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John H[_2_]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:36:44 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:10:09 -0400, John H
wrote:

The Russians and Chinese are not much of a military threat, I doubt
they ever were. The problem with China is the economic threat. They
hold enough of our money to crush us.
Spending as much as we do on defense is foolish. That is one of the
factors that brought down the Soviets and what is keeping North Korea
in poverty.

I'm glad to see they're not and never were a threat. Given the truth of that
statement, you're correct - we've wasted a lot of money over the past 60 or so
years.

But...
--

In a world dominated by Mutually assured destruction, it is not a
military threat. There may be a threat to the whole planet but
strategically everyone was gridlocked if we wanted anyone to survive.

Our government has consistently over reported the Soviet threat,
whether it was the 1960 missile gap, the ability of their subs or the
capability of the Mig 25.

The reality is we are far more likely to be nuked by a terrorist
weapon than we ever were by the Soviets. Destabilizing Pakistan
certainly is very troubling in that regard.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The reason we were in a world dominated by MAD was because we
percieved a threat which, as you've pointed out, did not exist.

We should never have built up our forces to counter the, in your words, '...not
much of a military threat'.

Yes, we needlessly wasted a lot of money. Putting forces in Europe to offset the
scores of Soviet tank divisions aimed for the Fulda Gap was another waste of
money.
--
John H

All decisions are the result of binary thinking.