Replying to a message of Phil Payne to Don Hills:

 PP> From: Phil Payne 

 >> Indeed you should. America now is not the America of the 40s, any more
 >> than IBM now is the IBM I joined 27 years ago. "You're" already a
 >> minority in world population and becoming one in world trade and
 >> politics (the wheels are falling off NAFTA, the MAI, the WTO, the IMF
 >> etc as member countries realise how badly they've been shafted). As
 >> your political and economic force weakens, the only way you'll get
 >> what you need to survive will be military force. Even with that, would
 >> you care to estimate how well your economy will do once the rest of
 >> the world hates you?

 PP> The USA can no longer afford its current armed forces.  The arms race
 PP> broke the Soviet economy, but the USA has failed to realise that it
 PP> can now stop running.

 PP> Obviously, if you have overwhelming global military superiority,
 PP> there's a temptation to use it.  To a man with only a hammer, every
 PP> problem looks like a nail.

Which is why, 200+ years ago, the American Founding Founders made a
*permanent* standing army *unconstitutional*.  You can have an army, but
only for two years (Article I, Section 8).  The prohibition does not,
however, extend to the navy (ibid).  The congress has been refunding the
permanent standing army every two years for so long that people have long
forgotten why.

Bush is *the* outstanding example of why the U.S. should *NOT* have a
permanent standing *army*, for exactly the reason you mention.

If the Bush league and PNAC want to, let them organize (and *FUND*) their
own private foreign legion.

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