The Peace Dividend is being Collected

Submitted by OutWest (United States), Oct 5, 2006 at 05:00

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, European countries slashed their defense budgets dramatically. There was no new development of equipment. For example, US troops are on their second generation of personal clothing equipment composed of polypropelene undgarments, Goretex pants and jackets, quickdry camoflague uniforms, Goretex boots. European troops are still using uniforms developed in the 1970s. Training budgets were also cut reducing time spent on weapons training and large scale exercises. So now the Euros are paying in lives for what they didn't want to spend in their defense budgets.

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