We cannot cut military spending. If we did, then the world would attack us, or another piss ant country would, and then what do we do? kill them with sticks and stones because we have no military. And cutting military spending will not fix the view the world has of America.
It depends on what you cut. Eight hundred and some bases around the world? One trillion dollars a year? Necessary? Absolutley not.
That kind of cutting would not weaken the military, it would make stronger, because some of the money could go into a stronger national defense, instead of an over-zealous and costly offense.
The view the world has of America, is noone but America's fault. Sure, the Middle East is full of twisted nut-jobs, and the Asians are plenty bizzare... but they've always been like that. The WORLD has changed itself, and America has a large part in that unfortunatley.
Regardless, having military bases in other countries who clearly don't want them there, isn't helping anything, and all the while it's costing the u.S. lives and money.
WWII and Japan was entirely different. A WAR! was going on, a WORLD WAR, and it was a military/strategic plan (though not a good one) by Japan, during a WORLD WAR. America did the right thing and ended that portion of it quickly, with an atomic bomb, but military campaigns in the far east did not end on that note, because it was a WAR.
Iraq is not a WAR; it's just a bloodier version of Desert Storm, which was not a war, but rather a political wag-the-dog.
It's pretty simple to me. Get the troops out, cut the spending and decide whether to bomb the whole place, or just leave it be.
Just to add Tatty.
One of my good friends that is now back. Did a tour in Afghanistan(He believed we should not of respected the boarders at all)that affected him all the time. They could not do anything about it.
He does say that the people in Afghanistan will work with you, but the people in Iraq do not work with you. Because of that he said it is a total different war.
He also did two tours in Iraq, one time living thru a IED blast(can not hear out of one ear now)He has seen some crazy things such as someone going into a school gym and blowing themselves up and killing all the kids that were there. He seen that, and I know that will always be there with him.
He believes that we should of never of backed down, and just pushed harder till they understood to completely stop what they are doing.
patrol the streets on foot is something he clearly says does not work on them.
He came back around the start of this year.
Your friend apparently, despite all his first hand 'expertise,' in the Middle East, knows nothing of Middle Eastern zeal and politics.
Pushing harder will only make them push back harder. They have only ideals to live for, not mortality, or families, or shiny precious automobiles in their four car garages on some Malibu lane parkway.
I remember this picture several years ago, of these badass Abrams tanks rolling down a dusty road in the Middle East, and some little kid, probably less than ten years old, was dressed in rebel garb, whilst holding a sling-shot with a rock in it, aimed at the tank. Now...this is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by too much. If little kids are willing to run out and pull a David vs. Goliath, against a military that's supposedly trying to 'help' by spreading Democracy, than you know something's not right.