John H wrote:
You deviate. Here is the mission, as of now. With what do you disagree?

WARFIGHTING

1. Protect, promote and preserve U.S. interests in the Central Region

Like what? Removing a dictator which we left in power in the 1st Gulf War?

... to
include the free flow of energy resources,

Then why is the price of oil going up? Or do you interpret "free flow of
energy resources" to mean "increased profits for oil companies"?


... access to regional states

Like Syria and Iran?

... freedom of navigation

Wow, now this one's almost on topic.

... and maintenance of regional stability.

Like in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia?


2. Develop and maintain the forces and infrastructure needed to respond to
the full spectrum of military operations.

Good one... we are rebuilding the Iraq security force into a
self-sufficent unit. Not happening fast enough, but it's happening. But
if that was a goal from the start, why did we destroy the Iraqi security
forces in the first place?

3. Deter conflict through demonstrated resolve in such efforts as forward
presence, prepositioning, exercises, and confidence building measures.

It's hard to explain how we "deter conflict" by invading & instigating a
war.

4. Maintain command readiness to fight and win decisively at all levels of
conflict.

Now here (as I said earlier) we're going backwards. The Iraq war has
been a disaster for U.S. military readiness.


5. Protect the force by providing an appropriate level of security and
safety.


I guess this is why so much of the security of U.S. bases is handled by
subcontractors?

ENGAGEMENT
1. Maintain, support and contribute to coalitions and other collective
security efforts that support U.S. and mutual interests in the region.

That's why so many members of our Iraq coalition are pulling out.

2. Promote and support responsible and capable regional militaries.

Like Syria?

3. Promote efforts in the region to counter threats from weapons of mass
destruction, terrorism, information warfare, and drug trafficking.

That must be why we concluded there are none... are were no... WMDs in
Iraq, why terrorism in the region is increasing, why the terrorist &
fundamentalists are gaining increasing access to public media and are
increasingly popular; and finally, why the heroin trade is booming in
Afghanistan.

The rest of the list is seeing similar results. The Bush Administration
clearly had *none* of these goals in mind for the Iraq invasion.

DSK