They're done testing their weapon systems and getting some on the ground training, we still have a few more systems to test.

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You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

And instead of calling it the Iraq war, we can call it the occupation of the country next to "Iran" war.

Oh wait, that's too long and won't fit on a poster... Ok, IRAQ WAR it is.

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"When two people agree on everything, one of them is not necessary" - Arliss

They'll say whatever they need to say to keep this war going for as long as possible. Too many large corporations are making far too much money every day to stop this war. They simply will not allow that to happen.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Majority of recent weapons sales and such didn't go to anywhere in the middle east I guess you could make money on supply chain management, but not that much

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Are you serious? How do you know this to be true? Got a link to a liberal media outlet somewhere that makes this assertion?

Imho; Nothing has been more profitable for both sides of this conflict. The military industrial complex has never been healthier and happier with this our second longest foreign conflict.

Even the muslim extremists are loving the war. There has never been a more successful recruiting tool for them than this war. Nothing like Americans riding around in somebody else's desert in Hummv's to draw out the haters that live there and nearby. These days are the lifeblood of outfits like Al Queda, Taliban Hamas and so forth.
All that talk from our heads that they are "on the run" there is just so much propaganda to keep us coming back for more.

We Americans are the only ones left who think that continued occupation of Iraq is warranted, but America will eventually fail in the same way that the USSR did and for the same reasons.
We will run out of valuable currency before they run out of Iraqis (or Afghanis) who hate us enough to fight us.

They will "win" and we will "lose", but the only real losers will be the guys who had to wear the boots and carry the rifles... and, of course, the American tax payer, but that is almost too obvious to mention.

D

I base it on reality not news press coverage as it is in my line of work. Take a look at military sales

__________________

An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

On top of that, today a higher percentage of that budget is being spent with private contractors than ever before.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-9919848-42.html

The military has doubled the amount it will spend on new weapons systems since 2000


http://www.motherjones.com/commentar...akes-over.html

The Pentagon's core budget—already a staggering $300 billion when George W. Bush took the presidency—has almost doubled while he's been parked behind the big desk in the Oval Office. For fiscal year 2009, the regular Pentagon budget will total roughly $541 billion (including work on nuclear warheads and naval reactors at the Department of Energy).
The Bush administration has presided over one of the largest military buildups in the history of the United States. And that's before we even count "war spending." If the direct costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Global War on Terror, are factored in, "defense" spending has essentially tripled.

As of February 2008, according to the Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers have appropriated $752 billion for the Iraq war and occupation, ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, and other activities associated with the Global War on Terror. The Pentagon estimates that it will need another $170 billion for fiscal 2009, which means, at $922 billion, that direct war spending since 2001 would be at the edge of the trillion-dollar mark.

As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has pointed out, if a stack of bills roughly six inches high is worth $1 million; then, a $1 billion stack would be as tall as the Washington Monument, and a $1 trillion stack would be 95 miles high. And note that none of these war-fighting funds are even counted as part of the annual military budget, but are raised from Congress in the form of "emergency supplementals" a few times a year.

With the war added to the Pentagon's core budget, the United States now spends nearly as much on military matters as the rest of the world combined. Military spending also throws all other parts of the federal budget into shadow, representing 58 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government on "discretionary programs" (those that Congress gets to vote up or down on an annual basis).

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Do you understand everything that is done by private contractors???? Contractors are the backbone, aside from troops, of the DoD in every sector. And rightly so, should have the bulk of the funds as they are responsible for the bulk of the work. Once a war is underway everyone becomes a DoD Military spending expert.

Again, IMO, the bulk of the GDP should always go towards military spending as the essential goal of a government is protection of its countries existence...not social programs ...... once UNICEF gets into the military protection arena, maybe it will be free

__________________

An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.