Final Fantasy Network - View Single Post - -_- Where is the U.S. heading?

Triton · 06-06-2006, 09:41 PM

Well I guess I could have seen this coming. If you look at the way we are conducting our foriegn politics it makes sense that defense expenditures at home decreases. I mean, Clinton, under his administration scaled back defense. Technically, as Colin Powell suggested in a recommendation to the Clinton administration, we need enough forces to be able to fight a two front war, just in case. However, Clinton decided to change foreign policy from primacy to cooperation. By changing US grand strategy, he scaled back our base force structure. Then Bush comes in and advocates primacy as the grand strategy (can see this in one of the press releases on administration policy). Obviously, thanks to Clinton's change we didn't have enough of a base force structure to fight a two front war. So, when Bush went into Iraq, he didn't have enough forces to go around if other problems arose, like Iran. Now, he is in a position where he needs money for the foreign front and thanks to domestic troubles like Katrina the government becomes scrapped for cash. As is, they have taken out a lot of money from many areas of the country except defense. So in order to have money for the foriegn front, you have cut backs on defense at home. Kind off an if I keep them out in the first place, I am good to go mentality. Also, politicians will be politicians and reallocate funding to their constituency. I have no clue what the solution to the problem is. If they raise taxes to cover everything, everyone gets pissed. If they get money from other programs, they risk make them fall apart. As it is Social Security and Medicare are on the rocks. Some people say we should withdraw our troops from Iraq, but if we do we get many people in the Middle East (now closer to getting Nukes) pissed at us, people in Europe looking down on us, and enemies thinking we are weak. So what the hell do we do?

06-06-2006, 09:41 PM	#5
Triton Vivi's Minder Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Miami Age: 38 Posts: 21	Re: -_- Where is our country going? Well I guess I could have seen this coming. If you look at the way we are conducting our foriegn politics it makes sense that defense expenditures at home decreases. I mean, Clinton, under his administration scaled back defense. Technically, as Colin Powell suggested in a recommendation to the Clinton administration, we need enough forces to be able to fight a two front war, just in case. However, Clinton decided to change foreign policy from primacy to cooperation. By changing US grand strategy, he scaled back our base force structure. Then Bush comes in and advocates primacy as the grand strategy (can see this in one of the press releases on administration policy). Obviously, thanks to Clinton's change we didn't have enough of a base force structure to fight a two front war. So, when Bush went into Iraq, he didn't have enough forces to go around if other problems arose, like Iran. Now, he is in a position where he needs money for the foreign front and thanks to domestic troubles like Katrina the government becomes scrapped for cash. As is, they have taken out a lot of money from many areas of the country except defense. So in order to have money for the foriegn front, you have cut backs on defense at home. Kind off an if I keep them out in the first place, I am good to go mentality. Also, politicians will be politicians and reallocate funding to their constituency. I have no clue what the solution to the problem is. If they raise taxes to cover everything, everyone gets pissed. If they get money from other programs, they risk make them fall apart. As it is Social Security and Medicare are on the rocks. Some people say we should withdraw our troops from Iraq, but if we do we get many people in the Middle East (now closer to getting Nukes) pissed at us, people in Europe looking down on us, and enemies thinking we are weak. So what the hell do we do?