Civilized world's biggest danger ever: itself (Mort Kondracke)

Los Angeles Newspaper Group ^ | 08/08/06

[edcoil]

Dear Mort,

My generation would like to thank you and yours for your complete failure to turn over to us a better world.

This is you and your generations problem. Fix it before you go.

[My2Cents]

Foreign enemies will not defeat us; domestic enemies will.

[CedarDave]

Words rarely heard from a liberal (though Mort sometimes is much more moderate and clear headed than the typical dim Dem).

[jeremiah]

Ummmmmmmm, have lots of children, teach them to respect authority, and return THIS country to Constitutionaly limits. If enough people get behind that idea, the future is bright.

[Mark-in-Kentucky]

No matter how wrongheaded Mort's views on domestic policies are, he certainly seems to have his head screwed on straight when it comes to foreign affairs.

[Mark Felton]

The greater the threat to our existence the more children we must have.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Dear Mort, As much as I love children, it is precisely because I love children, that I would never have encouraged an idiot producer from National Public Radio who believed we were "on the eve of destruction" (probably because she believed Ronaldus Wilsonius Maximus Reaganus was going to get us into a nuclear war) to have children. Children deserve both a sane mother and a sane father. It sounds to me as if that producer's children would have been deprived of their birthright. Michael T. Archangel

[Edgerunner]

The greatest impediment to world peace is the UN...

[Concho]

The absolute worst enemy of the American people is the Internal Revenu Service. They will take everything of value away from you and push you into slavery before any other outside influence affects you.

[kidd]

Perhaps.

However in this article, in this same article, he on one hand recognizes the threat that Islamic nations present to civilization, and on the other he feigns a lack of understanding of why we are in Iraq.

[Concho]

Revenu=Revenue

[BadAndy]

Michael Savage is a whackjob he is right on one count; Only a more savage America can survive.

[Rummyfan]

TWENTY years ago, during the Reagan administration, I encountered a young producer at National Public Radio who said she and her husband had decided not to have children because they were convinced they'd die in a nuclear war.

I dunno .... maybe people that stupid shouldn't have children.....

[presidio9]

Michael Savage is our Mark Morford.

[MikeA]

It's true, Iraq is a complicated case. It's not certain that Saddam Hussein's regime was part of the war on terrorism when the United States invaded in 2003. He certainly was no Islamic fundamentalist, and his ties to Al Qaeda were tenuous, at best.

Why is it a liberal can never write an otherwise intelligent piece without showing their ignorance on certain things? Mort, just make what is a very compelling an important point without having to pay homage to left wing articles of faith like the lie that Saddam had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, or that he had WMD. Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda were far from "tenuous." They were highly developed and at the very least establish a strong case that Saddam and AL Qaeda were plotting together against the US and likely regarding 9-11. Saddam's own intelligence files as shown by Freeper JVeritas are brimming with evidence Saddam and Al Qaeda worked together. Here's more: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335971/posts

[DTogo]

Mort speaks the truth. PC warfare, TROP speeches from the White House, and Liberal "enemies within" will be the reasons many more of us will die before we win.

[Graymatter]

Oil embargo? And what happens to any nation that doesn't go along with that? Aside from them getting cheaper petroleum.

[MNJohnnie]

The United State has the power to exterminate any collection of potential foes in hours or days. They are not stupid. They will not face us in a straight up military confrontation. They will rely on our domestic traitors in the Democrat Party and the Junk News Media to do their work for them.

Hypothetical Military Match Up. USA vrs the China/Iran/Syrian Axis. I will even add China as a potential Axis member.

Even if you multiply the CIA facts by a factor of the 5 on the absurd notion that they are successfully "hiding" their real military from us, the Iran/Syria Axis comes NO where near the US ALONE in Military power.

I am not even going to bother putting Israel, Japan, South Korea, India and the NATO countries on our side. The scale all ready tips so heavily to the US there is no reason to pile on.

This is JUST a comparison between the US and the Iran/Syrian Axis. For fun I will include Egypt and the Saudis as part of the Iran/Syrian Axis to show how absurd the "It's World War Three" babbling is.

http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/united_states/united_states_military.html

USA.

Military branches: Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard; note - Coast Guard administered in peacetime by the Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime reports to the Department of the Navy

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age; 17 years of age with written parental consent (2006)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 67,742,879 females age 18-49: 67,070,144 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 54,609,050 females age 18-49: 54,696,706 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 2,143,873 females age 18-49: 2,036,201 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $518.1 billion (FY04 est.) (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 4.06% (FY03 est.) (2005 est.)

***Snip***

http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/iran/iran_military.html

Iran.

Iran Military - 2006

Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artesh): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force (includes Air Defense); Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami, IRGC): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force, Qods Force (special operations), and Basij Force (Popular Mobilization Army); Law Enforcement Forces (2004)

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age for volunteers; soldiers as young as 9 were recruited extensively during the Iran-Iraq War; conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 18,319,545 females age 18-49: 17,541,037 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 15,665,725 females age 18-49: 15,005,597 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 862,056 females age 18-49: 808,044 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $4.3 billion (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 3.3% (2003 est.)

****Snip*****

http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/syria/syria_military.html

Syria

Military branches: Syrian Armed Forces: Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air and Air Defense Force (includes Air Defense Command) (2005)

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - 30 months (18 months in the Syrian Arab Navy); women are not conscripted but may volunteer to serve (2004)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 4,356,413 females age 18-49: 4,123,339 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 3,453,888 females age 18-49: 3,421,558 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 225,113 females age 18-49: 211,829 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $858 million (FY00 est.); note - based on official budget data that may understate actual spending

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 5.9% (FY00)

***Snip***** http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/egypt/egypt_military.html

Egypt

Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Command

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for conscript military service; three-year service obligation (2001)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 18,347,560 females age 18-49: 17,683,904 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 15,540,234 females age 18-49: 14,939,378 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 802,920 females age 18-49: 764,176 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $2.44 billion (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 3.4% (2004)

******Snip****

http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/saudi_arabia/saudi_arabia_military.html

Saudi Arabia

Military branches: Land Forces (Army), Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Force, National Guard, Ministry of Interior Forces (paramilitary)

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2004)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 7,648,999 females age 18-49: 5,417,922 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 6,592,709 females age 18-49: 4,659,347 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 247,334 females age 18-49: 234,500 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $18 billion (2002)

****Snip******

href="http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/China/China_military.html">http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/China/China_military.html

China

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 10% (2002)

Military branches:

People's Liberation Army (PLA): Ground Forces, Navy (includes marines and naval aviation), Air Force (includes Airborne Forces), and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force); People's Armed Police (PAP); Reserve and Militia Forces (2006)

Military service age and obligation: 18-22 years of age for compulsory military service, with 24-month service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service (all officers are volunteers); 17 years of age for women who meet requirements for specific military jobs (2004)

Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49: 342,956,265 females age 18-49: 324,701,244 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49: 281,240,272 females age 18-49: 269,025,517 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually: males age 18-49: 13,186,433 females age 18-49: 12,298,149 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $81.48 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 4.3% (2005 est.)

[MikeA]

There is a middle ground, if it can be pulled off: sanctions so stiff, such as a gasoline embargo that threatens to shut down the Iranian economy, that Iran reverses its nuclear course. The only way for Bush to sustain that course is with a warning to the civilized world: "I will not leave office with Iran on its way to nuclear weapons. It's tough sanctions or ..."

This would be nice, but the people we'd need to level such and sustain such sanctions, France, Russia and China, will oppose us in the Security Council. They've made clear they won't go along with sanctions. So what then? I think such sanctions as Mort mentions may work, but we'll never be able to get Iran's useful idiots to go along. I hope when that happens, liberals will refrain from their usual blaming of Bush for that.