Solution to US defense budget reduction

     US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, is mightily concerned about the impact of budget cutting on military spending.  He warned last week:  "It's a ship without sailors. It's a brigade without bullets. It's an air wing without enough trained pilots..." A partial transcript of an interview with Secretary Panetta and radio broadcast is available at NPR.
     Seems to me that one solution might be to sell some of the Pentagon's ships and planes and and to reduce the number of brigades.  Certainly we must still have a few allies in NATO or elsewhere around the globe who might be interested in purchasing some of our military hardware, particularly if they knew the US would no longer be the world's policeman.  Wouldn't it be nice to attack our deficit by turning some of our long-term ongoing expenses into revenues?  And if perchance we can't sell all of that military gear to other nations, we could melt it down and turn it into plowshares, for people to use on their Victory Gardens.  Idealistic? I certainly do hope so!
     While I'm being idealistic, it would be great to see a change in focus for The School of Americas aka The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.  It currently serves as a US Army training school that teaches soldiers and military personnel from Latin American countries in subjects like counter-insurgency, military intelligence and counter-narcotics operations.  Wouldn't it be beautiful to see their mission redirected to peaceful conflict resolution through negotiation? Members of the US Congress should all be required to attend such a course.