"John P. Mullen" wrote:

:This does not count the cost of having our bright, energetic people over
:in Iraq instead of here, contributing to economic growth

That's a specious argument. Since we don't have a draft, there are no
"bright, energetic people" being sucked out of the economy to send to
Iraq. Those folks are volunteers and would probably be in the
military regardless.

You can try to make this argument with regard to National Guard types,
but then it quickly becomes an argument for having a larger standing
military and a smaller National Guard.

--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney