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Winning the war quickly, unless you mean nuking every city of over 10,000 people, would take far more troops than we have, let alone more than we can deploy for the time it would take to get the job done. After 14 years, no make that 18 years, of downsizing or failing to up size the military. This is our reward. (The downsizing started under Bush I, continued far longer and deeper than was "prudent" under The Impeached One", and the failure to up size took place under Bush II.

The cows have come home to roost, and it's not a pretty sight.

It's true that the Army and Marines have have grown somewhat, but that has been at the expense of the Navy (about 40,000 sailors cut) and the Air Force (about 35,000 cut), which have also provided a whole bunch of "boots on the ground", again at the expense of their primary missions of putting ships to sea and airplanes in the air.

War is an expensive business, Billy Jeff loathed the military and had other things to spend the money on, like buying votes. Country Club Republicans have rarely been too keen on spending money, and they made little distinction between military spending,although the Constitution grants the federal government the exclusive power to raise and support armies and to provide and maintain a Navy, and "social spending", for which there is no Constitutional justification or authority. They're just Cheap.