Quote:
Originally posted by apeman
I don't think there's much danger of the US having to play catch up though, do you?
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There is always a danger. And there is little doubt that there are many countries out there preparing for future wars. China makes no secret of their desire to modernize their military further, explore space, develop increasingly accurate and effective missiles, etc. Russia, despite its recent decline, remains a potential superpower.
The goal of the military is to keep as many of their soldiers alive as possible in a conflict. The preparations we make now save lives in the future. These preparations not only save our own lives but the lives of others. Discounting the arguments around why we went into Iraq, the simple fact is that our preparations allowed us to take the country with incredibly few casualties (on our side and Iraq's). Certainly people will decry the deaths that occurred in the invasion but, given the scale of invasion, it's among the most successful and casualty free military actions in history.