Defending the "empire".(Insider Report)

"Are there limits to American might?" asked Washington political analyst David Wood in the March 14 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Patriot News. "If so, are we reaching them?" Simultaneous major conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a severe toll on both manpower and machinery, leaving "the world's reigning economic and military superpower sending soldiers into battle in patched-up machines built with 1950s technology...." For example, Vietnam-era helicopters used in Iraq are de pendent on "mechanics half the helicopters' age to keep them flying."

Other troubling illustrations of military overreach abound. "The Iraq invasion caught the Pentagon so short of military cargo planes that it had to hire Russian aircraft to ferry tanks and other materiel," notes Wood. "The United States chartered Russian AN124 aircraft for 79 missions at a cost of $28.9 million in 2003, and is still chartering them."

The Navy--the backbone of power projection--is so squeezed for funds that "it's requiring pilots to fly simulators rather than real jets to practice carrier landings.... To keep aging ships and aircraft going costs $3 billion more every year, but the budget for new ships is down 13 percent."

The Army has worn out some 9,000 ...