We Need to Strengthen Our Military. Thoughts?

We need a new military to meet the new threats of the 21st Century. Today's American military is the best in the world, but tomorrow's military must be even better. It must be stronger, faster, better armed.

Expand America's active duty forces.

Add 40,000 new soldiers to sustain our overseas deployments and prevent and prepare for other possible conflicts.

We need to create a "New Total Force," a military prepared to defeat any enemy, at any time, in any place.

We also need more military police, because public order is critical to establishing the conditions that allow peace to take hold.

We need the best possible equipment. We can't have a 21st century military unless we're using 21st century technology and preparing our forces for 21st century threats. That means educating, training, and arming every soldier with state-of-the-art equipment, whether body armor or weapons. It also means employing the most sophisticated communications to help our troops prevail and protect themselves in battle. Every soldier in every unit should have access to technology that can mean the difference between life and death.

Build and train new forces equipped with the most-sophisticated technology to specialize in finding, securing, and destroying weapons of mass destruction and the facilities that build them.

---

Thoughts?

EDIT: See my post below on who really wrote what I posted above.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

Northwest · M

Context is the most important part of any debate, and the context is completely missing.

You're presenting selected text, from the 2004 Democratic Platform, picked from the section of military.

The context, at the time, was that we had engaged in multiple wars, without giving any thought to how we can safely emerge.

Each section of that platform, had a sort of an executive summary, something to frame the discussion. The military section, had the following executive summary:

We guarantee that you will always be the best-led, best-equipped and most respected fighting force in the world. You will be armed with the right weapons, schooled in the right skills, and fully prepared to win on the battlefield. You will never be sent into harm's way without enough troops for the task, and never asked to fight a war without a plan to win the peace. You will never be given assignments which have not been clearly defined and for which you are not professionally trained.

The Democratic Party was not beating the drums of war, it was simply telling soldiers: if the USA puts you in harm's way, we will make sure you can succeed in your mission.