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LTC Stephen F., probably for the same reason we didn't act against Hitler before he got strong enough to almost take over the world. ISIS is just Hitler, act 2, and the world is acting like Neville Chamberlain, act 2.

Will we never learn?

CPT Jack Durish, the longer we wait the more expensive it will be in both blood and treasure. We have the resources if we choose to use them in this way; rebuilding after a WMD attack against our major cities will not be cheap either.

Capt Seid Waddell - Please tell me who has the piggy bank and where are they hiding it. We have spent all the money there is and squandered all our credit, our children's credit, their children's credit... The cupboard is bare.

CPT Jack Durish, the same piggy bank we used after Pearl Harbor. Nothing we do is more important than stomping out this menace while it is still possible.

Capt Seid Waddell - That was then, this is now. We don't have anything like the industrial base that we had in those days. Interestingly, I had a friend (now dead) who worked on the Space Shuttle. A couple years before the last shuttle flight, we were talking and he told me that we couldn't build another shuttle. We didn't have the skilled workers anymore. Like him, those who built the shuttles were retired and no one had replaced them because there was no longer need for their skills. As we've off shored manufacturing, we no longer have the workers to man production lines that could support the manufacture of weapons and munitions needed for a great effort. Look at the carriers tied up at docks awaiting repairs we can't afford. Look at the downsizing of our armed forces. We've been paying for the defense of the world for several decades. But, that isn't what drained the treasury. No, it's the frills we've been paying for. Entitlements, etc. Sorry, the cupboard is bare