Cutting 10% of the defense budget means saving about $70B in one fell swoop. Do you have any idea of how many other programs you'd have to eliminate entirely to get that kind of payback?

That's not to say that those other agencies should be immune from the knife - quite the contrary.

But the bottom line shows that we could have saved a trillion dollars by not going into Iraq - and who knows how Afghanistan would have gone if we weren't distracted by handing Iraq to the Iranians.

I can tell you from personal experience how SOME military agencies are anticipating what's coming. We're not filling open positions so that we can cut those depending on how much budget slashing we're asked to do (I work for the Air Force). That way we can cut the budget without people losing their jobs. It does make OUR jobs a little harder since we're having to do more with less and I see the stress that's putting on some of my co-workers. That being said, I rather like this job even though I could be making more if I wanted to sacrifice more.