Yes, I'm sure. Give our enemies an inch and they'll take a mile. And as even UBL said, the strong horse wins, they want to go with a winner. Cases in point:
Would Russia have invaded Ukraine if we had a strong military and Islamo-fascist Obama was not President? Would Iran be actively taking over country after country in the Middle East? Why do you think it's in our national security interests to let all this happen? If Europe was nationalist instead of Socialist, would the Islamists be walking all over them and taking them over from within? How long do you think the Scandinavian rape capitals of the world will remain on top of the Freedom House freedom list? Do you really think our nukes are going to protect us from the enemy within and the red-green axis?
China is starting to edge us out in high-tech, since the Clintons so graciously handed over all of our military secrets to them. If we don't maintain our strategic edge, we're sunk. I watched on tv as the Chinese president told Bush why don't you take your hemisphere and we'll take ours. How long do you think we'd last alone? Have you heard of BDS? What would you do when it's used against us by an Islamist or Communist Europe and Asia (I would bet on the Islamists to win that contest). What happens when China becomes self-sufficient and doesn't need us as a customer any longer? Does that require us to proactively seek markets over there? Do we need a strong military to do so?
I presume you want Europe to defend themselves and not rely on US? That's a laugh. Ain't happening, they can't even keep the peace at home and are sinking fast due to socialism.
China's already shot down satellites. And Russia finished new underground nuclear C&C facilities and is actively drilling for a nuclear attack on us. Of course they and the Saudis think our oil production's an existential threat to them. So are they setting the fires that zero'd in on our storage facility in the mid-West and Canada's oil sands, per al Qaeda's call to do so? Just a few examples. Meanwhile the economic warfare continues from Russia/China who are attacking the dollar and the Islamists trying to draw us into warfare.
Then, Iran's surrounding Israel with missiles they intend to shoot 1,000/day and now they're more precise in their targeting. What kind of missile defense will protect against 1,000/day? Take out Israel, we lose eyes and advanced R&D.
Don't forget, it was when we left Islamists to their own devices after we *helped* them boot Russia out of Afghanistan that we got 9/11. They use infidels, then go after them, since their goal is domination, global caliphate. So beware every one of them and remember many if not most attacks are done by second generation immigrants. There is no way to vet them. And the 9/11 perps were friends with the neighbors until they disappeared one day. So, your Muslim friends may be the nicest guys in the world, but you are clueless as to whether they are good guys or bad. Many stories of them turning on infidel friends and pressures on them are often great. And that could be a worstning situation since a bad element has been arriving since the beginning of the hijrah (immigration jihad).
We have to keep our technology and military edge and know what the 'competition' is up to. It needs to address both conventional and asymmetric warfare.
I attended an asymmetric warfare symposium with the military the end of last month. They spoke of threats and what needs to be done to get back in shape. Good news is we have amazing men in the military and they know what needs to be done. Obama took a severe toll. Did you see the report on the ship collisions? They could have been avoided, it was the reduction in training, which is, along with maintenance, the first to go when there are cutbacks.
My point is we have many challenges and active threats and enemies who view us as their #1 target. Now that I think of it, I'll show you something in a separate post on the threat to us that Obama left as a parting gift, re: ports. Slimy bast__d that he is.
sl
p. s., mt, I met a guy at that symposium who flew both the F-111 and F-14. He loved both.