Use It And Lose It

The Army can't retain young officers. It is burning up all its capability in Iraq and Afghanistan. The army doesn't have the resources left for other activities.

Of course, the U.S. military has long been focused on 'projecting power', that is, threatening and invading other countries, usually ones that are no threat to us, rather than on the actual defense of the U.S. That is why we spend more than the rest of the world combined on our war machine. The fact that the wars have used up all the capability shows that the supersized U.S. military is not really necessary to defend our country.

So the question is what comes after the war? Do we continue to spend money we don't have to rebuild a military we don't need? Or do we shrink it to an appropriate size, redirect our spending priorities to humane uses, and join the community of civilized nations?