WAS, NOT IS:

Imperial Overstretch: Is A Bloated Defense Budget Weakening the U.S.? (Joseph Lazzaro, 11/20/11, IB Times)

Yale University History Professor Paul Kennedy perhaps best demonstrated the link between too much military spending and national decline in his seminal work, "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" (Random House: 1987). In it, Kennedy argued, among other tenets, that the relative strength between the major powers in the world never remains constant, and that, repeatedly, a great power has thought it could engage in military adventures -- extend itself beyond its ability to maintain those commitments, and neglect its economy, but the result has been empire decline.

It's the right argument, but at the wrong time, again.  We're about to get another, and much longer term, peace dividend.  And not just because of recouping the military waste.

Posted by oj at November 21, 2011 5:44 AM
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