Build your own defense budget!

The Center for American Progress has a great little interactive toy on their web site. It allows acquisition nerds like me to build their own defense budget. It's not extremely detailed, but I was surprised -- and a little disturbed -- by how much fun I had with it. So go check it out.

After you make your budget choices, it summarizes what kind of military you've just decided to buy (regardless of industrial base havoc I'm sure my own choices produced). Here's mine:

"Your budget choices are consistent with a heavily irregular force. Your military will be able to respond to a wide variety of non-conventional threats such as piracy, terrorism, insurgency and humanitarian disaster. However, it will have a very limited ability to respond to conventional military contingencies should they arise."

Hmm ... not sure that's what I intended! Guess that's why I'm not in charge of making acquisition decisions.