[DManA]

Where’s the plan to reduce the missions we require of them.

[ichabod1]

Don’t you think that if we are looking to cut spending we need to look at the TRILLION DOLLARS we have spent on overseas military adventures before we start cutting programs that really benefit people. That’s what Dennis Kucinich says.

[americanophile]

Exactly. I am fine with a Pentagon budget reduction, but we should make it clear to the dozens of nations and regions around the world that depend upon us for their security, that they're on their own, and we should start ramping down our foreign operations - our troops can't be expected to do everything.

This of course brings up a larger discussion that I think we as Americans need to have anyway: has the time come for us to reduce our foreign presence in a major way? To return to a concept of national defense more in line with our traditional republican (small 'r') notions of the proper role of the military? Has our foreign presence since WWII - so much now criticized as an imperial one - now outgrown both our own strategic needs and our ability to pay for it? Conversely would we be drawing down at precisely the time when new emerging threats like China, Iran, etc., are ramping up? Will there ever be a time to drawn down? I would love to here some informed FReeper views on this without the 'isolationist' versus 'imperialist' hyperbole that too often characterizes this discussion. I'm open to both viewpoints.