Free Republic

Armies are like newspapers. They have become 21st century anachronisms. To survive, they must adapt. For the press, that means accommodating the demands of the Internet. For the United States Army, it means adjusting to a changing security environment. Nostalgia about a hallowed past is a luxury that neither armies nor newspapers can afford to indulge. So the hand-wringing triggered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s plan to reduce the Army’s size, while predictable, is beside the point. Yes, those cuts would leave the U.S. with its fewest active-duty soldiers since the eve of World War II. So what? This isn’t...

Prominent Obama endorser critcizes "Israel Lobby" http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/08/prominent_obama_endorser_critc.html   Ed Lasky Andrew Bacevich's writes a somewhat disturbing op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times . He asserts that the next President-whoever he may be-will be probably disappoint his followers because his power to bring change is constricted by various interest groups. Bacevich, in particular, writes that the "the Israel lobby will oppose attempts to chart a new course in the Middle East". Aside from the fact that American supporters of Israel-which include millions of Christians-have long sought peace in the region, his comments regarding the "Israel lobby" might cause some qualms-since he was one...

After 23 years in the Army, the West Point graduate retired as a colonel and has been teaching international relations and history at Boston University. Bacevich has published several acclaimed books, including this one, THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM. His latest, published this week, is THE LIMITS OF POWER: THE END OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM. He's with me now. Welcome to the JOURNAL. ANDREW BACEVICH: Thank you very much for having me. BILL MOYERS: It's been a long time since I've read a book in which I highlighted practically every third sentence. So, it took me a while to read, what is...

A renowned professor and prominent critic of the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq has now lost his son to the war. Lt. Andrew Bacevich, Jr. was killed by a suicide bomber on Sunday. A local Boston station reports that the younger Bacevich's captain said in an e-mail to the family that he was killed by a suicide bomber in a white sedan his unit had stopped on a main highway south of Samarra.The DoD's official release of the incident reported on Monday that, "1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, of Walpole, Mass., died May 13 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds...

Boston University professor Andrew J. Bacevich has been a persistent, vocal critic of the Iraq war, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure. This week, the retired Army lieutenant colonel received the grim news that his son had been killed on patrol there. First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich , 27, of Walpole, died Sunday in Balad of wounds he suffered after a bomb explosion, the military said yesterday. The soldier, who graduated from BU in 2003 with a degree in communications, is the 56th service member from Massachusetts to be killed in Iraq. His father, a veteran of the Vietnam and...

No one is more bewildered and, frankly, bummed by all of the attention suddenly being paid to Noam Chomsky than Andrew Bacevich. "I've written a few books critical of US foreign policy, too," said Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. "Why couldn't Hugo Chavez hold up one of my books?" Why, indeed. Thanks to the Venezuelan president's surprise endorsement of "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance” during a vitriolic address at the United Nations, the paperback edition of Chomsky's 2003 book has catapulted to No.1 on Amazon.com's list of best-sellers, ahead of such...

In Iraq, the world’s only superpower finds itself mired in a conflict that it cannot win. History’s mightiest military has been unable to defeat an enemy force of perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 insurgents equipped with post-World War II vintage assault rifles and anti-tank weapons. In Gaza and southern Lebanon, the Middle East’s mightiest military also finds itself locked in combat with adversaries that it cannot defeat. Despite weeks of bitter fighting, the IDF’s Merkava tanks, F-16 fighter-bombers, and missile-launching unmanned aerial vehicles failed to suppress, much less eliminate, the armed resistance of Hamas and Hezbollah. What are we to make...