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November 03, 2003
My Favorite Weapons System By Tom Smith Brian Leiter's recent attack on Thomas Freidman got me thinking. While disparaging Freidman, Brian writes of our friends the Europeans: After all, the Europeans, not being as thoroughly cowed and indoctrinated, may have noticed that the US outspent Iraq on warfare preparations by a ratio of 400 to 1; indeed, that the US outspends the next ten biggest spenders on warfare preparations; that the US has nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, while Iraq does not; that the US has invaded or overthrown governments in more than a dozen countries, unleashing ruthless reins of terror unparalleled outside Stalin's Russia in the 1930s, while Iraq, as a third-rate power, had merely invaded one country, and had unleashed terror only against its own population (with essential help and support from the US); that the US war machine is now run by religious zealots, while Iraq was a secular state, and so on. This got me thinking, given that we spend so much on weapons, and that we have so many, what would I choose as my favorite, if I really had to choose? I know, it's hard. There is the issue of childhood favorites. The ungainly but formidable B-52. The oh-so-correctly named P-51 Mustang. The apocalyptic Ohio class Trident SSBN. When I was a child, I thought as a child, and so forth. Decisions, decisions. But in the end, it has to be the USS Ronald Reagan. Feast your eyes on this baby. Not only is it one of the scariest ships ever built, it is a thoughtful memorial to the man. |