Scoring the Global War on Terror: From Liberation to Assassination in Three Quick Rounds | Common Dreams

Scoring the Global War on Terror: From Liberation to Assassination in Three Quick Rounds | Common Dreams: "Scoring the Global War on Terror: From Liberation to Assassination in Three Quick Rounds
by Andrew Bacevich
With the United States now well into the second decade of what the Pentagon has styled an “era of persistent conflict,” the war formerly known as the global war on terrorism (unofficial acronym WFKATGWOT) appears increasingly fragmented and diffuse. Without achieving victory, yet unwilling to acknowledge failure, the United States military has withdrawn from Iraq. It is trying to leave Afghanistan, where events seem equally unlikely to yield a happy outcome. "

   If I had a week or two, my blue-collar, ADHD brain could write a book about this- just based on my memories of news stories and people I have known....I don't know how else to describe this...except in the shortest version of it I can manage: (and YES, I know this is too long and YES I know it is lacking in references...but YES I could destroy every argument the Right-Wing Freaks make if I had the time and the money. Sometimes wrong is just WRONG.)

   If you haven't seen 'No End in Sight' DO SO-ASAP. Iraq may be over, but, it could have been done right except for some 'mistakes'. I fully believe that...even though it was B.S. to begin with.

   We are a point where our generals are often vastly more more well educated and aware than our civilian leaders. They (on paper) have better ideas and will speak the truth about what is needed to achieve objectives... but then the civilians change their minds.

Not that the generals are perfect, but look at their resumes as compared to who has been giving the orders for a decade.

  I was raised by a PHD (and a veteran) who taught me to distrust 'the Military' as potential makers of policy. It was part of his generational movement.

Well, his generational movement succeeded.

It forced military leaders to be scholars beyond what most politicians can imagine.

It made them pragmatic, smarter, and accountable...except now to politicians who are stupider and more corrupt than in the history of...well, just about any nation since man looked at itsself and and decided,'"Damn, we do alot of dumb shit for dumb reasons. We ought to change that!"

.....An idea that, ironically enough, seems to have started with the martyrdom of a man who belonged to a faith that now seems to believe that weapons with the power to utterly erase all of the glory that God bestowed upon this rock are holy (or wholly-depending upon your flavor of retarded extremism) a reason for starting WWIII.

Just saying....


...and before you accuse my sorry, blue collar, American ass of being anti-semitic?
The Nation of Israel and especially  its people should be protected to the death by anyone who believes in freedom.
Their current Government?
...ehhhhhh? 
notsomuch.

Right-Wing asshats whose rhetoric sounds exactly like 1930s Nazi propaganda.


Look it up.
Seriously.

I have no problem with us selling them F-16s, small arms, etc.
The fact that a tiny nation has designed and built some of the most incredible self-defense technology should be a model for the World.
I have NO problem with them having a nuclear arsenal.
None.
Seriously.
 Look at the oppression and genocide.
If anybody needs a deterrent, they do.
..and I am NOT entirely against the idea of targeted assassinations....but?
Too many douchebags in power.

The IDF and the mindset it instills upon the civilian population?
PERFECT!
All nations should be so well trained, aware, and prepared.
Their current government is an insult to humanity-especially  the 'faith' it purports to defend.

Anyway:
   I am not saying The Generals had all the answers, but they had BETTER ones and were ignored. Now they are left to do the bidding of politicians who know (apparently) nothing and think drone strikes are the new penicillin.

But?
 Nobody really cares.
Seriously.
If they did G.W. Bush would be arrested and on trial.
"What!?!", you say?
If he really believed his own bullshit, he'd stand up for it.
In a court of law.
Let's get this shit tested, let's see if it actually works.
IF his theories can be jammed into the framework of our Sacred, Founding Document?...let him go.
If not?
Let him swing.
(not literally. Figuratively. I would rather see W. in solitary for life than physically punished).
I am not a liberal.
I just think the U.S. fucked the hell out of 235 years worth of Karma in less than a decade-and we could have changed the World for the positive except the fact that, intellectually lazy fuck-wads wanted to sit at home and watch video game-wars instead of actually doing their parts.
Just sayin'....

Oh, wait!
I must hate the troops.

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