America can be a superpower or a welfare state, but not both.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Neal, last time I checked the numbers your nation spent more on military issues than the world's 15 next biggest military spenders alltogether. Russia and China together would not even make up for just one third of your defence budget!

US black budgets not even counted!

I know, I know And that's more of a reflection on Europe taking a free ride on the US military than anything else.

One other thing to keep in mind, Robert Gates is fully plugged into the situation, he know more than we do, and he's smarter than you and me put together. I take his statement pretty seriously.