More Obama: on dumb wars
Obama made Drudge twice today. Here he is below on Iraq as a dumb war.
He should explain what makes Afghanistan a smarter war, or why a second front in Iraq bogs down the US and not terrorists.
Or why creating allies of the Shia Arabs and Sunni Kurds who fight with us in Iraq, doesn't help strengthen a moderate Islam which is really the only force that can defeat extremist Islam.
But he sure sounds like a guy running for Prez.
Enemies in Iran and North Korea, along with terrorist groups bent on doing the United States harm, are getting stronger while the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, he said.I don't know what would be so smart about using the military to wash dishes or serve on chow lines, instead of contracting out the work to Halliburton. That was the whole idea behind military to civilian conversion: let the military fight and let civilians do the civilian jobs.
He was particularly critical of using civilian contractors in Iraq who make significantly more money than front-line soldiers.
The practice of using private contractors is depleting our armed forces of noncommissioned officers -- more and more noncommissioned officers are seeing the opportunity to make money by doing essentially the same job for a private contractor, Obama said."Unfortunately, the administration believes in private contracts for everything, especially Halliburton," Obama said.
Obama also criticized Democrats who are always opposed to war, even when force is necessary. In cases like World War II and, more recently, removing the Taliban government of Afghanistan, war can be the only option.
"There are real enemies out there and we have to face them," Obama said.
As a footnote, a friend of mine came back from Iraq and told me the Halliburton facilities were the best run he found there.
20 comments:
Going to war without enough troops and post-war plan = dumb war
Going to war with the world in your corner to destroy the place your enemy plotted 9/11 = smart war
End of lesson
anon 4:27 beat me to it.
We could open up a third front on the war on terror by attacking Indonesia, they are a front line on the war on terror. Also why haven't we invaded Pakistan?
These are places where muslim terror cells operate.
How many troops do you recommend?
destroy the place your enemy plotted
We should have turned Afganistan into a parking lot instead of liberating it?
This is an example of the odd convergence of today's liberalism with Curtis LeMay. We wait until there is no option but flatting some place.
Kerry's wars of last resort are wars of anniliation.
We bailed on the Iraqis in 1991 and hundreds of thousand Shia Arabs slaughtered afterwords. We shouldn't bail again if we expect any kind of Muslim support against radical Islam.
There is no such thing as a "smart" war....it is not possible....so then, there can be no such thing as a "dumb" war either.
But there are substantial quantities of dumb people-- and dumb people see everthing as being either smart or dumb. Sort of simple, but for many, it is very effective-- particularly in activities such as sales, advertising and politics.
At any rate, in politics, do not look for logic, look for politics.
The word dumb reminded me of the scene in the best years of our lives where Harold Russell (a real WWII vet missing both arms playing the part) is called a sucker by a customer for fighting in FDRs war. Dana Andrews takes the guy apart.
I don't think Obama was telling anyone they were suckers but it was a hugely poor choice of word.
His statement wasn't all that bad if you parse it, and he goes after the Lamont-Democrats, but as a guy (myself) who watched the country tear itself apart over Vietnam --and helped in the tearing--, he sure has no idea how this choice of word goes over with some people.
Obama has lots to learn about running for Prez.
Eh...Bill Baar...eh, beat me to it too.
called a sucker by a customer
It's the scene in the drugstore where Dana Andrews is the Vet working as a soda jerk because he can't get a good job, and his wife as left him while he was gone... Harold Russell comes in to see him and have a soda and while he uses his prostetic arms to drink it, a customer asks him about the arms and then tells him he was sucker for fighting in WWII. Dana Andrews goes ballistic and flattens the guy... then gets fired from the soda jerk job.
Your analogy with the scene in Best Years of Our Lives is stupid and misleading. The jerk in the movie belittled the intelligence of an individual wounded veteran for fighting in FDR's war. As far as I know Senator Obama has done nothing but praise our troops in Iraq and Afhganistan. Criticizing the war and the lack of foresight, the cherry-picked intelligence and idiotic strategy that went into it IS NOT belittling or criticizing our soldiers. That's like saying the people who question and attack our public school system are belittling the intelligence and dedication of America's children.
Dammit Bill, it's annoying as all heck that out of the entire stable of bloggers Rich got together for this, you and Cal are the most frequent posters, because you two most often put up the greatest examples of why free speech should be filtered, to keep the crap out of the air (not that I support that, because I whole heartedly believe people should be given every opportunity to make themselves look stupid in front of a crowd).
A vast majority of this country, not to mention this state, agrees with getting out because for this very reason you don't get (and which you may never): "a second front in Iraq bogs down the US and not terrorists."
Cue the explanation music:
What don't you understand? 500 billion dollars, 2600 kids dead, 10,000 casualties that will never be in the field again? Our military being practically decimated as far as equipment morale, man power? Ridiculously lowered recruitment goals (lowering intelligence and raising age requirements does not count for producing good soldiers)? How about innocent women and children being massacred because our troops have reached the breaking point? Commanders in the field dissed by an incompetent old man who's too divorced from reality to see he's lost control?
How about 7 terrorist attacks around the world since 2003? How about Osama Bin Laden still alive along with Aiman Al Zawahiri? How about the farce that was Zarqawi (go read the Atlantic Monthly article on that worthless, low-level turd).
How about a neutered (that means balls snipped off) foreign policy stance on North Korea and Iran because frankly, they know we can't do squat with our armed forces right now? How about a democratically elected president in Russsia morphing back into a dictatorship right before our eyes? How about all that money we're failing to spend to secure nuclear (NOT FING NUKE-CU-LAR) materials that can be used to make dirty bombs in the former eastern bloc states?
No plan to get out, no plan to solve the problem, no balls to admit they were wrong, nobody punished for the failures, nobody held accountable and no leadership from a president 65% of this country dislikes or from a vice-president 80% of this country dislikes.
Senator Obama was too damn nice to use the word "dumb." He should have screamed at the top of his lungs, "the most monumental failure in OUR COUNTRY'S HISTORY."
And now, now because they messed it up so badly, we are stuck in the middle of a civil war where people are dying by the truckloads every day for believing in the EXACT SAME GOD AS THE PEOPLE THAT ARE KILLING THEM. And who will have to clean it up? You, will you and your worthless, incompetent party clean it up Bill?
No, you'll tuck your tails between your yellow legs and you'll blame and accuse and point the finger at everyone besides yourselves. You'll blame the Democrats for proposing the things that need to be done to save lives, save our standing in the world and save our government from bankruptcy. And Koolaid drinkers like you will believe every wackjob piece of slander News Max prints, you'll hang on ever treasonous word that slimes its way out of Ann Coulter's mouth and you'll accuse people who've spilt blood for this country as traitors.
And when the smoke is cleared, what will your party do after the elections, win lose or draw? They'll worry about the next one. They'll worry about how to divide us more. They'll worry about how to attack everybody except terrorists.
You're damn right this is a dumb war. It's been conceived, planned for and executed by the dumbest of the dumb. What don't you get about that?
Actually, let me answer that for you. You don't get the war on terrorism, you probably still think Osama Bin Laden planned 9-11 from Baghdad with Saddam at his side as they were hiding those magical weapons of mass destruction.
You don't have a clue what to do and you're scared. Your party is scared that once people see someone else in charge and things improved, your scared they'll see you and your cohorts for what you are: complete and utter failures. Miscreants on the pages of a chapter of history everyone wants to forget. Lesser human beings more concerned about politics than people's lives.
You don't get it and it's hurting America. It is hurting our communities, you're hurting our children's future.
Get out of our way. Your party is not qualified to even debate this anymore. They're not improving anything, they're messing it up worse for the future.
Tough times need real leaders and your kind don't measure up.
Get out of our way, we are going to bring this country back from the depths of the ditch your party has crashed it into.
Back from a dumb war.
A guy I work with lost an arm in Afganistsan.
I would never tell him he lost it in a dumb war.
(He's a dentist too so it was a considerable career changer for him.)
Regarding fear....
We'll be fighting this war for the rest of my life. Of that I'm certain, so scared or not, it's best for all to get ready for a long haul; similar to the cold war, but in many ways worse and more lethal. (Eventually, and sooner rather than later, I think we'll see a nuke strike and probably on Israel. It's a country on borrowed time.)
What does scare me, are Democrats who think Bush is the problem, and not Hezballah, or UBL, or Assad, or Ahmadinejad or the whole Axis of Evil (which used to include Lybia by the way)...
...we wait, and do nothing, and believe America and Bush are the problems; then we'll have Kerry's war of last resort, with nothing left for us but nuke the Arab/Persian world.
That is what I really fear.
So talking of dumb wars makes me wonder if Obama understands the foe.
Your party is scared that once people see someone else in charge and things improved,
My party..geez... I voted for Democrats for Prez from McGovern to Gore... Bush was the first R I ever voted for.
I voted for Gore Lieberman because I believed Clinton's speech to the Joint Chiefs .
I believed in a guy like Ron Brown who died doing Nation Building.
I was humiliated Republicans held Clinton back (I thought then) from aggressive intervention in Bosnia and Rhwanda. I felt the US disgraced itself then... and when Bush abandoned Iraq in 1991.
So, I really feel it's my old party that's done the betrayal. I feel pretty loyal to the old internationalism.
It's just that Bush has picked up the banner now.
And the Lamont Democrats going in a far different direction.
Bill,
You are the sucker if you believe Bush is dedicated to traditional liberal internationalist principles/interventionism.
It is still the same ol' self-interest. Name one conflict we have entered out of concern for the justice of others this decade.
I am not saying self-interest is bad, just that your fealty to internationalism should end at the Bush White House front door, not start at it.
Bill - To answer your earlier question, as the military strategists have often complained: pre-Halliburton, when push came to shove, the private who was cooking in the mess tent or the engineer building the bridge could pick up a rifle if need be. One of my grandfathers was a cook in WWII in China, another a bridge builder in the Korean Conflict.
Now, our troops spend a great part of their day protecting unarmed civilian contractors who cook their food and tote their supplies. Pretty dumb.
Tom B. ~ Welcome home.
YDD,
It's not that kind of force anymore. The Military do the military stuff and anything civilian should be done by civilians. Especially with the kind of technology used by both civilians and militray these days.
John R,
Bush is the only internationalist we've got. The best we'll get from Dems is a kind of musculear isolationalism. Similar to the guy above who suggested anniliating the spot UBL planned the attack.
Kerry's war of last resort doctrine was one of the most brutal things I had heard.
We fought those kinds of wars against Germany and Japan.
Bill,
I'm just trying to figure out why your president is pulling troops out of southern Afghanistan and The Taliban is moving in to take over those areas.
You are a Republican. Perhaps you can provide some insight into that one.
To me, it looks dumb beyond belief.
A guy I work with lost an arm in Afganistsan.
I would never tell him he lost it in a dumb war.
What in the blue hell does this have to do with anything?
Civilians, IMHO opinion, do plenty of jobs that should be military jobs, and yes we do have NCOs and Junior Officers leaving the services to pursue those jobs because of the huge wage gap between the two employers. Here is one for you, should we have civilians maintiaining our helicopters over military people, to the point that the civilians have to deploy with the helos to keep them operational while away from base? Civilians do a lot more than was dishes and cook, and do a lot of jobs that should be military only.
The "dumb" was is the one you lose.
I am not a big Obama fan, actually voted for Keyes. Yes, all the comments now for my admission.
BUT, Obama is DEAD ON, the privatization and profiteers of war is terrible. Iraq is NOT going well. I voted for Bush, would never do it again. (I guess I can't constitutionally but you get my point)
Haliburton and Dick Cheney are evil--and I am no liberal.
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