[widebody911]

Colin: your answer is perfectly valid, and in light of the (IMHO) obvious-ness of such, I responded in a humorous manner. Well, that and I'm a natural born smartass.

OTOH, I don't think there's a need to continually stockpile new weapons - that's plain pork, pure and simple.

I have an idea for a 'conflict test' for US intervention abroad:

Are we pissed at them enough that we could justify microwaving them? If so, nuke 'em; if not, leave 'em be.

Might seem overly simplistic, but I can't help but wonder what $1B/week could do to our domestic infrastructure.