Of all the people I've dealt with on here, you seem to have the kindest heart but I keep noticing that you seem to be the ideal candidate to be manipulated by any authoritarian that uses fear to control others.

The rationalizations you go through in your posts show an emotional ride.

About defense of our country. Consider these facts.

We have tens of thousands of nuclear arms. No other country can start lobbing atomic weapons at us without fear of massive retaliation and almost total destruction.

Dictators, no matter how much bluster they put out publicly, are almost universally survivalists. They surround themselves with masses of armed guards, have decoys, drive in bulletproof limousines. Every last one of them know from history that if they as a governmental leader were behind a public attack on the United States, they would be hunted down and destroyed. (Note: Osama Bin Laden was not a governmental leader)

No country that has a common border with the United States could do any significant damage and would be defeated swiftly. Just our own National Guard could turn back any armed invasion from our neighbors. Hell, probably just the NRA members in the border states could do it.

If a foreign nation such as Russia or China wanted to invade in a non-nuclear war, they would have to cross a formidable body of water and would be sitting ducks as they hit our beaches. Our extensive satellite system and foreign spy network would know every move they were making ahead of time.

The only threat that we're truly vulnerable to today is a horrific weapon being smuggled across our borders and causing immense damage in one of our cities. As terrible as that would be the damage would be extremely localized and none of our major infrastructure would be removed. We'd be devastated psychologically but our nation would be intact if we did not panic.

The problem with the last scenario is that a giant expensive military does almost nothing to make us safe from that attack. The only weapon that can be effective against it is police style work with very small forces and an effective network of intelligence in the areas of the world where terrorists breed and assemble. An aggressive conventional military actually increases the likelihood of such an attack because of the hatred attacks cause in the nations operations are committed in.

You're right that there are true thugs in the world that want to do us harm just because the bigger and more powerful you are the more likely you are to be a target but those guys are elusive targets that giant strike forces have a hard time finding and hunting down.

A strong defense does not mean a huge military. It means being smarter, more ethical, and able to respond quickly when danger appears. A lean and mean fighting force is essential. The huge armies and arsenals of weapons are not being requested by the true military geniuses of our nation. They're being promoted by the people that profit from their proliferation. Fear works wonders for their bottom line. Please stop being a victim to it.

Art