Free Republic

After twenty years of brutalizing the Middle East to make it profitable for Raytheon, we have finally stopped burning our borrowed trillions in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the fall of the Warsaw Pact, the world reaped a peace dividend. No longer were we eyeball to eyeball, armed to the gills, staring down the Russians. We and the Russians had a buffer of independent, NATO leaning nations between us. Military expenditures in Europe declined. The US continued to cover the shortfalls in spending of the European free loaders, Cold War or not, during this period. Then NATO began its massive expansion...

So many stories and reports talk about the politics and mystique inside the beltway of Washington, D.C. For the majority of our population, it is unknown what is meant. As a Marine officer, I spent some time in that environment and I think that I can help explain it. There is no mystique; it is liberalism at the extreme. I recall a former Marine officer who had spent four years in the Corps and risen to the rank of First Lieutenant, and a few years later was elected to Congress. He attended a reception at the commandant of the Marine...