Posted on 12/18/2006 8:37:30 AM PST by MNJohnnie
On Sunday's Meet the Depressed Mr Newt stuck his whole head in it once again. He said we needed to send 500,000 troops to Iraq. Some questions for Mr Newt
Hey Newt, We sent 500,000 troops to Vietnam at the height of our involvement. How did that work out for us?
Curious, where are you going to get the 500,000 troops for Iraq? How long do they stay? What are they going to be doing?
Gee Newt, I guess I missed the part of your Resume that covered your military background. Which Staff Schools did YOU attend Newt?
Newt has become a perfect machine politician. He simply is picking up on what the DC Political-Media complex wants to hear and saying it. He and McCain are basically the singing the same one note DC Marching song. This way both of them can placate the Right by saying "See we are supporting the troops" and still suck up to the DC noise machine by being against how the Iraq mission is being run by the President.
It is short attention span theater time again. The American people simply lack the emotional or intellectually discipline to face anything that requires sustained effort. So as usually the political snake oil salesmen are crawling out of the slime with the usual simplistic answers and easy fixes. Only problem is what they are trying to selling on Iraq is pure poison. The DC "Conventional Wisdom" on Iraq is, as usual, neither conventional nor wisdom
What Newt SHOULD be doing is listening to what Gen Abizaid told the US Senate when he came back from Iraq to testify to the US Senate in mid November. Newt should become Gen Abizaid's standard bearer. Position himself as the guy covering our troops back from the idiots in DC who STILL have learned nothing since LBJ screwed up "Nam.
For example, Newt could be raising the point that when asked specifically about troop levels by Sen McCain, Gen Abizaid (who only happens to be the actual commander on the Ground in Iraq) all but told McCain he is an utter idiot on Iraq. Gen Abizaid made it clear he did NOT need more troops. Newt should cut himself out of the 2008 pack by being the sane serious voice on Iraq backing up the Military rather then merely howling after the Junk Media pack. This "More Troops" propaganda line is both stupid political strategy and stupid military strategy.
There are 4 reasons why too many troops can be as bad as too few troops in a Counter Insurgency Mission.
Retardation, Marginalization, Friction and Unrealistic expectations.
Too many troops retards the locals efforts to develop their own military/political structure to govern . It takes time and effort to train and blood troops. It especially takes time to train up the cadre to run a serious military. Good NCOs and Officers are not born, they are made. This was on of the major US mistakes in Vietnam. It was easier to just have the US troops take over doing everything then work through the leaning curve of the locals. Problem was once the US no longer had the political will to carry on the mission they simply dumped the problem on an under developed Vietnamese political/military structure.
There is this odd American arrogance that seem to think ONLY Americans can do anything. Everyone else is incompetent and or corrupt. Only problem is the American public, like most spoiled brats, lacks the emotional or mental discipline to stick with unpleasant difficult tasks. Too many US troops would simply retards all efforts to get the locals to the point they can contain or break the Insurgents for themselves then when the petulant American people simply decided they wanted us to go home, there would be no one to pick up the bat for us.
Too many troops also marginalizes efforts to develop a counter political structure strong enough to break or contain the Insurgency. It deligitmizes the locals efforts and makes them simply look as lackeys of the occupying power. Having the US run everything marginalizes the political credibility of the local political structure and spurs the Insurgents propaganda and recruitment efforts.
The more troops the more friction with the locals. Face it, having a bunch of hyper aggressive mostly young mostly male Americans suddenly descend on you town is NO ones idea of a good time. Even in our own military towns there is a lot of friction between the locals and the military. Think how much worse that would be in an alien culture with a living memory of being a colony in everything but name? A heavily armed society with an exaggerated sense of male empowerment? Basically you have two aggressive testosterone drive heavily armed dominate male groups in close proximity.
Unrealistic Expectations. Send a lot troop and the expectation is you can quickly and easily solve all problems and bring the boys home. No, not in a Counter Insurgency. Counter Insurgency is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It takes time and lots of back breaking effort.. Sending a whole lot of troops simply exhausted your fiscal and military resources faster.
There are other things such as the added friction both on the locals and the US forces of having heavily armed, under trained conventional troops performing close combat operations in civilian areas. The counter productive results of a "kill people and wreck stuff" Conventional mentality in dealing with a Asymmetrical threat etc etc etc.
Frankly the DC Noise machine should simply shut up and get out of the US Military's way. They studied Vietnam hard and actually have the right answers here. As in Vietnam, the problem here is the "Washington Knows Best" mentality of the entrenched political media power structure who simply will sacrifice anything and anyone to avoid having to admit GW Bush has been right about Iraq all along.
"Wouldn't a pet store be more appropo?"
Not for someone famous. Rocky will (as many famous athletes do) open a restaurant with photos of him back in the day that would be patronized by fans and old friends with whom he could commiserate with. THere's no money in pet stores anyway...not for a former boxing champ.
Great movie by the way. Sly did himself proud.
But Adrian was a pet store worker. He could sell boxing kangaroos, and fighting roosters.
You causing trouble already ;)
Hey BTS, long time no see!!!
"Hey, take her to da zoo."
Now, if you want to see a good film, go see Pursuit of Happyness. Great one.
DOn't throw turkeys at leprachons?
If you're gonna tell the story, tell it right!
Kermit Washington was on the floor, in the game, when the fight broke out. Tomjonovich (sp?) ran onto the court from the bench and as he approached Washington from behind, Washington turned and landed a roundhouse that knocked Tomjonovich to the floor where he cracked his head. Both the punch and hitting the floor did severe damage to Tomjonovich. Washington's excuse for this was that he had a 'ghetto mentality!' In the ghetto, when you hear someone running up behind you, you turn around and cold cock him!
http://www.nysun.com/article/45298
Confronting Conflict With Barenboim
by KATE TAYLOR | The New York Sun | December 18, 2006 Monday
The conductor conceived the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with his friend, the late scholar and advocate of a Palestinian state, Edward Said, and established it in 1999. (The name is taken from a cycle of poems by Goethe, inspired by his reading of Persian poetry.) This summer, during the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the orchestra voted to add a political statement to its program, stating that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the destinies of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples are inextricably linked.
"It is not an orchestra for peace," Mr. Barenboim said. "Peace requires much more than this. But it is a message of the orchestra that there is no military solution, and therefore we have to learn to know each other and find a solution that is just for everybody."
Mr. Barenboim went on to say that the parties must "achieve on the ground the conditions that we have in the orchestra, which are conditions of equality. When a Palestinian and an Israeli are playing the Brahms symphony on Tuesday night in Carnegie hall, in front of the Brahms Symphony, they are equals. But on the ground, in the West Bank, they are not equals."
He'd been callng around. Sounds like the killer of the young gal at the bar in NYC last year. He too, wanted to talk to the media. I recall her name being Imette ?
Old guy plays good. Never had a real team around him.
Juan Marichall did not pick up Roseboro's bat, Rush, as you just said.
Roseboro was catching at the time Marichal hit him!.
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http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/M/Marichal_Juan.stm
On August 22, 1965, Marichal faced Sandy Koufax at Candlestick Park in the heat of a tight pennant race. The Giants and Dodgers had come close to a brawl two days earlier over catcher's interference calls. Los Angeles's Maury Wills had allegedly tipped Tom Haller's mitt with his bat on purpose, and Marichal's best friend, Matty Alou, retaliated by tipping John Roseboro's face mask. Roseboro nearly beaned Alou with his return throw to the mound. In the August 22 game, Marichal had flattened Wills and Ron Fairly with pitches when Roseboro purportedly asked Koufax to hit Marichal. When Koufax refused, Roseboro's return throw came close to Marichal's head. Name-calling ensued, until Roseboro suddenly ripped off his mask and stood up. Marichal rapped the catcher on the head with his bat.
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Rush again is just faking it........ as usual!
Santa's slay?
Never heard of it. I don't know if you're jesting or not...you'll have to say.
The Eagles will crush Dallas. Play the Rocky Song!
I watched this last night. This is how some on the left think. Very scary.
Hitler and Stalin: Roots of Evil
An examination of the minds of two of the 20th century's most brutal dictators and mass murderers--Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Based on recent psychological and medical studies, the program explores the personalities of these ruthless leaders, who were directly responsible for millions of deaths--their paranoia, suspiciousness, cold-bloodedness, sadism, and lack of human feeling. Includes interviews with Martin Bormann's son and Hitler's butler. cc
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