Just an idea to save a few billion

[ThomWV]

Our wars are being fought in the deserts and in the mountains. How about we mothball 1 (one) aircraft carrier? Its a start and let's face it, the world won't miss one, our security will not be thrown into peril, our enemies will not gain any advantage.

[ladjf]

1. Not bad. And, how about closing a few dozen of our military bases

scattered around the World?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. And a few more military bases

scattered among the teabagger states?

Edit: just kidding, sorta. This would put a lot of greenskeepers and bartenders on the unemployment list.

[TBF]

3. How about closing ALL military bases around the world? nt

[ladjf]

8. That's even better. nt

[WatsonT]

4. Close nonessential bases abroad

bring those troops home and station them here.

Then begin incrementally decreasing the size of our land forces. I would prefer to keep a strong airforce and navy simply because it's very hare to rapidly expand those should we get in to a bind.

Maybe institute some kind of mandatory national guard service for short terms or simply make it more attractive to sign up for a year or less so we have a large population with some military training that can be quickly drafted and retrained should we need a large army in the future. But with the exception of special forces and a smaller but very professional infantry force (perhaps keep the marines as they are) mostly do away with our big ass army.

We are well suited to winning the cold war but I doubt that will happen at this point.

A war with China would be wisely fought in the air, sea, space, and via technology rather than on land.

I'd also prefer we begin disentangling ourselves from foreign obligations and reducing aid to other nations, particularly military aid.

Also military surplus can be sold off to friendly nations to recoup some of the expenses.

[Scuba]

10. How about if reduce our nuclear aircraft and sub fleet to 3 times the size of the Chinese....

....let's see... three times zero is ZERO.



China can't attack us for a whole bunch of reasons, the primary being that we're their LARGEST MARKET. It would destroy their economy.

[WatsonT]

11. Which is why it would be nice to dominate the seas

you don't play to your enemies strengths.

If they had no airforce I wouldn't suggest dismantling ours.

Besides which China isn't the only conflict we might get involved in. Air/sea power are useful for projecting force around the world and require relatively less infrastructure abroad than a full scale infantry deployment.

We might have good need to bomb some country in the future. But I'd prefer we stay out of the occupying business.

[MrScorpio]

5. Ending guaranteed cost overruns in military contracts

If these contractors can't provide shit at or under budget, maybe we don't NEED their crap

[RC]

6. +$600

We need to hammer that home.

[Scuba]

9. Oh, good metaphor! Well done!

[RC]

13. Thanks

:blush:

[WatsonT]

12. Good point

agree on some terms and they can either abide by those or eat the losses. Same as any other contractor.

[checks-n-balances]

7. k&r

:kick"