Posted on 05/28/2002 9:55:34 PM PDT by Brian_Baldwin
LOL, better call the White House!
Even if it were true, I don't think GWB would give the 2004 re-election a moments thought as he made the decision to attack or not.
Have a good evening.
Must be alec's brother
I sure hope so. We've had more than enough tail wagging the dog to last us the rest of the century.
Our little fight in Afganistan was the last we had left.
Thanks to Clinton and eight years of social programs and money transfers away from the military and defense. Our ships are way out of maintenance. Our aircraft are long undermaintenanced. Our Army is poorly provisioned. Our sheer numbers of trained personel are very low. We need 150 to 200 thousand well trained and well supplied troops to take out Iraq by ourselves.
Bush needs to do two things.
One - Get a House and Senate majority in his party. Critical for him and the nation. Until then he is giving nothing to the Dimocrats and he is taking everything away from them in the process.
Two - Rebuild our military to fight a full blown war on at least two fronts simultaneously. He has to do this assuming he will have little to no help from our allies in taking out Iraq. Our only viable option in war today is to go right to nuclear weapons. Not necessary with a little time and a lot of money.
Nobody seems to see this, especially the radio talk show people. Everyone wants him to stand up and thump his chest. Why put your enemy on notice that you are going to make war on him? This ain't the movies. If you believe the posturing, the nonsense with our fliping and floping on Israel then Bush is doing a good job. Powell is a perfect foil. Bush the second is one sneaky fellow.
Bush the second will avenge his fathers mistake. Bush the second is going to put us into a war that will require the draft and every spare dime we can print. But that war won't begin for another year.
You read it here first.
"Street-fighters of the right?" Kewl! Where, pray, was your last street-fight? Missed it on Fox I guess.
Have a seat, BigGuy, you've scared GW enough for one night.
They haven't made it public if it's there?
And as you said the progression fo this sad state of affairs with the military could lead to the draft. Although IMHO what will happen is that some nation shall decide to challenge US interests sometime in the future, and the US military shall not be ready to handle it. And since the use of nukes would be hard to justify, and conventional means would be stretched and worn thin due to years of cutbacks and sitting on hands, then a real problem would arrise.
A good example is if China decided to attack Taiwan. And this is a bigger issue than any war with Iraq.
What would happen then?
Based on what facts are you making your judement?
They better be good because I will blow them out of the water once you post them if they're not!
Now look at Pakistan. This is an Islamic nation with a wide base of religious fanatics who think the country should be an Islamic theocracy. The leadership is also under constant threat of revolt or even a coup de tat. And they have a nuclear arsenal!
However standard US policy is that it is an ally because they are helping us capture elements of al Queada and the Taliban. Which is strange because until late last year they were one of only two nations that surported the Taliban, and if you believe the British Foreign Secretary they are one of the paramount surporters of global terrorism.
However we stick by them, deluding ourselves that they are our allies. And although Musharaff may have no beef with the US, you can be certain that most of his cabinet, and a lot of the Pakistani people view the US as a force of moral and spiritual decay. And if the current state of Pakistani nuclear production continues, who is to say they will not leak nuke tech to their follow Islamic nations, just as China leaked nuke tech to them (since Pakistan could not compete with the indigenous Indian nuke program).
Then the US will go there 5 years from now to remove some crazy Pakistani president who took after Musharaff, and then the US will be facing a state with nukes that is willing to use them. Do not for one moment think that Pakistan fears retaliation (like the way the US and the Soviets respected the Mutually Assured Destruction concept). Even if they know they will be destroyed they will still use their nukes. Think of it as a suicde bombing, but instead of plastique they are using fussion weapons!
And even with the risk of this people are fighting for the US to go inside Iraq. Sheer myopia if you ask me.
And since you asked for examples (so you could blow me out of the water) how about the fact that in just the Afghan operations there was a sever crisis when it came to the numbers of JDAM munitions after a month! (DOD)
Or what about the low numbers of cruise missile, botht he Tomahawk and the air launched B-52 version crusie missile? And even when Clinton did that tactical strike against al Queda in 1998 aftre the Embassy bombings there were calls for replenishing the supplies of the Tomahawks.
Now, if relatively limited operations in Afghanistan can drain the military resources so, what about a drawn out campaign against red China? Bigger landmass plus better defenses than Afghanistan (which only had 1980s stingers while the Chinese have Chzech radar that can track the F-117A). It is just a simple matter of logical progression. The US is just not ready for such a campaign, probably not even for a dug in Iraqi defense. And although we would probaly win the death toll would be prohibitive (especially when you consider most civilians would not stand by and see their sons and daughters killed. ) Think 'nam.
However it seem ill apt to deal with assymetrical warfare from states that have a weak overall military, but are in possession of some strategic peices of high tech equipment. For example China purchasing sunburn missiles from Russia, and those were designed for only one thing. Being highly manoeuvrable, going in a riple effect (a salvo attacking at different altitudes and angles to beat ship defenses, with some missiles skimming the surface, some going on a high trajectory, and others zig zagging...and all hit at the same time), and they were meant for one thing.....US aircraft carriers.
There are many assymetrical threats, and the US is still adapting to them. And due to years of atrohy it is just not ready. Yet.
But definitely not ready.
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