Posted by
Tim Blessing on Monday, June 09, 2008 7:30:05 PM
Human Resources: The Personnel Question.
If your running for President and want to surround yourself with topnotch military advisers then you have to decide your preferred strategy.
Shock and Awe is good for immediate purposes, but useless in the aftermath.
Our military is good for short bursts of conventional conflict.
We are not good at long drawn out occupations.
Particuliarly, when the civilian managers are unprofessional in everything they do.
That's a flaw in our democracy system of government.
The premise is we should aim for air attack and ground attack, while not engaging in nation building unless it is a last resort.
The lesson of the last five years is the fact that people in the 3rd World do not like Western Armies managing their affairs for them.
That invalidates a basic precept of the Bush doctrine on preventive war.
We may not like Saddam, but Saddam was the leader of Iraq no matter how corrupt he was by our standards.
Again, people in these 3rd World Countries won their independence 50 years ago and are not likely to give it up to any outside power because they have long memories of colonialism.
In essence, Bush and the NeoConservatives failed to appreciate the lessons of history in that the Muslims would join forces to free Iraq from our occupation in their eyes.
If your not willing to use weapons like daisy cutters or other such weapons of super power then we have not business in Iraq.
In the final analysis, we won the conventional war, but haven't won the guerilla war. These people around McCain and Obama do not know the grunt work that goes with being in the Army.
In the final analysis, it will take 10 years to rebuild the Army and Marines because the unprofessional conduct of Bush and his people. How do I know that time frame? Because that's what it took after Vietnam to correct the problem that time.