An interesting bit of history for all those on the right that think that all those on the left favor Clinton, and for those liberals that hold false hope that a Democrat in the White House means peace.

"The Clinton administration encouraged the Pentagon's insatiable demands. In January 2000---with an eye on the November 2000 presidential election---it added $115 billion to the Pentagon's five-year Future Years Defense Plan, extending to 2005, far more than what the Republicans were calling for. It refused to sign the Ottawa Land Mines Treaty, it opposed many of the terms of a proposed treaty controlling the small arms trade that the National Rifle Association disliked, and it strongly opposed linging burgeoning American arms exports to criteria on human rights and democracy. The United States' already leading share of the world arms market grew even larger: from 32 percent of the world trade in weapons in 1987 to 43 percent by 1997. Of the 140 nations it gave or sold arms to in 1995, 90 percent were not democracies or (they) abused human rights. Not counting the ballistic missile defense system, at the beginning 2001 the Pentagon had over a half trillion dollars in major weapons systems in the pipeline, all of which the Clinton administration had approved. It accounted in 1995 for nearly two-thirds of the world's spending on military research and development and its share of global military spending increased from 31 percent in 1985 to 36 percent in fiscal 2000----and today it is even higher. Along with its close allies, it accounts for about two-thirds of all military spending. In reality, there was no foreign military threat to even remotely justify these expenditures, only politically powerful contractors who would disappear if the Pentagon did not buy their wares." [Garbriel Kilko, "Another Century of War?" 2002, The New Press]

Peanuts (comparitively speaking).

During the Reagan years (which could also be called the anti-Russia years), the navy had about 1200 ships. During the Clinton years, the numbers were more like 260-350, depending on the year. As Clinton was leaving office, the navy was still down-sizing and tightening the ol' belt.

Our beloved GWB is the one who will be demanding the next buildup.

It occurs to me that we're building a beautiful new fighter plane (a 10-year contract won by United Technologies and Lockheed). This would be a good time to buy stock in both.