[Blueflag]

Being defensive means acting overseas. Acting overseas does NOT mean American is imperialistic. I disagree with the writer.

[webheart]

If the rest of the world need no longer fear America, there will be less reason for Americans to fear the rest of the world.

I think the problem is that the rest of the world doesn't fear us enough. The namby-pamby liberals have seen to that. And a new conservatism is a sheep's-clothing approach to turning conservatives into liberals. No thank you. Capitalism allows us to afford awesome weapons, competition allows us to create them. I believe in a kung-fu approach to defense. I won't mess with you, but if you mess with me, I will put a hurt on you that you will not forget. That should be the new conservatism.

[Jeremydmccann]

I couldn't agree more. First and foremost, defense should be local and state along with militias. I am sick and tired of nation building. Nation building will ultimately result in ruin. Finally a true conservative post on these boards. Good post!

[cinives]

Where's the commitment to border security ?

[Grut]

Let's define the threat as Islamic Fundamentalism. Now, given its nature, is there any way the jihadists can not attack America? Without respect to what we do, we are anathema to them for what we are and their doctrine tells them to destroy anathema.

The safety the New Conservatism seeks is the safety of the Ghetto.

[Soul Seeker]

New conservatism? Sounds like a return to Isolationism.

For the record I am a STRONG proponent of domestic security, hence my support for increased border enforcement, but I also STRONGLY support our offensive overseas. And THAT is the real "new conservatism".

It used to be one party was isolationist. Another Hawkish overseas with little attention inward. They took turns trading off. The GOP is blending into a mixture of both, at least among the members of its base. The politicians are slow to catch up domestically.

This is why the shouts of joy about zarqawi and the President's trip to Iraq, but increased fury over border security. The majority of this base wants both, not one.

[ProCivitas]

The best sort of foreign policy for a nation with our responsibilities is 'Reserved Unilateralism' or 'Defender' Policy. It's basically the 'Reagan Doctrine': 1. offer financial, material, and training assistance (as affordable and prudent)at reasonable prices to those being oppressed by bad/illegitimate regimes. 2. No First Strike; Guaranteed Overwhelming Second Strike.

If a legitimate ('constitutional representative democracy')ally is attacked we cheerfully decimate the attacker, and at very reasonable prices.

Beyond that we encourage/urge pro-democracy reform everywhere, in concert with other pro-democracy nations around the world. Ands we should probably encourage economic self-sufficiency/localism /Fair Trade around the world.

And if there is a another pro-democracy nation in a given region THEY should probably be handling whatever assistance is needed in defending an innocent neighbor from attack, or helping folks within a neighbor country under an illegitimate/thug regime resist oppression. It shouldn't be left to us all the time.

[spintreebob]

The premise that there will be a "next" conservativism is bogus. There are currently many strains of "conservativism". Individual "conservatives" and "conservative groups" jump from one type of conservativism to another depending more on convenience and opportunism than on core values or sincerely held beliefs.

Talking Heads Examples. There are certain conservative personalities that constantly appear in both the MSM and/or alternative media. What they say is mostly determined, not by what they believe, but by what will get them invited back for more appearances .... and hopefully paid appearances.

Ann Coulter says what she says because it gets attention, not because she believes it. That she may believe it is incidental to the attention getting value. Kathleen Parker and other 2d tier columnists complain. Well it's their own fault that they lack the cajones Ann has.

Buchanan, Novak, etal have made a career of this.

The same is true of politicians. Whether McCain or Tancredo, they are clearly more interested in the attention than in the usefulness of their ideas.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what his militias are supposed to do - it's not after all as though groups of jihadists are going to be attempting to occupy American or conduct guerrilla warfare, so there is no need to confront them in the sense of anything resembling conventional military actions. And as things stand any citizen who suspects that the people next door are mixing up a ton of ANFO in the garage can already pick up the phone and report it to local LE, and anyplace I'm aware of if the report is remotely plausible it will be taken very seriously.

So unless the author is proposing to set up something like the “neighborhood watch” groups in Castro's Cuba to snoop into each other's lives, I don't see much of an “intelligence” or “counter-terrorism” function for such militias either.

[Doug Loss]

The writer of this article evidently didn't know, but the concept of militia he talks about is alive and well. Look into State Guards. these are specifically not National Guards.

[rmlew]

Bill Lind is a smart man who understands the left, but refuses to understand Islam.
I suspect that he actually agrees with many of the popular Muslim compaints against America, and is therefor unwilling to look at the actual intentions of Islamists.

[robowombat]

A recent (16 June) book review by the same author:

Fourth-Generation Hell
New book gives Marines' views of Iraq
by William S. Lind
David Danelo's new book, Blood Stripes, comes on the market at exactly the right time. Just as Americans are trying to understand what might have happened at Haditha, where Marines may have killed as many as 15 Iraqi civilians, Danelo offers a thoughtful and insightful look into the Iraq war through the eyes of enlisted Marines. Until recently a Marine Corps infantry captain, Danelo served at Fallujah and obviously thought a great deal about what he saw there.

Unusually for a firsthand, "live reporter"-style author, Danelo picks up quickly on one of the most important issues in military theory, the contradiction between the military culture of order and the disorderliness of war. In Blood Stripes' first chapter, he writes,

"Non-commissioned officers … assume responsibility for imbuing the [Spartan] Way's sacred tenets of Order and Disorder into every young boot that crosses their path. Finding the balance within this dichotomy is tricky; both cultures exert a strong pull on Marines. The twins call like sirens from opposite banks of a river, singing for the Marine to listen to their virtues and ignore their vices.

"The culture of Order is the Marine in dress blues, spotless and pristine, medals perfectly measured, hair perfectly trimmed … these types of things comprise the culture that is Orderly, functional, prepared. and disciplined…

"However, … combat is filled with uncertainties, half-truths, bad information, changing directives from seemingly incompetent higher headquarters, and unexplained explosions. War is chaos, the ultimate form of Disorder."

Blood Stripes quickly immerses its reader in the chaos of infantry combat in Iraq, which, too often, is combat against an unseen enemy.

"Barely three weeks into their deployment, 3rd Platoon had already discovered several IEDs throughout Husaybah. Thus far, they had managed to find a couple of them using an unconventional, dangerous, and effective technique: kick them….

"[Sgt.] Soudan approached the plywood. He was standing about eight feet away.

"BOOM!!!

"Everything went black…

"Because the explosion was close to the base, the medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) happened quickly….

"The patrol stepped off. They were heading east, father away from base camp.

"Three minutes passed.

"BOOM!!!

"From the sound of the explosion, Soudan knew this latest IED had hit south, on the street 3rd Squad was patrolling….

"Link called Soudan. 'We're on our way.'

"Ten seconds passed.

"BOOM!!!

"Link's squad."


Experiences like these at the small unit level – by the end of the patrol, these Marines had been hit by five IEDs – provide some context in which those of us stateside can put events like the supposed massacre in Haditha. So does a story later in the book, where Marines engaged mujahideen in a prolonged and vicious fire-fight:

"Sergeant Soudan, Corporal Link, and Lieutenant Carroll were standing in the back of a humvee. After triaging the wounded from the dead, they had placed the bodies of Gibson, Valdez, and Smith in the humvee with VanLeuven. The Recon Marines ran up, muscling the body of the other dead Marine into the vehicle.

"Soudan, Link, and Carroll looked at their fallen comrade.

"Their faces went white.

"Captain Gannon.

"Lima Six was dead.

"They killed our company commander. Pain switched to fury and an immediate demand for vengeance. These

---

killed Captain Gannon."


Blood Stripes does not paint a picture of an easy war. As a Marine officer said to me many years ago, "If your unit is the one getting ambushed, it's not low-intensity war." The Marines whose stories Danelo ably chronicles, and the thousands of others like them, have gone through hell in Iraq, a Fourth Generation hell where enemies are nowhere and everywhere. No military, not even the Marine Corps, can endure that kind of hell endlessly without beginning to crack, at least around the edges. It should not surprise us that cracks are now appearing, three years into the war.

One personal note: Danelo rightly reports that Marines, inspired by Steven Pressfield's brilliant novel Gates of Fire, like to see themselves as Spartans, which in some ways they are. As an Athenian, I have to point out that the battle of Thermopylae, however deathless a tale of valor, was nonetheless a Persian victory in the end. In contrast, at Salamis, Persia was decisively defeated by Athenian deception and maneuver. Sometimes, it helps to think as well as fight.