I got this from Kevin Drum:
So sure, maybe Britain and France should have more planes and more bombs. But really, there’s not a lot of point to arguing over nits like this. For them to project power effectively, even in nearby Libya, would require not just a bit of shoring up here and there, it would probably require a doubling or tripling of their defense budgets. Likewise, cutting the U.S. defense budget by bits and pieces wouldn’t really change our posture. If we want to project power all over the world, it’s going to continue costing us roughly what it costs us today. If we don’t want to, we could cut our defense budget by two-thirds in a stroke. There’s not a lot of room in between.