Look what Bush has done to our military

[Eloriel]

''Rebuild or Retreat: America's Strategic Dilemma''
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=179&language_id=1

T he most severe consequence of America's failed adventure in Iraq is its exposure of American military limitations and vulnerabilities.

The failures of the intervention are manifold. Some of them can be chalked up to poor planning and excessive optimism -- both fueled by utopian neo-conservative ideology -- but others have revealed structural weaknesses.

Just to name a few of the latter: reliance on private contractors to perform key missions at inflated prices, flawed intelligence, overuse of reserve troops, redeployment of troops from South Korea and extensions of the duration of combat duty. All of the foregoing point to the same root problem: the United States military is underforced for any major project of nation building in absolute numbers and, more importantly, in the distribution of specialties.

The occupation has revealed that America lacks the capacity to neutralize insurgent movements, run prisons effectively, procure actionable intelligence and conduct successful public relations. Most importantly, it has proven unable to provide the basic function of government: personal security in the forms of public safety and basic services.

snip

It is most likely that either a Kerry or a Bush administration will try to restore a multilateral foreign and military policy in which the United States is the dominant partner, making the move to rebuild American military power to meet the demands of future nation building efforts the most probable choice of the security leadership. If so, the military will have to be expanded in size, and investment will have to be made in labor-intensive skilled specialties such as intelligence, policing and civil affairs. The problem is getting the personnel and paying for the expansion.

-- more --

[xray s]

1. I would make this the #1 issue in the "Red" states

Bush has destroyed the volunteer military. He is abusing the Reserves and National Guard. He overroad the advice of career military professionals to follow the ideological pipe dreams of a small group of neo-cons and defence industry vultures.

People are dying or being horribly injured because of Bush's incompetence.

Say this over and over and over until it cracks through the Rove/Limbaugh crust on their brains and they finally realize...Bush Must Go!

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

2. I wouldnt say this is Bushes fault.

Alot of these issues started in the Clinton, and even the first Bush admin.

The outsourcing of support functions was the military adopting a practice in from the corporate world, and was sort application of neoliberal "markets" ideology to the defense sector.

The reduction of a standing army and relying on reserves and guard was also going on a bit during the first Gulf War too. This permited the miltiary to ramp up troop strenghth "on the cheap" (not having to a permanent payroll or large BAG/VHA payments for military members and dependents).

So, alot of what we saw in defense savings during the post cold war era resulted in an undersized military.

This is really a big deal, whats being learned in Iraq, but I wouldnt politicize it too much into a Democratic/Republcan thing.

[RBHam]

3. It's an American Foreign Policy thing...

And the Corp/Military/Industrial Complex pulls the strings of BOTH parties.

Like Kerry said, "There's not really an opposition Party anymore..."

[Curious Dave]

4. Clinton Did Slightly Downsize

the military. It seemed like a safe thing to do at the time. How could he have guessed his successor would be a madman who would indiscriminately start wars all over the planet?

[TheDebbieDee]

5. The downsizing of the military started with Bush I..............

with Cheney as his Sec of Defense.

[Eloriel]

6. Well, this thread really turned to shit

A single kick, just in case anyone might actually read the article and have a relevent comment.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. Read the article and it's highly relevant...

Paraphrasing here...this "war" has now revealed to the world the following: (saw the direct quote in your snips after I posted)

U.S. isn't able to effectively "neutralize" insurgent movements
We can't run prisons
Our intelligence gathering is suspect
We're ineffective at public relations
And we can't provide the foundations to citizens of a "nation building" country...personal safety and basic services

Now the world knows, that we don't offer any real threat to them militarily, especially if we can't even have success against the weakest country in the "axis of evil". There is now an international reassessment of the United States power, and this will be a problem we'll be dealing with for years to come.
Great article, happy to kick it...MKJ

on edit, corrected grammer and acknowlegement of redundency. Still a great article.





:kick:

[Cleita]

8. I said the same thing to my husband this morning that

this fiasco of an invasion has exposed the once greatest military machine in the world as being closer to what we were prior to WWI. I am going to say it, in spite of the fact that I will be flamed, we have to bring back a form of the draft. I think every young American should serve in the military for year or two, but I wouldn't want this to happen until we have a fail safe method of declaring war, which means I think we have to take this power away from the Executive Office to avoid what has happened here. I definitely don't feel we should institute the draft again until there is a balance of power restored to Congress as well.

There seems to be a fear that requiring Congress to declare war would delay any immediate action if we were being invaded. I don't think that would happen. When we were attacked on 9-11, there was no delay in deploying to Afghanistan. We saw it as a just war, but... Irag?

We certainly have been exposed as vulnerable. All the money for SDI's and other military spending apparently hasn't gone to the military we need, but into the corporate and privitization schemes of the right wing, while our miltary became a third world nation fighting force. We shouldn't feel secure at all.