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Home Front: WoT
Tragedy of the American military
2014-12-29
By James Fallows
I'd love to read reactions from any of the better-informed Rantburg regulars who might be willing to slog through this analysis.
The American people and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which reckless spending and strategic folly combine to lure our nation into endless wars it can’t win.
Posted by:ryuge

#11  Begging the question.

The issue is not just international, military, it is also domestic, police.

The regime is trying to tear down the entire infrastructure to the point of chaos.

1,000 teens shut down a mall this weekend involved in a massive brawl, not one arrest. The police are clearly to the point of not even caring to carry out law enforcement anymore.

The Obama regime is the number one threat to national security in every way.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-12-29 22:14  

#10  Begging the question.
Posted by: newc   2014-12-29 21:31  

#9  In other words, the number one threat to national security is the Obama regime. They need to be shut down.

The sooner the better.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-12-29 21:09  

#8  Obama pulled out of Iraq and it is now chaos.

Afghanistan is soon to be chaos.

Benghazi Obama let our people die.

The air show in Kurdistan is just to keep things from spinning out of control too quirk.

Obama regime still needs more allies, Castro and an embassy in Tehran with the Mad Mullahs on the side of the Obama regime's side is another positive for the Obama regime.

With socialist latin Americans pouring through the Southern border, and the military being filled with yes people and soon foreigners, America as we knew it will be toast in two years.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-12-29 20:51  

#7  It seems to me he wants to find reasons why military defeat has no reasons connected with the last six years of strategic decisionmaking.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2014-12-29 19:06  

#6  Well said Bad.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-12-29 17:04  

#5  The writer of the article is himself a chickenhawk by the very same criteria he has applied to others. The chickenhawk, as you may recall was the leftist blood libel set against Bush supporters who wants to respond to terrorist activity in Afghanistan and and later Iraq.

The writer is desperately clinging to his glory days of the 1970s when the opinions he expressed in the current article were oh so radical way back in the day.

Now, it's just a lot of tired old leftist bullsh*t from a tired old leftist bullsh*t artist.
Posted by: badanov   2014-12-29 16:56  

#4  Ryuge: You summed it up nicely: "The American people and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawkshit nation..."

When there is more spent on the Policiatl Correctness topic d'jour than warfighting and the top men are bounced out because the Narcissist in Chief doesn't like what they have to say, how can you think anything but?
It was a running joke that when I first enlisted, gays weren't allowed, then Clinton brought in DADT, and the punch line was" retire before its mandatory. Never would have dreamed that it would come to pass thanks to big ears......
Now when kids ask about a military career, I tell them not only no but hell no. get a real job.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2014-12-29 14:25  

#3  The Scum Also Rises

Hemingway and the sewer canals, a new look.
Posted by: Shipman   2014-12-29 13:55  

#2  endless wars

IIRC from a Guinness Book of records entry that in recorded history there's only been like 200 years of peace recorded among those civilized enough to maintain records. The unique position of America between two major oceans allowed it to believe extended periods of peace were normal. That was compounded by the propaganda of one group or another who had the ability to shroud the fact that America was in one state of war or another along its frontier from its inception to the end of the 19th Century when we would pick up fights with external antagonists. When those oceans no longer served as a effective buffer to the outside world, you had the choice to either ride the tiger or let the tiger ride you. That is an ugly truth of history and human behavior.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2014-12-29 08:47  

#1  The American people increasingly like simple solutions. We live in times similar to the period after WWI when life was good and the world could take care of itself - except it couldn't. The seeds of discord were already sown. Our military will allow us to accomplish much good in the world. We can bring Pax Romanus even to the Middle East if required. The issue is whether the American people are willing to make a 50 year commitment like Germany, Japan or Korea. A 10 year committment to Iraq or Afganistan just brings Vietnam results. A Haitian 5 year whitewash just melts into sludge.
Posted by: Super Hose   2014-12-29 01:58  

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