The American Spectator

Paul Kotik br> Plantation, FL /p>

Good work, Ben. You got the attention of Army planners. Your article was carried on the West Point alumni site — wp-forum. The collaboration you suggest is too obvious to be ignored. They (Iraq and NK) have vital interests at stake. They would be irresponsible Bad Guys not to be talking to each other. They read the tea leaves. They read George W’s press releases. I like the line of the Administration: “We are not negotiating; this is not a crisis; bad news, but no reason to negotiate and reward a reckless tyrant.” Pretty good stuff.

The problem I see, is the point you make. Let’s not try to do this one on a shoestring. We need to increase the number of good guys on the ground. We need an increase in end strength — total folks in uniform. The Democrats took a number of peace dividends: creeping inflation not met with pay increases, reductions in medical benefits, cuts in maintenance and training costs, cuts in the training base, reductions in strategic reserves, ammunition accounts depleted and not replaced, and back to back deployments of troops in uniform. Combat training subjects in some cases replaced with sensitivity training and “How to Be a Good Peacekeeper,” etc. Wore the “pigs” down to a frazzle. I’ll bet Hillary and Bill got some big laughs over that payback.

p>Keep up the good work! I read your column regularly in TAS . Happy New Year! br> — Andy O’Meara br> Retired Army br> Fredericksburg, VA /p>

Ben Stein makes an interesting suggestion (that Iraq and North Korea are in strategic collaboration).

But I must question his assertion that the U.S. should substantially increase its military spending. The U.S. presently spends about 3% of GDP on defense; that is, about $300 billion. The combined total GDP of Iraq and North Korea is only about $80 billion. Iraq is still massively crippled from the Gulf War (they haven’t replaced any of the tanks, planes, helicopters, and cannon lost then). If the U.S. cannot squish both regimes like bugs, then we have problems, but the problems are not the budget.