashing of the military budget.  Many pacifists will argue in favor of such an naive proposal.  The savings will not be used for the deficit.  It would go to more expanded socialism.  “Free money” for Democratic supporters.  The times we live in will not justify such poor judgement.  I am including some comments that a naive and inexperienced Obama has said regarding cuts to our military weapons.  Obama calls for eliminating nuclear weapons.  I believe we would find ourselves in a world where NATO has no nuclear weapons for deterrence, but N. Korea, Pakistan, Iran, and China still have them.  Aside from Pakistan there is solid evidence that these countries have a record of lying and deceit in this area.  Obama’s naivety and inexperience leads to his poor judgement.  Poor judgement in this arena is on Obama’s part is dangerous for America.

In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay.

“ We don’t need all these fancy new weapons. I think there needs to be additional review.“ “We’ll have to raise taxes ultimately. Not now, but eventually,“ he said.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — Senator Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday setting a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world, saying the United States should greatly reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism, aides say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/us/politics ...

“First, I’ll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I’m the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.

Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.

I will not weaponize space.

I will slow our development of future combat systems.

And I will institute an independent “Defense Priorities Board” to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.

Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.“ -Senator Barack Obama

http://www.missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086 ...

Obama is dangerously naive. He will returm our country and importantly, our military, to the Carter era. Decimated military, high unemployment, prices, interest rates.
Obama’s inexperience has led to his poor judgement.

A prophetic part of all of this is that, one day, a Republican president will again have to send troops somewhere in the world.  The, then Sec of Defense will say “we’ve sent our troops with the equipment we have not the equipment we want.“  He will get crucified by the media and Democrats just like Rumsfield got crucified.  The Dems are notorious for practicing selective amnesia.  And I am at a complete loss in understanding their problem with protecting America with a robust military.

ccone, actually you have total amnesia.  When Cheney/Rummy decided to attack Iraq every active duty General wanted to use a massive force in order to go in, win fast, and then get out.  Rummy’s theory was always to have a small military force , in order to prove his theory he sent a small force, the rest is history.  Rummy was also the person that would not fully equip the troops properly until forced to do by Congress.

No amnesia here…Rummy was right.  We did use a smaller force and we won quickly & handily largely due to The Republican Guard not fighting us.  And all the active Generals to whom you refer wanted to leave Iraq just like we left Afghanistan back in the 80s, a haven for extremists.  We stayed in Iraq and have built schools, hospitals, etc.  Rummy, defense contractors nor Congress, can wiggle their noses to get better equipment such as the MRAP or armor tiles for the HMMWV.  The fact is defense was underfunded during the Clinton years, we went to war with the equipment we had, and Rumsfield got blamed for it.  Later in the conflict, Rumsfield was rightly blamed for failed strategy and tactics but he was on the stick in the beginning.

But the larger question still looms; why would any American (primarily Democrats) want to decrease defense funding?  That is, without a doubt, the dumbest thing we could do.  Russia is flexing it’s muscles, so is N. Korea and Iran.  China has been building up for 20+ years.  Obama specifically wants to cut funding for Future Combat Systems, missile defense and space based platforms.  Crazy!

You say “Rumsfield was rightly blamed for failed strategy and tactics but he was on the stick in the beginning.“  If Rummy was on the stick in the beginning as you say why are we still in Iraq????  The Generals wanted to go in big, win, get out, I think history shows that they were correct not Rummy.

I hear what you’re saying.  Here’s my take…there could’ve never been an overnight fix to Iraq.  Had we pulled out quickly after toppling a totalitarian regime, what would the Iraqi people been left with?  What we gained was the ability to fight al qaeda in Iraq because they came to us.  I think by going to Iraq and staying long enough to 1) unite the people and 2) fight the group responsible for 9/11, has worked out pretty dang good.

Here is my problem with not using the strategy as put forth by the generals:
From our side
1.  Huge loss of life in US forces.
2.  Huge number of US forces that have been permently injured.
3.  Huge cost to tax payers.
4.  Huge curruption by those supplying support inside Iraq.
5.  Total destruction of our standing around the world.
From the Iraq side
1.  Huge, huge loss of Iraqi lives, I think the last I saw was around 300,000
2.  Total destruction of infrastructure

Had we used the model the Generals wanted none of the above would have happened.