How to fix economy: lower corporate taxes, higher taxes on the middle class

You go to war with the army you have---not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

-- Donald Rumsfeld

 

Speaking of Penn State . . . what a CYA statement, that is.

All the troops in the field cursed with crappy equipment would like a word with the old New Trier/Princeton scumbag.

 

I'm not necessarily defending him. The quote just perfectly sums up his thought process.

We did topple the Taliban with relatively few troops. Mostly CIA paramilitary and special forces, operating with the Northern Alliance.

But, in that case, the accusations were that we "outsourced" the war and allowed bin Laden to escape Tora Bora.

Iraq might have been different too if Turkey hadn't fucked us at the last minute.

Toppling Saddam took what, days?

The problem is in the "you broke it, you bought it" phase.

How do you prevent a failed state/power vacuum that will continue to be a threat and/or how do you build a nation that will be friendly to you?

Now, admittedly, you need to know this ahead of time and factor it into the equation before you decide to topple the current regime.

Which is the lesser of two evils?

For a long time Khaddafi was the lesser of two evils. So was Saddam, Mubarak, and any number of brutal dictators.

Pakistan is ruled by the lesser of two evils.

Libya will be interesting to follow. We didn't invade, but we did help topple the regime.

Yet, we haven't "bought" it.

While in Iraq, we were immediately expected to prevent looting, protect the National Museum, and provide any number of other functions.

 

Wholly understood.

 

Meanwhile, we cannot even prevent looting of national monuments at home. Lincoln and his grave are sans one copper sword, correct?

 

No offense to you, Ben, but I want to make a point here.

People complain about our budget, but then I read statements like this. Which is it? Good equipment, fielded rapidly? Or, shitty equipment?

Do we need up-armored HMMWVs or better body armor? What about better trucks and communication equipment? What about a modern helicopter fleet?

Yes, I understand problems with cost overruns involved with projects like the F35 and the Commanche helicopter, but to give ourselves an operational and tactical advangate, it's gonna cost some money.

 

We should spend whatever's necessary on intelligence gathering, quick-strike, special forces and the technology needed to support their missions. However, we need huge cuts, overall, to our defense budget and we need to put an end to ill-conceived, traditional ground wars.That would be a good start.

 

The Russians really didn't care about that when they satellited the Eastern bloc. Britain had its subjects all over the globe at one point.
In both cases, they made the military a sub-military of the U.S. military. Enough wages to keep them in authority.

 

having the men in the field have the best, safest equipment that can be mustered is priority #1, in my book.

 

Well, if China becomes the dominant economic power by what, 2016 as it was said, then with a billion man army they could create, could easily colonize much of what they need to feed the empire of the 21st century, more like the Brits did in the 18th and 19th than America did in the 20th.