Re: [FT][SG][DS] Canada, the US Civil War II, and the structure

G'day John,

>And the hardware just goes away if economy collapses?	US maintains a
>vanishingly small army in relation to it's GNP--there is a HELL of a
lot
>of padding in our Federal budget. 

Maybe I'm having difficulty here because we have a different view of the
definition of economic collapse. In my view (which I don't expect anyone
else to accept) economic collapse is just that - there is no money left
regardless of how much padding you had there before. As for the hardware
disappearing, going on the little I do know about maintenance and
resource
use and exhaustion, that hardware is going to turn to crap and all your
useables are going to disappear damn smart if you don't have the
infrastructure there to replace/repair it. How much of the supoort base
for
the US military is from private enterprise? Who makes the components,
when
you get down to it who grows the food? If the economy goes in this day
and
age, just about everything goes with it unfortunately (well at least
that's
how I read it). Admittedly, there could/will be some surviving forces
using
cannabalised parts etc. But its not going to be on a scale comparable to
what's there today - alternatively if they do persist with the scale of
today then its not going to last very long.

>That was the Society of Cincinnatus.  A large group of officers owed
>several years backpay after our Revolution, ready to Coup and install
>General Washington as a king.	And it got shut down by one man
(Granted,
>Lieutenant General George Washington was a HELL of one man) making one
>speech.  And it just went home.  And that was the last time any element
>of our Army interfered in domestic politics.  

OK I was obviously displaying my ignorance of US history and for that I
apologise. However, I still think then when the army hasn't been paid
for a
few months that it may well decide to get involved with domestic
politics
or just plain bugger-off (excuse the expression). And I personally
wouldn't
want to have to count on another George Washington turning up to save
the
nation's collective butt.

Anyway, that's just my wandering thoughts.

Have fun,

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au