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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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We have fewer carriers and nuclear submarines than we had in the 80's. Of course that was at the height of the Cold War, and maintaining such a force, especially the missile subs, would be insane today.
It matters because Americans think it matters. It may not be the most important issue this election, but it could come up in another.
Women may favour the military because the US military has actually been a force for women's rights internationally, certain minorities that come from forign countries could have similar feelings.
As for the strength of the US military, it remains the strongest, but that's the same way that Trump is the Republican front-runner, it's the strongest because the rest of the world is not (and never will be) united against it as a single group.
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Are the carriers and missiles that subs carry not much more powerful now? What's the tonnage comparison instead of the raw numbers. Plus the US's main rival (Russia) also has greatly reduced capabilities.
edited 22nd Feb '16 2:57:43 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Same as the old ones in both cases. We should really be discussing things like that more in the Military thread. But anyway, this leads to an observation I've had. Americans cannot think of their nation as "just another country." People on the right, and in many ways the average citizen, think it is/was, the greatest country on Earth. Some on the left, (and teens needing to angst
) view it as the most evil and repressive empire to have ever besmirched the face of our beloved planet. But I've never heard anyone say the country is just an ordinary normal country. And in some ways, I think we Americans find this more terrifying than being an evil empire.
In classic Republican-speech, Kasich praises the women who
"left their kitchens" to support him.
A woman voter later shot back. "First off, I want to say — your comment earlier about the women came out the kitchen to support you? I'll come to support you, but I won't be coming out of the kitchen," she said.
Campaign spokesperson Chris Schrimpf explained the remark as how the candidate's "campaigns have always been homegrown affairs."
"They've literally been run out of his friends' kitchens and many of his early campaign teams were made up of stay-at-home moms who believed deeply in the changes he wanted to bring to them and their families," Schrimpf said in a statement. "That's real grassroots campaigning and he's proud of that authentic support. To try and twist his comments into anything else is just desperate politics."
Hillary Clinton's campaign weighed in shortly after Kasich's remarks, tweeting, "It's 2016, A woman's place is ... wherever she wants to be."
At the town hall, Kasich also fielded questions about his decision to sign a bill into law in Ohio defunding Planned Parenthood. Kasich said his state offered "robust funding for women's health," but that they should not "be captive to delivering it through an organization that has largely discredited itself."
Planned Parenthood blasted the Kasich remark Monday, just a day after Kasich signed a bill in Ohio barring the state from contracting with the group. "This is flat-out insulting. Kasich's condescending attitude toward women needs to stop, whether it's on the campaign trail or back at home in Ohio," said Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a statement. "Kasich's flippant attitude toward women's lives is causing real harm."
edited 22nd Feb '16 3:06:51 PM by BlueNinja0
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - SilaswThe liberal media is smearing Kasich. You have to recall that he's describing a race over 20 years ago. In America at that time, it actually would have been big to see otherwise non-employed women campaigning actively. It demonstrated a shift in Republican party-voter relations.
Kasich is not a good candidate. Kasich is not 'moderate.' This quote, however, is overblown.
edited 22nd Feb '16 3:16:38 PM by SolipsistOwl
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I can only imagine what will happen when the bubble bursts. The worse effect of all is it allows us to cling to an antiquated political system and Constitution.
Edit: Though I would say our greatest Achilles heel is our citizens pathetically short attention span for any issue, be it foreign or domestic. That or our obsession with obtaining a good lifestyle, though it could also be our greatest strength, as most of our progress, both social and technological, has been born by our citizens desire to live the good life.
edited 22nd Feb '16 3:41:05 PM by JackOLantern1337
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.Yet despite being the "Strongest military on Earth'', the US Military still hasn't replaced the 50-year old (M16) and 20-year old (M4) rifles that they still use, while much less powerful militaries (And even other really big ones like Russia and China) have been replacing their old rifles with much more modern stuff.
edited 22nd Feb '16 3:49:07 PM by Bat178
Those guns do not need replacing.
War is obsolete, from the American perspective. We should drastically reduce our military budget, and re-allocate towards INTERPOL and other investigative organizations. You catch terrorists with contacts and information, not with guns and bombs.
Besides, we still use the M-16 and M-4 because they're good designs. You don't re-design the wheel.
edited 22nd Feb '16 3:53:23 PM by SolipsistOwl
Seeing as the AR-15 platform already has what the AK-12 is going for, increased modularity/flexibility via interchangeable receivers, barrels and other ancillary attachments, doing so is pretty much unnecessary unless the LSAT program's caseless or polymer cased ammo catches on.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiotWhy America Needs Donald Trump to Win the Nomination
Essentially to keep Cruz out. Examples of him being a nasty piece of work are given.
It's kinda hard to catch terrorists who the local authorities don't want to arrest unless you either use military force or remove the local authorities by force.
As for war being obsolete, I imagine that the people of South Korea, Libya, Kurdistan and many other countries would disagree with that, terrorism might be the only threat to the US directly but it's not the only threat out there. Now that may not effect the US directly but it still matters, unless you belive the US should go Switzerland and sit by as the world burns, profiting off the ash.
edited 22nd Feb '16 4:02:29 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranCruz has always struck me as a politician version of Anders Breivik or John W Gacy - someone who looks like a nice fellow but is actually a seriously bad person with the ability of doing bad things.
That, and I think Donald Trump is actually a better person than Cruz - Cruz has been a fairly hard immigration opponent too, and he's too floppey on TPP as well.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanThe only reason we're in this situation is because of covert CIA operations in the Middle East during the Cold War and Iraq War. We've effectively radicalized the Middle East, and bombing civilians and hospitals while our allies rape, torture, and crucify (literally) won't make ISIS or Muslims or Arabs hate us any less.
It's not exactly rocket science: leave the Middle East alone, and they'll leave us alone. That includes ceasing all support for human rights violators that escalate the situation—Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, primarily.

Edit: And I still find it surprising that their is so much support for American hegemony. White Southern males sure, but 2/3rd's of Americans has to include a lot of women and minorities. If anything the Republicans, the ones with principles that is, should be rejoicing that the "other" has embraced such a clear element of the national consensus. Clearly their fears are overblown.
edited 22nd Feb '16 2:50:31 PM by JackOLantern1337
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.