For guys like you the military is all about politics. What you fail to
understand is that for a soldier it's all about duty.


That's true... honor and duty are the highest ideals for any soldier... and they're
not too shabby for anybody else either.


Gould 0738 wrote:
Our soldiers are being asked to perform those duties by people who are
politically motivated.

Chuck, that's *always* the case. Military action whether a "war" or a "low
intensity conflict" or a "police action" or whatever, is the final way of enforcing
political decisions. That's all it is, that's all it has ever been.

One can evaluate the "justness" of any war by some fairly rigid standards. For
example, everybody likes to say that WW2 was a good war, meaning a war for a good
cause. Using the same standards, is the Iraq war "good?"




I respect those who serve in the military.
One can do that without respecting the manner in which the military is used or
managed.

I think what you're trying to say is that IYHO the war in Iraq is not just. It was
not waged as a last resort, it had no impact on the strategic interests of the
U.S., it was not planned in a way to win with minimum casualties, and the aftermath
was not planned at all. IMHO the whole thing was/is a boondoggle to funnel money
into certain pro-Bush/Cheney pockets, and into Dick Cheney's pocket specifically.

No soldier likes to think that he put his life on the line, and his buddies have
been killed, for the sake of enriching some fat old politicians & CEOs who were
draft dodgers back when they were young enough to go to war themselves; and whose
kids are all avoiding military service.



At a time when we have adopted an international posture that says, "Get in line
or we'll come and kick your ass" and "Bring it on!" we can't possibly hope to
be taken seriously when occupying Iraq and Afghanistan has taxed our abilities
almost to the breaking point.

And worse, those wars have put a tremendous debt obligation on the U.S. which will
not go away for many years, if ever. The money spent is gone gone gone, and it did
nothing to increase our national security.



If we had to send troops to North Korea, Libya, Iran, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia,
or even to just one or two of those countries, to continue our current
political objectives
where would they come from?

Texas, of course.



Maybe we can do like the British used to do and hire foreign mercenaries. If we
want US soldiers, we need to create a bunch in short order.

The British used mercenaries? Now, the French have their Foreign Legion which is a
mercenary elite force; but AFAIK the Brits never used large numbers of mercenaries
(at least not since the Hessians came over here). They did have a large number of
colonial troops though, for example the Ghurka brigade(s).



Or, we need to rethink the politics of militarism on a global scale.

Well, "we" don't need to, it's the profiteering boneheads in the current
administration who need to rethink... or think in the first place...

Regards
Doug King