-=> Quoting Mike Angwin to Roy J. Tellason <=-
 MA> Well, maybe about 10% of the present military budget.  Then
 MA> again I am a non-interventionist and reject the generally accepted
 MA> proposition that we ought have American military forces currently
 MA> stationed in over 200 countries and scattered around the world like
 MA> trip wires.  When I look at the Consitution what I see is apparently
 MA> different from what others see.  I see a document that grants the
 MA> federal government the responsibility of defending the United States,
 MA> not Kuwait or Bosnian Croats, or South Koreans. 
 MA> I have no problem with defensive programs that maintain our
 MA> technological superiority and enhace our ability to defend ourselves
 MA> from attack, or that even allow us to retaliate with unimaginable
 MA> force against those who would dare to do so, but I do have a problem
 MA> with a government that constantly and with total regard for the
 MA> Constitution places young Americans in harm's way.
 MA> The current situation in Iraq is a prime example.  We are not
 MA> threatened by Iraq.  There may be 20 countries around Iraq that are,
 MA> and if they are, let them react to Iraq.  It's basically none of our
 MA> business.  I wouldn't send one American to the entire Middle East nor
 MA> would I waste one tax dollar on this fiasco.
 MA> We went to war, unconstitutionally, seven years ago and drug
 MA> up short, quitting before the job was done, which, like in Korea, is
 MA> what happens when these undeclared "interventions" take place.  Now we
 MA> are being asked to support an ill prepared policy of find the pea under
 MA> the three walnut shells by randomly bombing "suspected" sites with no
 MA> end or specific objective in mind.  If we do this, we should be asking,
 MA> how soon will we have to do it again?  Are we to rotate military forces
 MA> in and out of the Gulf and schedule these attacks every six weeks or
 MA> every three months with no end in sight?
 MA> This is a trap, a trap we have created ourselves by adopting
 MA> two very fundamental errors as a part of our foreign policy.  1) by
 MA> making the erronous and self-defeating assuption that we have
 MA> something to gain by scattering our forces all over the world and
 MA> embroiling ourselves in the affiars of and between other nations, and
 MA> 2) by failing, when we do commit American forces, to commit those
 MA> forces without a formal Dclaration of War and thereby deny them both
 MA> the full support and commitment of this nation and the American people
 MA> as well and give our forces a clear and unquestionable objective, total
 MA> defeat of the enemy.
 MA> But yes, you are absolutely correct.  We spend approximately
 MA> ten times the amount necessary to defend this nation and we do so in a
 MA> way that is not only destructive to ourselves, degrading our own
 MA> defense, but destructive to others as well.
 Mike, I tend to disagree with you on this, but I must admit, you make a
 compelling argument. On the subject of having our forces deployed
 around the world, this strategy has been listed as one of the causes of
 the Soviet implosion.
 david.hartung@mcione.com
 Ilks of Metropolitan Walls/LENS
 Proud member of White House Enemies database
... The Constitution protects the people from government.  Guns ensure it.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.21 [NR]
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v2.0
---------------