Closing military bases

I read in today's newspaper that the Pentagon is planning to close military bases to solve their budget crunch. Then in the same section there are requests to double or even triple the budget to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excuse me? Will someone please explain to me how laying off the armed forces and yet send other armed forces to war occurs at the same time? This makes no sense to me.

In my opinion, I don't think Bush is winning the War on Terror, just delaying peace. War on conflicting ideas of the perfect world just doesn't get won with destroying a country's, make that 2 countries', infrastructures and then expecting the conquered to love the conquerors. It doesn't work that way. I do not believe Bush or Rice have any intention of ever leaving Iraq or Afghanistan. I wonder if Powell did. How does one win a war against terrorists? I don't know. In the history books, the Vikings terrorized the coasts of Europe, finding the New World before Columbus, and even sacked Rome. And then there were the pirates who terrorized the seas and romanticized in songs and novels, need I say Pirates of the Caribbean from Disney. History does not provide an answer to that question.

The whole War on Terror reminds me of sitting through visitation day of Vietnam Vets and Vietnam Protesters in my History of Vietnam War class. One student asked a vet how long it took him to figure out we would not win this war. He said 2 days. The professor explained it took over 10 years for Washington and the Pentagon to figure that one out. Another student asked the protester if he thought that protesting the Vietnam War in actuality made it longer. The man said in hindsight, maybe the protests did prolonged the war, but at the time he did what he felt was right. I wonder what the future history books will say about this war on terror. Post later. Bye!