The ABL is a wonderful technology. The Air Force had also toyed with a "tactical" version of that weapon system (think: pick one bad guy out of a group and cause him to spontaneously combust).

It is much easier to locate and destroy an ICBM during boost phase, those rockets produce a great big heat signature that is easy to track.
I was under the impression, however, that the current administration pulled funding from this around the same time they defunded the F-22...

"Let’s Be Honest" Yes. Let's.
Our military is one of the finest in the world. We train our troops to live and kill for their country (when other militaries train their soldiers to die for the motherland). Our ability to take terrain and conquer foes is unequaled. Some have drawn parallels between the actions in the middle east and Vietnam. The comparison isn't entirely inappropriate - we had politicians ham-stringing our military back then too.

If we unbound our men in uniform from the INSANE rules of engagement by which they must currently operate, I think we'd see far fewer flag-draped coffins arriving from overseas.

If we permitted the war to be run by the men who have spent a lifetime studying war (instead of the limp-wristed politicos who oversee them) I think the situation in each country would be vastly different.

It is a tragedy that so many of our finest citizens have to sacrifice their own lives because some ivy-league pin-head thinks we should be more polite in combat.

I know that public education is lacking and all, but her grasp of what words mean leaves much to be desired.

Ms Ocasio: You cannot make something MORE INCLUSIVE by EXCLUDING one of the things that falls into the category of THINGS TO BE INCLUDED.

Unless, of course, you're using the New Liberal Lexicon in which words like inclusion and tolerance really mean "accept everything except traditional American values."

Sorry bub. Your genes say you're a guy. Until you can fix your own DNA, you are stuck being a guy.

If I live like a chicken, I am not a chicken, I am a silly human trying to be a chicken.

Living "as a woman" does not make you a woman.

Money talks.
Turns out, there are enough non-anti-American Americans in America that when a Hollywood director decides to not spit on us, his movie does quite well.

The problem with defense cuts is the same problem we see with education cuts. When school budgets get slashed, teachers lose funding, and administrators shuffle students around. Notice who didn't lose their job? The administrators.
Same thing with defense budget cuts, the ones with the least say in the cuts have the most to lose.
I'm not opposed to education or defense budget cuts, but particularly in the case of our brave soldiers abroad, it is important that they are as funded as they need to be, even if some desk jockeys back home have to find new jobs.

Insane contract bidding policies should also be reexamined. Contracts awarded on the basis of who _owns_ the business rather than the amount of service-per-dollar provided needs to end immediately. The defense department will pay a lot less for a lot of material if they are permitted to participate in the market like any other organization. Contracts should go to the best bidder, not the bidder with the highest "PC" score.

If defense budgets are cut, the stipulation needs to be made that our armed forces, actively involved in hostile territories, be permitted to act as efficiently as possible. This means changing the insane ROE that currently bind our soldiers' hands. Think that doesn't cost any money? Treating bullet wounds, burns and providing physical therapy are expensive exercises. If our military was run by men who have carefully studied war, instead of Washington bureaucrats, this expense would be significantly diminished.

So sure, cut the defense budget, but don't expect it to operate as well under the same asinine politically correct restrictions that have been slowly piled on it for the last two decades.

Scorched Earth. As others have pointed out, ten years of "winning hearts and minds" in Afghanistan has simply cost us limbs, lives and treasure. Let's try something else. After we've finished turning A-stan into patch of charcoal, Pakistan will likely be more amenable to deciding whose side it is on.

The west is seen as a decadent culture of high-tech barbarians. In the context of their view of morality, our most conservative citizens are patchouli-stinking hippies in comparison to their moderates. We will ALWAYS be outsiders. As long as they can play both sides of the fence with impunity (take our money and assistance, then help their buddies plant bombs), they will. They get to take money and material from 'rich Americans' AND blow them up.

If we untie our soldiers' hands for ONE YEAR, the denizens of Afghanistan will long for the days when we were trying to be nice to them. They may not ever like or trust us, but we can make opposing us a very unpalatable decision.

Also noteworthy: when Christ threatened the hold that Pharisees had over the culture, they had him crucified.

Anybody else see what happened when the Unions in Wisconsin felt a little threatened?

It is interesting to read that the solution to our failing education system is more money.
I'm an engineering student. Many of my peers hail from Pakistan, India and China. None of those countries spend as much as we do on education and by and large, the students from India and China are much more prepared for college than most of their American classmates.
The problem has nothing to do with money spent on education, and everything to do with the approaches to education.
Stateside, many school districts have adopted a "if you try, you won't fail," approach. Unfortunately, there is little quantifiable about "trying" and it fails to impart the importance of academic rigor and attention to detail.
Some of my American peers have never had a red pen mark on anything they've turned in. They've moved through Elementary, Middle, and High School being told how wonderful their efforts are, and never having the results of their efforts examined.
The coddling of egos in American schools and harsh treatment of students in India and China are at polar opposites of the same spectrum. From fairly early on, their work is ruthlessly examined and the students are often subject to humiliation in front of their peers.

I think the humiliation goes a little far, but it wouldn't hurt if we started telling kids things like, "though your effort is admirable, the answer you submitted is incorrect." The schools may bruise a few egos this way, but we'd be able to quit wringing our hands over the performance of American students on the international scene.

Long story short: Money doesn't fix stupidity, correction does (spare the rod, spoil the child, anyone?)

Caption:
"Emblazoned on an American Flag, 'Obama Go Home,' is a heart-warming statement of acceptance of the American President. It is obvious that the Brazilians feel that President Obama is indeed the first post-American president, comfortably at home wherever he travels."