Sure, the Meximerican will be a land lubber anyway.

Piracy will always be with us, in inverse proportion to the willinginess to combat it. Suppressing it is perhaps the best of promoting free trade.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say OJ wants to get rid of the Navy so we could all pay extravagant prices for, say, OIL. Sensing we wouldn't pay those prices, OJ would then believe we'd get rid of our SUVs and join him in the glorious communitarianism of a train.

See, it all comes together!

Oil is nearly as last century as a navy.

But what will become of the Village People?

Now, now, OJ, the aircraft carrier* is a marvellously useful thing. Five acres of sorverign United States territory, with an airbase on it, easily transportable to a spot of ocean off the coast of whoever we're not happy with.

(*I refer of course to a full-size nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, not to the little jump-jet carriers like Britain and India have, nor to that French wannabee carrier that spends most of its time in overhaul.)

This appears to be an organizational issue rather than actual dismantling.

Assuming the US does demobilize significantly because of peace in the 21st Century, the Navy is the LAST of the armed forces that should be done so - and ideally never. The Navy is the first line of defense, not the army.

Not to mention, a strong Navy helps ensure that we have the strong, STABLE, economy of today. You know, the economy that (per OJ) doesn't need to manufacture things.

Though I do wonder how some of these squealers for "energy independence" would react if we told them the real way to achieve such a false solution.

OJ wants to get rid of all branches of the military and only have a nuclear missile corps. Any country so much as looks at us crosseyed and *whammo!* we glass over their capitol city. It's one of his lesser-known hobby horses.
It doesn't stand a chance of becoming reality, so I don't worry about it too much.

Maybe in another 15 years they'll stop building Cold War toys, like the $2 billion attack subs.

OJ, if you aren't careful, Jim Webb is going to slug you someday.

Besides, if you want to fight the Chinese in the near future, the Navy will have to carry a large part of that load (including the attack subs).

When was the last time the Air Force tested a Minuteman III? My wild guess would be probably 1992.

Why would we use anything but nukes on the Chinese?

Mike:

When you dominate space the whole planet is your sovereign territory.

Well it's about time. Now I can set up that pirate base in the Azores I always wanted and get my BMWs for free! ;)