The defense industrial base, the source of the equipment doing so well in the Gulf, continues to disintegrate. The following week, the Air Force confirmed that it will cut 130,000 more troops for budget reasons over the next five years. The nation has decided that 5 percent of GNP for defense is an unbearable burden. Some of those currently fighting in the Gulf will be forced out of service when and if they get home. Despite an excess of pontificating, much of it transparently hostile, by radio and television journalists who wouldn't know a glide bomb from a plow handle, the coverage has been completeenough forthe publictofigure out what is going on in the Gulf.
Opinion polls report that public confidence in the armed forces is at the highest level in years.
It remains to be seen how long this support will hold or how lasting the lessons will be. Forthe moment, though, a majority of Americans seem to understand that US troops and weapons are the best in the world and that the nation's need for strong, flexible military power has not yet come to an end.