Posted on 09/08/2007 4:25:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Nearly six years after 9/11, what's striking is how little has changed in America - and in its war effort. And yet if we can't change ourselves, what are the chances that we can change others?
When President George W. Bush declares that the Global War on Terror is "the concentrated work of generations," one has to wonder if he really means it. Certainly there's been little concentration on effective war mobilization, and other countries have noticed.
As we look back to study wars that the United States has won - and why - the most obvious metric is the size of the force that Uncle Sam put into the field. Today our military is not much larger than in 2001; even if one includes the entire workforce of the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the intelligence agencies, the total still amounts to less than 1 percent of the overall population. Yet in past wars, when the commander-in-chief was determined to win, he was willing to use any means necessary to build up strength, including a draft. That's how, for example, the Union mobilized a full 10 percent of its population into uniform during the Civil War.
Another metric is war financing. Spending for defense and war has more than doubled in the past six years, from $292 billion in fiscal 2001 to somewhere around $650 billion this year. That's a stupendous number, of course, but relative to the gross domestic product of nearly $14 trillion, it's not so much - less than 5 percent, in fact. By comparison, at the peak of World War II, war spending was consuming almost 40 percent of our economic output.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
It isn’t frustration so much as disgust. “Reality” is often the first refuge of the intimidated.
Leadership looks ahead and does what is necessary period. THAT is the definition if the term ‘Leadership’ The functional difficulty is getting everybody to go along with you into all of the terrifying unknowns. Exhibiting leadership is often a good way to be sidlined(see Churchill).
Putting EVERYONE between a rock and a hard place FOCUSES people's calculations.”This is what WE ARE and THAT is what our enemy is—make your choice.” When everyone is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that real death and destruction is coming they will move to the side that isn’t insane and bloodthirsty. No matter what people like to say about America that side is us in EVERYONES mind, period. (In WWII who did everyone want to get overrun by the Japs Germans or us?)The rest are the Militant, and if you don’t lure them into battle and wipe them out then you never have peace.All of this ‘anger, rage and retaliation’ that everyone likes to say would swamp us like a tidal wave is historically false. NOBODY ought to be angrier at us than the Germans and The Japanese AND all the poor bastards who got caught in the middle...but, what? Two generations of peace and prosperity. Dead people don't make trouble. Dead people can't misinterpret or miscalculate. This is all moot, really, because what our Culture has morphed to in the past 60 years prevents serious, unambiguous reaction to the most Evil threat mankind has ever faced.
As a result, he make false comparisons and draws false conclusions.
Sure, we could have a stronger national commitment to our GWOT. However, it does not demand the resources that we had in previous conflicts.
Michael Ledeen has a new book out outlining a strategy for addressing the situation in Iran. We have allies in that country which, if reinforced, could be used to topple the mullahs. We would not need to commit ground troops to that operation.
Yes I have read it and pray that they step up... and I know we are helping those ends presently.
LLS
... if we can’t change ourselves how can we change others?”
Pure Liberal thinking. The rest of his argumentsa are false comparisons.
This guy is spectacularly ignorant of history as well as military affairs.
He makes not even one good point.
My objection was about the “floundering” statement. I felt the floundering was at home because many at home are clueless about what is being done overseas and why. No more, no less.
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