Comments on: Democratic leaders: progressives in the mold of Dick Nixon

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Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:10:54 +0000

[...] been remarking for almost two years now that Barack Obama’s insurance reform plan in its original glory is quite similar to, but [...]

By: JackD

JackD — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:06:33 +0000

Point taken on Afhanistan. However, there is still Osama bin Laden and al Quaeda to be dealt with. An American operation may become necessary to go into the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. If so, that will require a substantial ground force.

On the absolute size of the active army and marine force, I agree that ultimately that turns on one’s view of the likely potential mission/missions of that force but, as I indicated above, I don’t think we should go forward on the assumption that should something come requiring sustained action, we should simply indefinitely activate the reserve and the guard.

By: Weldon Berger

Weldon Berger — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:12:28 +0000

I like Samantha Power, among other things for her allegiance to GB Shaw’s homage to the unreasonable man.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Hear, hear.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:27:10 +0000

FWIW, Martin Luther King’s son wrote a supportive letter to John Edwards to keep the struggle going. The guy looked a bit tired on Dave last night. Tiresome being largely ignored and told to quit in a self-fulfilling prophecy by the PTB (including in the blog world), I guess.

The “angels” bit reminds me that Samantha Power is a senior advisor on Obama’s staff. Her opposition to the Iraq War (2.0) added to my cynicism at those who supported it for humitarian reasons.

By: Weldon Berger

Weldon Berger — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:05:02 +0000

Jack, I think our position in Afghanistan is due for a serious reexamination. There’s a weak central government, headed by a US-picked and backed president, with a generally non-functional army that has the same tendency as the Iraqi one to be perpetually a year or two away from self-sufficiency, that controls a very limited amount of territory. Opium accounts for nearly a third of the country’s GDP, with all the consequences you would anticipate for law enforcement and governance. Reconstruction and development projects are suffering because the neediest areas are also the most perilous ones.

So questions about what we’re attempting to accomplish, and whether whatever that is is realistic, need to be asked and answered.

As for Pakistan, well … it’s a nation of more than 160 million souls—as opposed to Iraq’s 25 million—with an army of about a half million, and territory that includes incredibly dense urban areas and extremely inhospitable rural ones. Are we really going to launch a ground war there, or even send in any significant number of troops? I’m afraid whatever challenges Pakistan poses will have to be met more creatively.

I know the Army and Marines are overextended. They wouldn’t be had we not invaded Iraq. The lesson here is that we do not have enough troops to manage a long-term occupation, not just in Iraq but in any country with a population of more than a few million. According to Army doctrine, a successful counterinsurgency/peacekeeping operation in Iraq would require deploying about 500,000 troops there; we barely have 500,000 troops in the entire active duty Army, along with about 180,000 in the Marines. If we want to be able to manage that sort of thing with reasonable rotations and without depleting the Guard and Reserves, we need to add more than a million active duty soldiers and Marines, not a measly 92,000.

So I come back to the question of what do we want to do with those extra troops? What is it that can’t be accomplished with what we have, assuming what we have isn’t stapled to the desert in Iraq, or that wouldn’t require a draft even if we actually have those additional forces (which won’t be available for several years anyway, since they have to be recruited, trained, integrated and equipped)?