[[He had watched Allied generals misperceive and misunderstand strategy and become bogged down in deadly trenches for four years, killing millions in the process. Do our generals deserve any more respect? Is their advice any better?]]

The writer puts on an equal plane the generals of a century ago, unable and unwilling to adopt to new technologies, who in many cases got their positions from family connections and political influence, to America’s crop of general officers? Who make their marks by innovating, who adapt to more innovations seen in five years than the generals of a century ago saw in a lifetime?

Sound bites and intillectual sterility.

[[It is hard to see this as anything but an attempt to box in Obama and put pressure on him to agree to more troops, whether any good strategy supports investing more troops, or not.]]

The President said what he wanted done last March. The generals told him how to do it. Box him in or show him a way out? More vapid reasoning from the farleft of his Party who do not want to continue.

[[For most of the past 60 years, the American military mostly has been unprepared for the conflicts America has gotten into, starting with Korea.]]

Source? Examples? If it’s an equipment/manpower issue, is that the military’s fault or the civilian leadership? If it’s a strategy/doctrine issue, the military (exception: Vietnam) adapted reasonably quickly.
[[It has built hugely expensive weapons systems that have little or no relevance to current threats, yet it failed to anticipate and avert 9/11]]
That was the military’s responsibility? To avert 9/11? I thought that was Bush’s fault, or does blame shift as one selects a new scapegoat for one’s ideological positions?

The rest of the article was equally insipid. But at least it helped me wake up. Thanks!

Report/Whine 7:25

[[If the American Spectator is so off base, so full of lies, so factually incorrect, why do the libs only whine about it and not readily dispute their facts and opinions?]]

Because they’d rather attack personalities than refute ideas.

It’s easier. They can do one and not the other.

Stands for decibels 7:29

[[If the Daily Kos is so off base, so full of lies, so factually incorrect, why do the cons only whine about it and not readily dispute their facts and opinions?]]

getalife tried and was kicked off. He’s not a con, but Kos didn’t care. Follow the Party Line or be banished.

See? You and Report/Whine DO have something in common!

Taxpayer 8:01

[[All I see that they have managed to do is grow bigger with time and suck up more and more resources year after year and all without actually making the US or any other place safer]]

So we are not any ‘safer’ now than we were Sep 12, 2001? Careful – Pres Obama’s been president longer than Pres Bush was when 9-11 happened….

[[In fact, all they’ve done is get more people killed at a higher cost per death.]]

How has DoD gotten more people killed? Are you referring to the military portion, the civilian leadership at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, or all of them?

September 23rd, 2009
8:18 am

Certainly quicker and more effective. But they can’t even eradicate the marijuana plants here.

September 23rd, 2009
8:01 am

What happened to Newt’s idea to turn the Pentagon into a triangle? Talk about bureaucracy.

September 23rd, 2009
8:13 am
I hope she comes with the pull string, so we can listen to her “you betcha’s”

And, don’t forget her “I Quit’s.”

September 23rd, 2009
8:15 am

We pay the higher price, but get the cheaper crop.

September 23rd, 2009
8:10 am

The military should have been restricted to covert operations from the beginning.

Caribou Barbie??