[Hoot Gibson]

Vundy, I think that the answer is for this president or the next one to declare a new doctrine that would end the "you broke it, you fix it" principle. It would be cheaper and just as effective, IMO, if we used military force to destroy governments and terrorist training camps and let the countries who sponsor or host terrorists worry about how to rebuild their infrastructure and governments. Knowing that your city may be left in ruins and that you may have to pay to have it rebuilt and deal with a state of anarchy and economic collapse would serve as a pretty good deterrents against state sponsored terror.

As for your career, I don't know what your rank is, but have you considered pursuing a career in the military as a warrant officer? Warrant officers now run the department in which I work and they seem to live pretty good lives, they receive plenty of free training, and are in strong demand in the private sector when they retire.

Life in the military from my perspective seems much different than what I had expected - but most of the military people where I work are senior NCOs, WOs, and commissioned officers (in my building, but not in my department-a WO5 now runs my department and my Project Officer is a WO2 but a LT Colonel formerly headed the department).

One thing that I did not expect is that I have not yet witnessed a salute at work and I have met many NCOs and commissioned officers, including several generals. A BG is visiting our office next week, to personally thank us (and possibly to award challenge coins) for our team's efforts on our current project.

I love my job but it has made me regret not at least considering a military career earlier in my life.