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The Japanese have been de-pacified for a while now. I had the honor of seeing a Japan Defense Force (JDF) destroyer in the yards in Long Beach some [cough] long time back...

I won't ask how long back--LOL! :)

Even back then in the eighties, the JDF was in the bidness of making a no-nonsense navy. They had electronics on their bridge that we in the CG could've only dreamed of at the time. I'm pretty sure it is unclass now, but without giving anything away, think of this: 3D holographic display of the ship and it's entire environment of air, surface and subsurface.

Pretty whacked-out cool, that.

That sounds like a naval version of Tron! :) They've been doing some interesting stuff with invisibility technology lately, I noticed.

Way cooler than Tron...

But not as cool as what we got cookin' now.

We're getting so good at warfighting now that I actually worry that we're getting *too* good at it. Look at the Iraq war as an example. Here we took out a whole country on a scale that hasn't been done in decades, and we did it in record time with casualties on *both* sides that were negligible by anyone's expectation of war. In the entire history of warfare, from the Greeks to the Romans to the modern ages, there has never been a campaign that was so successful so quickly. Not even the German "lightning war" was as overmatched in it's march through Poland.

I don't mean to minimize our losses in any way. Every loss of a soldier is an incalculable loss to a family somewhere. I can't even begin to ponder that. Compared to the losses in prior wars, however, this one was a mere fraction of anything ever, anywhere.

But there is a risk in making war too antiseptic. Then it becomes too easy to decide to do. In a sense, war should always remain ugly and hideous. That's what makes it something to be avoided. It takes someone of exceptional character to have this sort of power at his disposal and yet still not wield it unless there is no other option.

I can think of no better reason to NEVER elect another democrat to office than this.