All democrap Presidents gut the military, this one just wants to garner as many votes for 'king of the world' as he can, which means he wants to emasculate our country.

This shouldn't suprise anyone.

BTW-

Leon Panetta is just one more of Obama's inept lap dogs.

You could almost see a pained expression as he delivered Obama's message to Iran as to the timing of Israel's pre-emptive strike.

(Israel is still scratching it's head over that gaff...).

As one that served during the previous era of cuts, I experienced first hand the effects of those cuts upon our fighting forces. We had a continuel battle to maintain our readiness due to a

lack of parts and supplies for operations, training and equipment maintenance. We did not have the required gasoline to go to training nor the bullets or artillery rounds to fire once we got there. We had to do more with less. Commander's unit readiness rating reports of equipment capabilities was a reflection of these systemic problems, unless they took poetic license, which some did to make their units appear combat ready.

What we need to do is cut out the Obama administration. That will solve a whole array of problems. Barack Obama has done everything he can (with more to come if he gets re-elected) to weaken our country. It emabarrasses him that America is exceptional, powerful, and the leader of the free world. He completely ignores the fact that people sometimes risk life and limb to escape their circumstances and come here for a better life. The way he travels the world dissing America, one would think he was from another country - one that is unfriendly to America in fact.

By gutting our military, Barack Obama and Leon Panetta are setting America up for another attack similar to 9/11 and the sad little liberals in this country who also want to see a second rate America are sticking their heads in the sand and praising this faux leader for his supposed leadership skills.

Barack Obama conveniently overlooks the fact that if he and his Frankenstein Bride had been born in another country, they most likely would have been consigned to the most menial of existence due to their skin color. Rather than dumbing down America, these idiots should be doing everything they can to make sure America stays strong and offers opportunity to the oppressed around the world. Opportunities just like they have had.

What a bunch of toads.

I agree with all of this, except for the part where the author laments a pullout from Europe. In my opinion, we should have gotten out of Europe at the end of the Cold War.

Our military support has enabled the creation of those pathetic European social democracies that Obama now wants us to mimic. Of course, the only way to do so is to cut defense spending and increase taxes to match European levels. We all know how this story ends...

Don't forget Syria! We get oil from the Arabs. Arabs hate Persians. Syria is a Persian puppet. Iran wants a nuke. Russia gets oil from Iran. The US is selling fighter jets to the Saudis, so in essence, we are aligned against the Persians and Iran. Why should Israel take out the nukes in Iran when the Arabs will do it for them? Why should the US get involved in Syria? Does Obama support Shia or Sunni Muslims?

I have to agree with Jeremy on this one. As a retired military officer I can tell you with certainty we have far too many bases around the world that neither add value nor combat capability. They are simply make work institutions for the local community in many cases. I believe targeted withdrawl of bases overseas is in our best interests finacially as well as strategically. For those who would argue against that please tell me how we are better off having well over 100 bases in countless countries overseas? They cost a ton of money to operate and maintain and in many cases the country of residence does not need us there. A cold hard look at this topic is way overdue.

As far as the socialist in chief is concerned however, I never thought I would see the day when we had a worse President than Jimmy Carter, until Bill Clinton was elected. Then I said the same thing until king obama was emaculated. Now I literally fear for the future of the country as we know it. If someone had told me 20 years ago that we would have a president like obama I would have laughed at you and told you to cut down on the magic weed you were smoking. Now that it's reality, I wish I had some of that weed. :-)

The ironic thing is that since the Korean War spending on national defense, after adjusting for inflation, has essentially been flat.

Spending has trended up during times of conflict (Korean War, Vietnam, Reagan's Cold War build-up, and OEF/OIF) and it has trended down during times of relative peace, but the long term trend is flat (compare that with overall federal spending which has grown seven fold in that same time span).

In 1945, the last year of WWII, and the last war that America conclusively won, we spent nearly 90% of federal outlays on defense and, in that same year there were 12.1 million Americans (about 1 in 11) on active duty. For us that war lasted from 7 Dec 1941 to 2 Sep 1945 (3 years, 9 months).

In 2011 we will have spent about 20% of federal outlays on defense and there will have been 1.4 million Americans (about 1 in 220) on active duty. We've now been at war since 9 Sep 2001 (10 years, 5 months) and we're going to cut defense?

Thsi is simply a smoke screen. The conservatives are constantly talking about the need to cut spending, knowing that our economy can not survive the out of control entitlement spending that is going on. So, Obama says I'll cut spending by cutting the military budget. He is trying to make it appear that he is doing what the conservatives want, and that is how the main stream media will spin it. In the meantime the size of government continues to grow and we still get deeper and deeper into debt. How is cutting Soldiers, Marines, Airman, and Sailors going to lower unemployment? He does not care about protecting America because he hates America. He is protected by his own private army. We don't need to be looking at whether or not bases over seas are necessary. We need to come together and see what Obama actually has up his sleeve.

"All democrap Presidents gut the military..." -- McCrindle

And yet notice which presidents always end up getting us into wars: WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam... they all started under Democrat administrations.

Yes, George W. Bush was president when we went into Iraq and Afghanistan, but one could make a strong case that the our entry into those countries was just when we started firing BACK; our struggle against militant Islam goes back at least to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, or even to the Iranians attacking our embassy in 1979.

And let's see... who were the presidents then?

In general, I agree with the gist of the essay and the comments of the above responders. One point not elaborated and I believe to be important to BHO and his enablers is the effect of the proposed cuts on employment in the U.S.A. Who makes the tanks, Humvees, guns, ammo ships and planes? Us, that's who. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Bob the Ss-

1.5 million jobless people were just dropped out of the gov't's unemployment figures.

It's all smoke and mirrors with this administration. I'd bet the actual unemployment rate is closer to 20%.

Lies,lies,lies,lies,lies - every time he opens his trap.

The truth is he couldn't really care any less about the private sector as evidenced by his all-out war on capitalism.

99% of all military supplies and equipment are transported by ship, it took from Aug 90 to Feb 91 to get equipment in place for desert shield/storm and Panetta wants to early retire two amphibious assault vessals, U.S. has gone from a 500 ship navy and will be down to about 280 vessals.

all of our wars have been Dept of Navy strong remember USMC under Dept. of Navy

Scrap Obama and Panetta not ships.