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Pat, what B*LL!! We ALL know that 80% of US Federal budget is non-military. that is right $400 billion on military and $1700 billion on the rest. If we have a deficit, it is due to domestic boondoggles, medicare and other things - NOT the fact that we are spending some small slice of our budget (and it is small, even the $80 billion was just 4% of the budget) in stabilizing Iraq.

I think you're putting words in Pat's mouth here. He wasn't arguing about what was causing the deficits and the related fall in the dollar.

He was only making the argumant that the dollar is in trouble. And that nations with currency problems typically don't go on empire building adventures.

Ah, but this whole "empire building adventures" story line is a strawman argument. We are fighting the War on Terror. That's not the same as "empire-building".

And his does insinuate that war costs are the margin of difference, by saying we cant "afford" the war. So his misleads on the cause and effect at both ends.

This War on Terror aint cheap, but we can certainly afford it in our $10 trillion economy; indeed we *must* afford it, or all our other trinkets arent worth having.