These kinds of discussions always alternately incense and sadden me. Just as a 2cents, I offer this thought for you. When dinner parties (inevitably) turn to this, I set up this little 'party game'. You'd be amazed at the results.

You are a good, tax-paying American. When it's time to give the devil his due, you owe UncleSam the tidy sum of $100. However, in Jenny's Luverly Democracy, you actually get a definitive say in where your money goes. Knowing what you know about your immediate community and the world at large, and knowing your friends, families, children, and your own needs, split your money. How much would you pay for:

Education: Computers for schools, salaries for teachers, updated textbooks, larger classrooms, federal funding for college tuition, worker re-training, etc.

Infrastructure: The potholes on main street to hub airports, police and fire, etc

Community: welfare, job corps programs, animal control, etc.

Humans: medical care, parenting education and family planning, etc.

Environment: Cleaner air/water, alternative fuels, park preservation, wildlife preservation, adequate water for urban areas/farming communities, etc

Arts: federal programs both to teach and to sponsor

Government: salaries for politicians, 'business expenses', etc.

Humanitarian: peace-corps, docs without boarders, helping other countries/communities by sharing your wealth, experience, and knowledge.

Military: Army, Navy, AirForce, Marines, CoastGuard, etc. (and as to not be unfair to Doug, keep in mind you are protecting all of the above listed things that you have spent your hard earned money on)

Now tally it and share. It is amazing to see how different the common person's perception of a need is from the actual tallies. Most folks, even my die-hard military buddies, if given the option of spending their money on a billionth interest in a stealth jet, or the education of their children, will pick people first.

As for the latest military topic? Well, 'some of the time' does not exactly scream success to me. Nowhere else in the US would a person tolerate, however remotely, 'sometimes'. We're gonna sell you this car, now, half the time, when you crank her up, she ain't gonna start...but when she runs, she runs. A fat lot of good that thought will do you when your ass is stranded on the 405. I wonder when, exactly, people became so blinded.