Are The Wars Over?

How would you like to be a soldier overseas, and read about the budget "crisis" (actually theatre) in USA, and see a breakdown of the deal, by the numbers:

•$1.2t – discretionary cuts – defense and non-defense. *Notes Boehner agreed to $1.2t before broke off talks w/ WH.

•...

•$1t in savings from winding down the wars in Afgh and Iraq.

•$400b in interest savings.

Now never mind that in this breakdown of the deal, "wars" might be counted twice, the point is USA politicians are talking plainly about throwing in the towel in its wars, as a done deal.

Because of the rules Congress itself has set, the CBO is required to take current war funding levels in Iraq and Afghanistan and extend them far into the future. Plus inflation.
"The way the CBO baseline is calculated is real simple," said Holtz-Eakin. "You take what is on the books and extrapolate at the rate of inflation."
But that isn't the best reflection of reality. War spending is at elevated levels at the moment. And it should soon decline. A lot.

Forget the theatre and politics, there are real USA soldiers facing real enemies overseas.  The other side, very ticked off citizens of those countries, read this stuff and plan accordingly.  We never had any right or business invading those countries, and now that the politicians no longer care, those soldiers are at higher risk.  This is nuts.  

Of course ending the wars would benefit the economy, if only to put all of those soldiers available on something productive.  Clinton prosperity was based on the end of the cold war.

This country was founded with the idea of no standing army.  A standing army is a toy for politicians.  The politicians are bored with this toy, so they have abandoned it in the sandbox.

The other side is watching closely, and thinking about this opportunity.  We should surprise them and pull all of our troops out before the other side figures something clever to do.

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