[Socon-Econ]

Bluster when we have a gutted military and a public full of pacifists? First, Trump needs to try to rally the nation against the threat, as Winston Churchill did in his era.

[Mr. Douglas]

This is, at the end of the day, and ankle biter that we’re trying to find an excuse to squish. I don’t think it’s about getting the American people on board. When it comes to NK, they have been for a long time. I think it’s about China.

And it is looking that that particular issue may have been taken care of.

[Jumper]

Last Thursday, I drove from Fort Bragg (Fayetteville NC) to Washington DC. Driving up I95 there were numerous military troop movements; in my assessment they were either Navy or USMC vehicles probably on return to station after the semi-annual exercises in Korea. Depleted military? Absolutely, I saw over a 100 vehicles in a dozen different instances, but four times I saw vehicles broken down on the freeway. This speaks to the sad state of logistical readiness of our military.

When I was in the first assigned to the 82d Abn Div, we had a Division Readiness Force which was one battalion on 2-hour standby to be the first to deploy. The first time our battalion took over DRF1, we went over the motor pool at n=midnight the day before the assumption inspection, and we took distributors, break pads and other equipment off the very vehicles of a sister battalion coming off DRF1, all with the coordination of the two battalion motor officers/sergeants. This is the very state of readiness we see today on display - just as 1974-75, the nation has overtaxed the military and under funded her. From Nixon to Clinton, the worst years were the four under Carter, but Clinton was a slow bleed to the bottom.