The Sleepy Superpower Awakes (KRAUTHAMMER)

Time Magazine ^ | Aug 4, 2003 (Edition) | CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

[bedolido]

The Great Wall of China, roughly defining the northern contours of the Chinese empire, has stood in the same place for 2,200 years. The Great Wall of America ? the barrier of bases set up around the world to define the contours of the free world and hold back the Soviet empire ? is about to disappear after just 50 years.

Excerpt

[JeeperFreeper]

Great post and article. It's right on the money too.

[boris]

So when are we leaving South Korea, which seems to have adopted the attitude of the Filipinos, who dared us to leave, and were devastated when we did?

[EternalVigilance]

It's right on the money too.

Krauthammer most generally is.

[pabianice]

The Pentagon quietly announced this month that it is decommissioning all of its Reserve P-3 squadrons between now and 2007. This will be the first time since the 1930s that the US Navy has had no Reserve maritime patrol/bombing squadrons. The active Navy no longer spends much time practicing ASW. How we will counter the new, fourth generation diesel-electric subs being purchased by third world dictatorships all over the world remains unanswered.

[aculeus]

Bump.

[DoctorMichael]

Bump.

[Charliehorse]

There is a new development program for a replacement for the P3 aircraft. Boeing and Lockheed have contracts. The competion is due to be narrowed to 1 next year. 2012 is the IOC.

[bedolido]

So when are we leaving South Korea, which seems to have adopted the attitude of the Filipinos, who dared us to leave, and were devastated when we did?

I wish we would get our guys out of South Korea. I remember 15 or so years ago, when a north Korean soldier(s) attacked several of our soldiers with axes (or machetes, not sure) and we did nothing about it, but protest. I don't remember if the men recovered.

[Richard Kimball]

What's going on, here? An on-target op-ed, and it's in Time Magazine. Isn't that the sign of the fourth seal opening?

[theFIRMbss]

>For a country that is seen by so much of the world as a rogue nation, recklessly throwing its weight around, this is a lot of withdrawing

What worries me here
is that traditionally
"strategic withdrawal"

has always been gloss
for "desperate, frightened retreat."
To the world at large,

our "withdrawals" only
happened directly after
New York was attacked.

I don't like foreign
entanglements, but right now,
I'd rather we were

stepping up our troops
every where and stepping on
"friends" like the Saudis,

rather than doing
these polite withdrawals that much
of the world will cheer...

[rrrod]

bingo!!!

[r9etb]

Less plodding, less heavy, less static, less fixed. This is the new American strategy: Empire Lite. Its assembly, having been announced piecemeal, has largely been missed. Make no mistake, however. We are in the midst of a great redeployment that will not only redraw the map of the world but also mark the ground to which history itself has moved.

With this Krauthammer touches on our greatest strength and weakness: the ability to move huge amounts of stuff anywhere in the world, in a short period, and to fight a lightning war with it.

As long as we maintain our heavy transport capability, we're OK. And as long as we don't have to fight a big, long war, we can make do with rapid deployment techniques.

But static bases serve a real stragic purpose when the enemy is somebody big and strong. We can pull back now because we have no such enemies before us at the moment.

[1Old Pro]

I can't believe this is in TIME either. It must have slipped by the gatekeepers.

[Frank_Discussion]

"But static bases serve a real stragic purpose when the enemy is somebody big and strong. We can pull back now because we have no such enemies before us at the moment."

With the exception of China and the former Soviet Union. The former is merely a BIG brute militarily. The latter is still huge and fairly advanced, despite any apparent decay of the country itself. (I'm still concerned that Russia is playing possum.)

[msdrby]

ping

[Wonder Warthog]

Oh, PLEASE!! If we were evacuating troops and bringing them back to the states, then you might have a point. That is not the case.

In case you haven't noticed, those "withdrawn" troops will actually be repositioned CLOSER to potential trouble spots, and in the territories of allies we can actually depend on, rather than ones who have proven to be "fair-weather friends" (i.e. Germany, France, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia).

[r9etb]

(I'm still concerned that Russia is playing possum.)

I think it was Bismarck who said that Russia is never as strong, nor as weak, as she seems.

[msdrby]

There is a new development program for a replacement for the P3 aircraft. Boeing and Lockheed have contracts. The competion is due to be narrowed to 1 next year. 2012 is the IOC.

It is about time!

[Fiddlstix]

Bump