Reply #25: A "strong defense" to a Republican is a never ending proposition

[MajorChode]

Few people actually realize the extent to which the Republicans have and will go to in order to increase defense spending.

Consider this....

In the late 70's the US knew that the Soviet threat was over. They couldn't feed their people. They couldn't afford their army. In short, they were going down the toilet. We knew this because the CIA was telling us that every year in the National Intelligence Estimate(NIE). We also know today that they were right. Ah, but the neo-cons had already started to heavily influence the presiduncy of Gerald Ford, so what did they do? CIA director Bush formed Team B. The purpose of Team B was to develop a competitive analysis of Team A (CIA insiders) NIE. In layman's terms, the thought of peace was too hard for the Republicans to bear so they had to create a threat where none existed. Bush stocked Team B with hawkish outsiders and most of them were card carrying neo-cons, namely one Paul Wolfowitz. Not surprisingly, they reached the conclusion that the NIE was wrong, which was the intent all along.

Carter wanted to drastically cut defense spending, but Team B strong-armed him by selectively leaking parts of their classified work in order to undermine his presidency. By the time Carter was up for reelection the damage had been done. Carter had been painted as soft on the Soviet "threat" and Raygun won the election. As soon as Raygun got in office, the red threat was revitalized and the cold war, part II was reborn. Raygun increased defense spending massively and tripled the federal debt.

As it turns out, almost everything Team B claimed was wrong and almost everything contained in Team A's NIE was right. Trillions were spent on defense spending needlessly which almost bankrupted the US and you are still paying the bills to this day. So did the Republicans ever admit their mistake? Nope. They claimed Raygun won the cold war and turned what can only be described as the biggest financial military blunder in history into a political victory.

So when Bush II got into office, who did he go to in order to develop his hawkish strategy? Some of the same fuckups from Team B, as it turns out. He took the neo-con Wolfowitz Doctrine, scribbled out Wolfowitz's name and wrote Bush above it. Daniel Pipes, son of Team B leader, Richard Pipes, was tapped. And what did we get? The needless Iraq War, of course. Once again the hawks got it wrong and you are still paying the bills to this day.

So what's the moral of the story?

Don't trust the national defense to Republicans.

(Don't trust them with your kids, either. Seriously.)