RevDisk - thank you very much for the informative post. God knows I sure don't know half enough to make some of those decisions. So no offense taken.
You are welcome. No one knows half as much as they should when they make a decision. I don't.
There I disagree - with Ezekiel as a case in point. We could be invaded by aliens from Jupiter tomorrow, and someone would start spreading the line that we somehow brought it on ourselves. I'm not saying we're pure as the driven snow, but rather than no matter how good the justification is, we have maybe 1-3 years until the "blame American first" media storm gets louder than the natural "hit back" response.
There are too many people in positions of media influence these day with a vested interest in making whichever person is in charge at the time look bad to allow for a sustained conflict. Sure from my point of view I think a Republican CiC has it worse from most media outlets, but Clinton sure didn't get any slack either with all the "wag the dog" fanfare some years back.
Things might change once the Boomer generation and its "we stopped the Evil VietNam War" self-mythos die off, but for the next generation or so I don't think we have the stomach or attention span for a sustained conflict.
One doesn't need to be pure as the first snow of winter. "Good enough" is good enough for most folks. Some folks will always be doubtful or blame America. Most people are somewhere in the middle, as is always the case. If a justication is good enough, and seen as more or less honest, it will be accepted. Yea, media's job is to give the folks in charge a bad name. However, most politicians (left, right, up, down, the lot of them) deserve it.
Me, I can't think of too many President in the last hundred years I did perticularly like. Ironically, I liked Carter as a person, thought he made a horrible President. Eisenhower was probably the last decent president we had.
Problem with the new generation, they have access to a lot more information. I was in squads where every single enlisted person had either a degree, or was working on one. Heck, I've been on deployments where they offered college classes in forward bases. Most young folks that actually give a damn can have as much information as they want at their fingertips. The price of this knowledge is apathy and cynism. We don't have much blind faith. In our commanders (with a couple exceptions), in our politicians, in 'the system'. Given something worth believing in, without the bullshit, people will follow and support.
I've heard all kinds of stories of folks bemoaning today's generation as slackers, lacking guts, etc etc. BS. I know of no one my age that puts in 40 hrs a week and lives in comfy bliss. We work our rear ends off, for not much in return. Today has no lack of slackers and fools, but I doubt statistically above par. Difference today is that most people know exactly how much BS is handed over. We know not to trust the media, politicians, etc because frankly they do not deserve trust.
Many now will say "I supported Afghanistan, but not Iraq" and I say bullcrap to that.
I remember all the whining about "quagmire" and "that's where the USSR died" and so forth and so on as the buildup in Afghanistan was going on. If we'd never moved on, the same voices that now are screaming about Iraq would be screaming about Afghanistan and unjust war.
Wander outside of Kabul, and you'll see that not much has exactly changed. We swapped Islamic fundimentalists for drug dealers and warlords. The former Northern Alliance now controls a firm majority of the world's heroin supply. Eventually, we'll have to replace the folks we put into power in Afghanistan.
Besides, most of the head honchos bailed out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan before we had significant forces on the ground. Invading Pakistan would have been ackward, as they have nuclear weapons and are somewhat allies of the US.
RevDisk - what I was calling nutty was the belief that it would actually be possible to grow the Caliphate to cover the earth, as some want. Or rather, the idea of invading ships of Jihadis. That does not however mean they won't do a hell of a lot of damage in the trying.
As to the "not the greatest concern" - certainly long term I will agree with you that there are bigger clouds on the horizon, China as you mentioned being perhaps the biggest. That said, they are not the active concern as they're not presently trying to kill us. I don't believe a comparison to traffic fatalities is valid, because the Jihadis are a human force actively working on expanding their numbers and killing westerners.
Nonetheless your preferred approach makes a lot of sense to me.
The original Caliphate (at its height) covered more of the planet than the Roman Empire did (at its height). More than twice the territory. It reached from Spain almost to China.
http://www.hostkingdom.net/earthrul.html Not something to write off. A modern Caliphate would stretch from Africa to Indonesia. Still, I suspect larger concerns will surface before any caliphate appears.
Another perspective not generally acknowledged by our side is that Wahabbis tend to kill more Muslims than they do Americans. Until fairly recently, they mainly focused on local host nations. Egypt being the obvious. The Muslim Brotherhood assassinated the Prime Minister of Egypt in 1948, attempted to assassinate Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954, and may have had a hand in assassinating Anwar Sadat in 1981. Ironically, no one in the ME hated and hunted the Brotherhood as much as Saddam did. (He was secular, they wanted to overthrow him.) Funny how things turn out, no?
Thats a pretty vauge claim without much backing
. As far as soviet nuclear technology leaking out is concerned explain to me the 100 or so unaccounted nuclear devices from the former Republic of the Ukraine. I'm sure theres more I am unaware of but never the less the scientist are out there for hire as well. Nuclear proliferation is a reality we have to face and keeping tabs on and bullying the world will not work forever.
Dispite this vagueness, he is correct. We keep tabs on nuclear development, especially in the former USSR. We fund employment programs for former nuclear scientists. The FSB keeps tabs on them as well. Any unaccounted nuclear device is an expensive paperweight without regular maintaince. Many components need swapping out every six months, or the warhead is useless. If you'd like, I could email you extensive material on this.
Nuclear proliferation is being fairly well handled, relatively speaking. NK is the only truly rogue nation with advancing nuclear technology. China however pulls the string with regards to the NK. Without China, the NK would not exist and is the sole reason why there are two Koreas. China is literally right next door, provides a lot of food, has a vastly superior military and plenty of nuclear weapons. As long as we are on good terms with China, we don't have to worry too much about NK.
As long as the military regime in Pakistan remains stable, things are fairly well handled. If Pakistan falls, we're in trouble. Nuclear weapon wise.
Then just explain that part. To whom is it unjust and why?
Its unjust to the soldiers who signed up to defend
this country and its constitutiton, not to die and be maimed to save a nickel on a gallon of gas or add a few points to Haliburtons stock. I think this country really needs to step back and evaluate its use of force compared to what the founders intended it to be. Its unjust to people like you and me who will be paying off the deficit for years to come. Its unjust to the people in Iraq who traded a dictator and stability for roving death squads, daily bombings with mass casualties, and total destruction of infastructure. All to remove a dictator
we kept in power for so long.
Sigh, one fond memory of being overseas. Haliburton was overbilling the US Army for fuel, and selling said fuel on the black market. Another scam was buying very cheap food and charging the Army top rates. Ergo, lots of troops were getting food poisoning. Including me. I still hold food in my mouth a couple seconds to make sure it doesn't taste funny. Thanks KBR. I remember being across the table from the KBR execs, with a belt fed ready to roll, and asking for permission to line 'em up against the wall. My CO said no. Bah.
And I spent all those hours with my stomach cramping up shining and prettying my SAW... Sigh
Since I've retired from the military, I'd be more than happy to take take the time and bring Ezekiel as my guest to a military base and educate him on how it really works. Assuming he really could stomach spending time with a service academy graduate or two...
Hell, I spent 6 years in the service, I couldn't stomach more than an hour or two with a service academy graduate. I thought exposure times of longer than four hours was fatal.
