[DoughtyOne]

Was WWII fought on US soil?  No. Were we prepared with a massive army and navy prior to WWII? No. So, what’s your point? That we need a massive military?

If you're going to try to use the world standard prior to WWII as a basis for 2020-2050 military preparedness, we don't have enough commonality between us to even begin to discuss this issue.

Our strength is our ability to produce at the time of need. No one is calling for no military, just not a military that is used to fight everyone else’s battles.

Let me see, our Commanders in Chief are destroying our nuclear capabilities as I write this.  Now the Defense Secretary wants to destroy our conventional military resources.

What could go wrong?

All that needs to be said at this point, is that if people such as yourself and our current president and Defense Secretary get their way, this nation will not be a free sovereign territory in thirty years.  Of course, that would only be what would be left of it by then.

[DaveA37]

Loooooooooooong before cutting any of our military, I suggest they look at all the “waste” in other areas of the gubmint including odumbo’s “zars”, mooooooochelles overfloated “personal staff” (including what they pay their daughters, all the odumbo family vacations, personal flights to hither and yon. I could go on and on and on. This country NEEDS its military, it DOES NOT NEED the odumbos.

[CodeToad]

“Let me see, our Commanders in Chief are destroying our nuclear capabilities as I write this.”

Paranoia. We have plenty of nukes in silos, subs, and aircraft.

[plain talk]

I agree with your points. Interesting that we have to debate the merits of a strong military at a site like Free Republic. Without a strong military and a free country itself then none of the other stuff we discuss at this site even matters. None of it.

[CodeToad]

Well, you certainly talk like a fascist. You lose your mind the second so much as one dollar is cut from the military budget even though we all know the billions spent overseas hasn't made us any safer and there is massive fraud, waste, and abuse that could be cut from the military budget.

You really are a paranoid. Seriously, go hide in a cave someplace. The rest of us would prefer to have an adequate military for national defense but then get on with our civilian lives of building a nation and not just living to build a military.

Chicken Little is your new FReeper name in that you believe unless we spend money we don't even have to build a military we cannot afford to fight an enemy you cannot even name means we are all going to die is exactly the parable of Chicken Little.

[plain talk]

I agree with your points. Interesting that we even have to debate the merits of a strong military at a site like Free Republic. Without a strong military and a free country itself then none of the other stuff we discuss at this site even matters.

[Hulka]

“Our strength is our ability to produce at the time of need. No one is calling for no military, just not a military that is used to fight everyone else’s battles.”

We don't have the capability anymore. . .with reduced acquisitions our productions lines are closing.

“Infrastructure,” a vastly important aspect of the US arms business. At $543 billion, the defense budget falls short by nearly $31 billion in requested military expenditure.

This 9% budget shortfall is significant. Most budget expenditures are for maintenance, modifications, upgrades and personnel. . .not production, especially production of new platforms. Consequently, new product manufacturing and research and development are limited in scope.

This threatens the defense industrial manufacturing base.

A closed complex manufacturing facility such as the Boeing C-17 facility in Long Beach, for example, can’t easily be re-opened and produce kit quickly enough to arm/equip a nation under siege or engaged in a major conflict. Same with other aircraft, tanks, ships, etc. And, by the way, you can't take a washing machine manufacturing factory and re-tool to build a tank or airplane. Well, you can but it would take years and years and cost so much that it would be cheaper to build a new factory than re-tool.

Basically, a defense manufacturing facility simply can’t easily resume production within months, and may possibly takes years to become viable. That is physically, technically and fiscally impossible.

Research and Development (R&D) ensures the US possesses a qualitative edge in technology—and this edge is financed in part, a significant part, through foreign military sales.

FMS ensures R&D continues and the defense industry continues to produce modern, reliable and technologically relevant products. . .but not in any large number and is producing ‘test platforms,” not fully vetted combat-capable warfighting platforms.

So, cuts today have no relevance to pre-WWII manufacturing capability and the nature of the military today does not allow for shut-down/turn-on, re-tooling of a facility.