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You must compare the empires before you estimate the costs. US can easily afford it's military spending. If you look at the case of Afghanistan, you notice we are not trying, in anyway, to administer that country - where the costs are very high. Even in Iraq - with its oil money, we are utilizing a relatively small amount of manpower. (Unfortunately we couldn't get by as cheaply as we hoped).

US dominance in tech and space should remain unchallenged as long as our administrations recognize the priority. (China understands this and that is why Clinton was so stupid - Loral, Lippo grp et al - practically giving away some of our strategic advantage.)

Remember those debt projections are very similar to those made during the Reagan yrs - things worked out fine once the economy rebounded - largely because of the fall of the Soviets. Hopefully we can resolve the Arab/Israel war and destroy the impetus for this Islamist/US war. If ended, the world econ will grow at a much better rate.