This past Sunday, the New York Times published a long editorial called "A Pentagon the Country Can Afford."
It's a very practical look at cuts in troop numbers, civilian attrition, increase in health care premiums, and base closings. Then there are the cold-war systems: fighter airplanes for instance, imagined for fighting MIGs; the aircraft carriers that deliver fighter planes; nuclear attack submarines and missiles -- not to mention the nuclear weapons themselves.
It is actually not difficult to generate $1.2 trillion in military cuts that pose no threat to the defense of the nation.
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What we really need to talk about, though, is what makes us secure. Is it nuclear weapons and fighter planes, a fighting force? What about a reputation throughout the world that we are a generous, peace-loving nation? Now there's a goal I aspire to.
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