“RecoveringPaulisto” — You are not “recovered enough”.
If we really had everything we needed we would have really WON the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not to mention that China and Russia are still arming themselves and weapons are proliferating to terrorist countries. The world is a more dangerous place than it was during the cold war.
Nonsense. We had more than enough tools to win at either location.
What we lacked was leadership and political will. Money can't paper over that. In fact, if you don't have it, you're just throwing good money after bad. To say nothing of lives.
We didn’t apply near the full strength of our fighting power on Iraq or Afghanistan. We could have wiped out their countries, and we would not have had to touch our nuclear arsenal either. We spend half the world’s defense budget (that’s a fact). Part of the reason we do is we provide about half of the world’s defense. We do not need to defend Europe anymore. The USSR at the height of its power was a threat to the entire world, but modern Russia simply does not have the resources to be a threat. They are killing themselves with drunkenness and low birthrates, all thanks to the remnants of the culture Marxist-Leninism. As I pointed out, China’s navy can be sent to the bottom by half of ours. They are no threat in the near term. They might become a threat later in the century, but we can respond to that when it comes.