DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA - The delusions of global hegemony, Part 1...

[bridgit]

'I wait for him on a quiet, tree and wisteria-lined street of red-brick buildings. Students, some in short-sleeves on this still crisp spring morning, stream by. I'm seated on cold, stone steps next to a sign announcing the Boston University Department of International Relations.

He turns the corner and advances, wearing a blue blazer, blue shirt and tie, and khaki slacks and carrying a computer in a black bag. He's white haired, has a nicely weathered face, and the squared shoulders and upright bearing of a man, born in Normal, Illinois, who attended West Point, fought in the Vietnam War, and then had a 20-year military career that ended in 1992.'

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE25Aa01.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. If only Bush was half as smart as this guy...If only a tiny fraction...

[bridgit]

2. this bush guy is a 'walk through, phone it in, nice shot sir' elitist...

no doubt, he don't need to get it cause his daddy told him so

[lyonn]

3. If only bush would listen to guys like this!

It is nice to know there are repubs out there that see the damage that is being done and speak out about it. Word gets around, especially colleges.

[Jim__]

4. I'd really like to hear Bacevitch's opinion on what might have happened

if we had invadd Iraq with 300,000 troops. My understanding is that this was the military's plan for an invasion of Iraq and rumsfeld said no. I wonder because Basevich sees implications about America's actual military capability in what happened in Iraq. I've been thinking that with the larger force we may have been able to suppress the insurgency (actually prevented it from happening). I believe we'd stillhave a disaster in Iraq because we had no solution to the political problems. But Bacevitch implies that the meaning of our failure in Iraq is much broader than that.

[bridgit]

5. i think that our failure in iraq is clearly far broader than meets...

the eye, and that is quite broad enough. for the blood & money that has been expended; we could have, if indeed it were an issue, sent two cruise missiles a day in & onto some ministry or other for the span of what has become a colossal human & military tragedy.

my sense is that our military capability is nothing short of fearsome. and our soldiers are by & large highly skilled. but my further sense is that they long for a noble battle-plan. rumsfeld, in spite of his official header i.e. 'the right honorable yada-yada', has been found wanting in the ultimate nobility category. he is somewhat less.

and his 'plan' even less so :thumbsdown: unless of course your portfolio is stuffed with defense, no-bid, inside crony stocks

hubris & hegemony down!!