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And we're dumping multi-millions down the rat hole in Iraq in some pipe dream that we're going to create a democratic utopia in the Middle East. All the while, China is arming to the teeth, stealing our weapons technology, and building an economy that we're funding.

Some of Bush's notions remind me of the overreach and hubris that helped bring down the British Empire.

They are not arming to the teeth. Their first ballistic missile system is not expected to 2010. They are growing in some ways, but so is Pakistan, India, NK, Iran and several others. If we do nothing in terms of improving our military, by 2025 they will the same level of threat as the Soviets were. Remember they had 400 nuclear subs. And tens of thousands of weapons aimed at us. China has somewhere between 10 and 30 that can hit us. Their quality is in doubt based on the fact the quality of most of their other systems is cr@p.
Making China out to be a big bad danger is becoming a cottage industry.
But just in case, we are gearing our forces to fight a war in the Pacific rim. Please pay attention to stuff like the LCS or the forward deployment to the area by many US bombers and fighters. And the F-22s and SSGNs. The VA class subs are perfect for this area. Not to mention our advancements in UAVs and in space systems. We're not sitting on our butts. The defense budget is actually increasing, and funding for Iraq is not under the defense budget, it's handled as a supplemental.