Bob's Links and Rants

Welcome to my rants page! You can contact me by e-mail: bob@goodsells.net. Blog roll. Site feed.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

You and what army?

From Juan Cole:
The LA Times makes it more clear than the NYT that the army being tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan has made it impossible for the Bush administration to get up any more wars, against, say, Iran or Syria. Given the perfect mess they have made of Iraq (and Afghanistan has its problems, too), I'd say it is better for everyone that Bush not have an army to dispose of. And maybe his successor will be less of a warmongerer.
Warmongerer?

Anyway, I think he's found about the only positive there is in being stuck in a quagmire--you're pretty much incapable of getting stuck in another at the same time.

The LA Times story, BTW, is based on an analysis presented by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back new acts of aggression, launch a pre-emptive strike or prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in a classified analysis presented to Congress today.

In a sober assessment of the Pentagon's ability to deal with global threats, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers concluded that the American military is at greater risk this year than last year of being unable to properly execute the missions for which it must prepare around the globe.
"It must prepare." What arrogance. The US military has almost never been used defensively--it is usually off "defending" corporate interests by bombing the crap out of people. The rare chances it has had to actually defend this country it has come up short--Pearl Harbor, 9/11. The only real threats the US faces today are because of its "around the globe" mentality. If we would leave other countries and people in peace, they would leave us in peace. It works for Canada, it works for Sweden--they can afford universal health care because they're not paying for quagmires.