"to say that Clinton gutted the military is misleading, since the traditional enemy - the Soviet Union collapsed and was no longer a threat. And even under Clinton the US military spending was more than the next 9 most powerful nations. Hardly a weakling."

You misquote me. Never said Clinton "gutted" the military. He did sharply reduce and restructure US forces from the traditional two war doctrine to provide the now famous peace dividend. A key result was to rely much more on reservists and the National Guard, civilian troops that can be politically difficult to use much less keep active any length of time.

Even Clinton had problems with the result. During his second administration the reduced forces were frequently over-extended. When Clinton decided to intervene in Bosnia he discovered that the only way he could do so was to call up reserves to provide logistical support. Clinton knew that was not politically practical so he did the next best thing: gave a sole-source contract (i.e., one that was not open to general bid) to Halliburton to provide logistical support. You didn't think what happened in Iraq was new did you? Is that any way to fight a war if you're an invincible power bent on conquering the world?

We have at best a one war, and a relatively small war, army. Whoever is or isn't in charge, this fantasy agenda some have fixated on can't be accomplished unless there are sharp, I repeat sharp, increases in the US's military forces. That was clear during the 90s and it's even more clear from our position with our best troops in Iraq and nothing available to replace them. If what you say is true, where are the new troops? They're certainly not in this year's budget and it would take several years go get any increase up to combat readiness. The relatively small increases proposed won't cut this mustard. If the New World Order agenda is so important to these people, why aren't they acting on it?

Our relationships with Saudi are a fine, delicate mess, it's true. I don't pretend to have an answer there. We can't live with 'em and we can't live without 'em. What were you proposing? Remember, any answer that doesn't keep gasoline flowing to all those SUVs is political suicide.