No More Vietnams. Or Iraqs, Or Aghanistans.

SecDef Gates thinks the folly of the US engaging in a land war in Asia has finally sunk in:

WEST POINT, NY — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly told an audience of West Point cadets on Friday that it would be unwise for the United States to ever fight another war like Iraq or Afghanistan, and that the chances of carrying out a change of regime in that fashion again are slim.

“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it,” Mr. Gates told an assembly of Army cadets here.

Hmm - Afghanistan is not exactly in the past tense in terms of decision making.

Mr. Gates also has an interesting concern about the future career parh of our currently highly-experienced officer corps:

A decade of constant conflict has trained a junior officer corps with exceptional leadership skills, he told the cadets, but the Army may find it difficult in the future to find inspiring work to retain its rising commanders as it fights for the money to keep large, heavy combat units in the field.

“Men and women in the prime of their professional lives, who may have been responsible for the lives of scores or hundreds of troops, or millions of dollars in assistance, or engaging or reconciling warring tribes, may find themselves in a cube all day re-formatting PowerPoint slides, preparing quarterly training briefs, or assigned an ever-expanding array of clerical duties,” Mr. Gates said. “The consequences of this terrify me.”

How do you keep 'em down in the cubicle after they seen Kabul?  One might worry that our military will have an unusually high bias for action.

Comments

[Seth Owen]

Wow, look at all the armchair stategists who not only know better then the best SecDef we've had in years (who had to clean up after the biggest screw up since McNamara) but better than General of the Army Douglas macCarthur and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery who both said something like “The U.S. has broken the second rule of war. That is, don’t go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don’t march on Moscow."

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I would imagine the statute of limitations on a 40 year old incident probably ran out 35 years ago.

[Dicktators Suck]

Liz;

Retrograde orbit for your tape loop. Try dialing down the OMS burn to avoid further decay,

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Is it a full moon or something?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oh, that's right.

What I asked takes not only a g**gle search, but also cognitive thinking...

Heh, quel probleme.

Or how many points to a pointilliste?

[narciso]

The idiocy of Gates, is he's not even really talking counterinsurgency, which is the skill
set, which was been acquired over the last decade, painfully, but he doesn't want the army to fight at all.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Wrong dance wax, dope. You're chicken wings now, chit'lins.

Wake up faster, Sleepy!

[Dicktators Suck]

"cognitive thinking"

How many Rasputins can one fit on the head of a pinhead?

Feel free to Google when the lizard brain cries paleozoically.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Seth-

If you're not going to play The Great Game, please don't distract us in the noise that is yourself.

[Dicktators Suck]

C'mon. Answer the question with another question.

Let's play speed chess. Checkmate!!!!

Sorry, You lose.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oh, another short-armed display, how droll.

Here's another hint: Sun/Moon/Earth

What's the most recent connection?

Heh.

[Dicktators Suck]

Liz.....is that you snoring?

Get that CPAP out. It will catch on the chenille robe and the cord could trip you in those raccoon slippers, so be careful,

[Melinda Romanoff]

I'm not persian, that's their game.

Shirley you knew that.

The data needs to be seven words. You should pay attention to that.

Often.

[Dicktators Suck]

Good question. Now me.

“The world is vast and wide. Why do you drive to work at the sound of the alarm clock?”

[narciso]

Beck before the Middle East and South Asia was
'deemed' a quagmire, the same term was applied to Central America, in the 1980s, we didn't have to deploy heavy forces there, except in Panama at the end of the decade, but the likes of Bacevich, were telling us to right off El Salvador and Guatemala, because if theFMLN and the EGP weren't the future, certainly the ruling regimes, were too corrupt or ineficient, that was the argument that the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, certainly was up against. So this drumbeat is not particularly new, back then the guerilla outreach groups like CISPES even went as far as suppporting the bombing of the Army War College, yet that
was not a concern.

[Dicktators Suck]

Don't call me shirley.

Shall I list George Carlins 7 dirty words?

[Melinda Romanoff]

How novel, something I don't do.

And you still can't cope with sevens.

[matt]

we left Korea wide open in 1950 and paid the price. We left Saddam the impression that we wouldn't defend Kuwait in 1990. Our diplomats are incredibly tone deaf.

My mentor when I was young was a decorated Frozen Chosin Marine, as was my brother in law. No one expected 500,000 Chinese troops to pour over the border, especially in the midst of a particularly terrible Korean winter.

As to the quote by MacArthur on land wars in Asia, I linked the tape of the conversation between JFK and MacArthur when he purportedly said this, and the context was that of fighting overwhelmingly large opposing land forces such as the Soviets and ChiComs. MacArthur actually recommended atomic rifle rounds to kill wide swathes of the enemy. After the mass wave attacks of the Chinese, it is no surprise.

The context upon which the Left has built its edifice is bullshit, it seems. The blog piece was on Operation Contingency Operation and Gates' nonsensical speech at the Point. LUN.

I get very ticked when the record is out there and even morons like Gates get it so wrong.

[Dicktators Suck]

Dang if you ain't smart, Liz.

You know all this stuff. Did you Google it?

[Melinda Romanoff]

narciso-

And precisely why I bring up the Game, again.

It's broader, as it ever has been, than that.

G'night.

[Ignatz]

Narc,
El Salvador is in our backyard, is not infected with Islam and the guerillas were not an extension of some backwater mullacracy but the nuclear armed USSR.
Plus our support of ElSalvador, Honduras and Guatemala and the contras in Nicaraugua were part of a coherent, effective international strategy.
Is that what we're pursuing in Afghanistan or are our guys mostly dying to make Barry look tough?

[Dicktators Suck]

G'night Liz.

It's been a pleasure having you.

[narciso]

They are a proxy, but they do come from actual conditions, even though Didion, Bonner,
Lefeber, Sheehan (E.F)later Danner. misrepresented the depth of their support. The Duarte, and otherregimes were never deemed legitimate by theireyes, but the people's republics were always so.

[Ann]

Reload and Refuel everyone. The world is still aware of what we are made of and one president is not going to bring us down.

[amgine]

Heh, how can life go on? Leo doesn't understand me.
==============

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

It's a real enigma.

[AL]

“You claim to want fair bargaining yet you stacked the deck by buying off the peoples board of directors (SEnate, House, Governor, President, etc.) with tens of millions in campaign contributions. You'd all be arrested for fraud and bribery if you did that in a private company.
If you want a level playing field, then you need to be barred from giving any type of donation of any type or amount to any government offical, or person running for an office.”
From Wikipedia:
“…At the federal level, the primary source of campaign funds is individuals; political action committees are a distant second. Contributions from both are limited, and direct contributions from corporations and labor unions are prohibited.…”
Funny thing, both leftist and conservative Americans are equally stupid to believe in same propaganda BS. Leftists are sure that Repubs are bought and sold by evil multinational corporations, conservatives believe that Dems are bought and sold by Union’s contributions.

[daddy]

LongWinded OT on Alaska Offshore Oil Drilling so apologies from the git-go and please scroll on by if uninterested. I'll try to be brief but there was a lot of good info.

Tonight I got off the couch and went to downtown Anchorage for a public hearing of whether the Federal Government should open leases for sale to drill in the Alaskan OCS (Offshore Continental Shelf) for the years 2012-2017. The meeting was held by the Regional Director of BOEMRE (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement) US Dept of the Interior. This is Salazar's bunch, previously named MMS.

It was honchoed by the Regional Director of BOEMRE, Jeffery Loman.

Had heard on Talk Radio today that this meeting had just been called and this was our opportunity to make our opinions known to Salazar. So hustled down to this meeting with pen and paper, walked past the Protesters outside in Polar Bear suits, signed in, and simply sat and took notes. Very interesting, and the small room was packed to overflowing, for which Loman apologized, obviously not expecting such a crowd. (Over a hundred).

In prelim remarks Loman said his job tonight was to get information from citizens on whether we thought the Feds should open or not open OCS leases for sale to the Oil Companies for drilling, so that he could transmit our inputs to his boss Salazar. He explained OCS currently covers 3 Alaskan Off-Shore areas:

1) Cook Inlet (Where I live--the waterway to Anchorage)
2) The Chukchi Sea (Above Alaska on the Left)
3) The Beaufort Sea (Above Alaska on the Right)
* The Bristol Bay Region (West) had been ruled off-limits forever by Salazar last year.

Loman said 84 total Exploratory and working wells had been drilled in the OCS. 81 wells had been drilled in the first 18 years since it started, only 3 in the last 18 years. If no new OCS well is drilled in 2011, then it'll be a full decade since the last well was drilled in the OCS.

Loman said an even hundred people had signed the list, so starting with Dan Sullivan, our ex-Attorney General and now current Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Loman just went down the list and people took the floor in order.

Sullivan did great, expounding on Governor Parnell's charges that Obama's Interior Secretary Salazar had acted frivolously and capriciously in hindering Oil and Gas Development in the OCS. The TV cameras were out and he did well. His comments I imagine will be in the paper whenever the story comes out.

Then Loman just went down the list.

Overall 49 people talked and I stayed thru to the end.

We had Biologists, big Oil execs, Miners, State Politicians, businessmen, Native's, moms, guys like me etc. Of the 49 called, 43 were Pro opening the OCS, only 6 were Anti opening the OCS.

I learned we have an estimated 27 Billion Gallons of Oil in the OCS, 132 Million cubic something or others of Natural Gas, and it's the 8th largest Oil/Nat Gas repository in the world.

I learned Shell and Conoco have in 5 years spent 5 Billion dollars for OCS leases without yet permission to drill in the OCS, whereas in Mexico it takes 43 days start to finish to purchase a drillable drilling lease.

I learned currently 8 drill rigs from just 1 company are currently being dismantled in the Gulf Of Mexico, 4 transferred to Brazil and 4 headed to Africa.

I learned that Shell Oil has collated over 4,000 studies of Arctic Drilling and expects to do more if OCS opens for lease sales.

I learned our Trans Alaska Pipeline in its hayday was pushing 2.1 Million Barrels of Oil per day which has now been reduced to about 600,000 Barrels a day. I Learned that reduced flow has severe hydraulic consequences ranging from clogging and ability to flow, as well as unsustainable economic consequences as a result of reduced flow, both of which can eventually render it unusable, after which we are required by Law to dismantle the 880 mile long pipeline structure.

The make-up of the crowded room looked about 80% White, 15% Native, a few Hispanics, no Blacks, and no Asians. 30% were women.

Of interest: Of the 5 Anti-drilling speakers, 3 were unashamedly belligerent. This surprised me, as it was a very respectful and under control crowd in the room.

The first Anti speaker aggressively criticized by name some folks who had already spoken, including Dan Fagan and Maryann Pease, yet those 2 weren't even at the meeting so they hadn't spoken or made any comments at all. He also said previous speakers were greedy and desperate and would sell the world for the dollar. An angry, obnoxious lout.

The second Anti speaker interrupted an earlier speaker and told her to finish so somebody from the other side could be heard, then kept up the interruption by accusing Director Loman, the MC of the event, of having stacked the deck so all these speaker's were pro drilling. He responded that he was simply going down the list from who signed first, but if she wanted to speak next go ahead---to which the place erupted and shouted "No, we waited in line just like everybody else, don't treat her special", so Loman relented and she shut up. Turned out she was a Biology Prof from the University, who pontificated to everybody like we were 3rd Graders when she took the floor. Obnoxious start to finish, and was incapable of going 3 sentences without erecting a Strawman so she could knock it down.

3rd Anti speaker said he thought "something devious was going on in the room when he see's us sitting here muttering under our breath."

The other Anti's were a Sierra Club Rep who was refreshingly polite, a GAIA celebrating Grandma, and finally an old Native man who finished the speaking with an Inuit song, and then did an honest and heartfelt few paragraphs bemoaning the loss of his Native Culture.

So that was it. Have no idea how Salazar will rule, but I am convinced that if we don't allow new drilling up here pronto then we are going to have severe economic problems soon in Alaska, due to the diminishing Oil flow in our current pipeline. And you guys know better than I the problems no oil flow out of Alaska will have for the country when we're dependent on guys like Hugo Chavez and Quadaffi for our domestic energy needs.

[Pops]

AL: ""conservatives believe that Dems are bought and sold by Union’s contributions".

Wow you are so smart, so unions don't and can't give a dime to politicians? Can you really and truly be that naive or dense?

Then why did the top three unions brag about spending 170 MILLION dollars last year to elect Democrats. Mind you these unions were mostly made up of government workers who are spending our tax dollars to elect Democrats, to get more tax dollars.

They don't produce anything, except more government. They add nothing to the National wealth, they are a giant transfer of actual wealth produced by others.

In fact every study shows that States that have unionized state workers on average have 20% bigger state budgets to do the same work of states without stae worker unions.

Thats a 20% union tax on our citizens on top of the taxes we already pay.

[Captain Hate]

Rick, not only that but an outspoken part of Brown's campaign was the testimony of Gerald Amirault and how his family had been railroaded by the provocation of false abuse statements from children by a coven of "recovered memory" lunatics under the guidance of a donk prosecutor with dreams of higher office and the subsequently revealed obvious innocence fell on Coakley's deaf earflaps when it came to appropriately walking back unwarranted incarceration and monitoring. The tone-deafness of a party attacking anybody with a claim of being an abuse victim makes you wonder if any adults are in charge.

As I said previously, the statements by Brown were ill-advised from a personal standpoint imo; but if he was trying to lure the donks into making complete hypocritical fools of themselves, I can't think of a better strategy.

[Pops]

I guess its all been my imagination that Democrats have been leaving their states to avoid votes on curbs on union excesses because Democrats know unions DON'T support their elections. Yeah, got it.

I've never heard of a Democrat leaving their family, abandoning their job, deserting their children to avoid voting say on higher taxes, or screwing the populating out of more money in fees, licensing, etc etc. but try to touch a union cvadillac health plan and they are willing to look like complete fools and idiots and bend over and spread their cheeks for their unon bosses, and Al thinks they aren't bought and paid for with union cash.

Amazing;y ignorant..

Guess AL skips all the stories with headlines like:

""Boss Trumka issues threat to Dems""

[AL]

“…top three unions brag about spending 170 MILLION dollars last year to elect Democrats…”
It was PERSONAL contributions from union members. It is how political propaganda machines (both Republican and Democrats) attribute such personal contributions to unions, corporations, banks, etc. You gotta be rally delusional not to know The Law of The Land to believe in such BS.
No one could prohibit personal contribution to political parties. What could and should be done is to prohibit paid hours of union activists advocating for Dems. And prohibit giving government contracts to companies having MSM divisions openly advocating their political agenda. Yes, I am talking about GE.

[Extraneus]

The unions themselves are barred from contributing to individual candidates and parties. Instead, one thing they can do to help their friends is donate soft money to 527s, which is just as good if not better, since 527s can play dirtier than the candidates or parties. Here are the top 20 donation amounts from 2010. (Unions are well represented, and SEIU tops the list by quite a bit.)

Of course, there's a lot more they can do than donate to 527s.

Public-Employees Union Now Leads All Groups in Independent Election Outlays

The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the [2010] elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats' hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is spending money on television advertisements, phone calls, campaign mailings and other political efforts, helped by a Supreme Court decision that loosened restrictions on campaign spending.

"We're the big dog," said Larry Scanlon, the head of AFSCME's political operations. "But we don't like to brag."

The 2010 election could be pivotal for public-sector unions, whose clout helped shield members from the worst of the economic downturn. In the 2009 stimulus and other legislation, Democratic lawmakers sent more than $160 billion in federal cash to states, aimed in large part at preventing public-sector layoffs. If Republicans running under the banner of limited government win in November, they aren't likely to support extending such aid to states.

I think Pops said it best...

I guess its all been my imagination that Democrats have been leaving their states to avoid votes on curbs on union excesses because Democrats know unions DON'T support their elections. Yeah, got it.

[Extraneus]

From that same article:

The union is spending heavily this year because "a lot of people are attacking public-sector workers as the problem," said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. "We're spending big. And we're damn happy it's big. And our members are damn happy it's big—it's their money," he said.

[Extraneus]

Thanks the report, daddy. I wonder what the actual purpose of the meeting was.

[narciso]

daddy, I saw Sarah's impassioned testimony, in the spring of 2009, on OCS, speaking on
the needs to replenish the TAP, among many details and we saw the pitiful results
from Salazar, because that wasn't his purpose
at all.

[Pagar]

"believe that Dems are bought and sold by Union’s contributions."

Look at the LUN. The Democrats have bought everything in government.
----------------------------------------------
Daddy, Thanks for that outstanding report.
Were you able to tell is there were any reporters there? If so, it would be interesting to see what their articles say.

[boris]

"What bogged us down ..."

Abu Graib Gitmo flushed Korans Torture Victoria Flame Wiretapping BDS Katrina

[boris]

And of course TANG memos

[caro]

Daddy, your report was superb and I wish it could get some wider readership.

[Jim Miller]

DoT - Thanks for that correction and amplification. (I have no idea why I said Pusan when I meant Inchon, just one of those brain slips, I suppose.)

And I should have added that Truman dismissed MacArthur because MacArthur wanted to extend the war into China. So, at that time, whatever he may have thought later, MacArthur did, indeed, think we could win a land war in Asia.

[Pops]

AL, AL! AL,,,wake up. Its the unions running their own campaigns to elect Democrats...get it yet AL??

Grasp it yet?

Sunk in yet?

And every dime of that money was some poor schlubs paycheck that he could have used to buy his under nourished wif of a child a bit of substenance, but no, the union must be paid FIRST, right out of the paycheck. Nope, union can't wait for their money like say the gas company, or the grocery store..nope unuons wants it first...kind of just like government - pay us first before you even get the pittance we leave for you.

Trumka needs a bigger car, another swimming pool, more steaks and whiskey...pay us or well re-arrange your face.

Or as the SEIU President said: """If we cant use the power of persuasion, we will use the persuasion of power."""

Yeah, where's Hoffa Andy?

[Jim Miller]

Daddy - Many thanks for that report. (I may quote from it Monday in a post on my site.)

[Pops]

By the way AL, Richard Trumka increased his own yearly salary by nearly $74,000—in just 4 years. Money I believe that came from actual working families.....

[MayBee]

Happy birthday, Mr. BobS!

[MayBee]

clarice- I love the Tatler about Michelle Obama. It is especially irksome because apparently we aren't supposed to criticize Mrs Obama

[daddy]

The ADN's story about last night's OCS meeting is now up. Link.

It details Sullivan's comments well and then follows with the comments of the belligerent Anti Biology Prof.

They mention that the supporters had a coke/pizza meeting earlier in order to draw in supporters, as if that helped stack the deck. But the way I found the location of the meeting was by spotting the big protesting guys dressed up in Polar Bear suits and Puffin or Eagle suits (whichever, I couldn't tell) so the Anti's obviously knew the meeting was going down beforehand, and last time their ace in the hole was Ted Danson of Cheers fame, who gave the Anti's national media prominence. Anyhow, I mention that to give background on whether the thing was stacked or not. I sure didn't see it, but neither did I comment on the obvious contrast between polite and respectful clapping for the Pro OCSer's by the audience, and very loud and long clapping for the Anti OCSer's from their few supporters.

As for the Unions:

My personal Union Dues in 2010, deducted from my paycheck, totaled $7,204.34.

As a Union member I am constantly urged to give extra cash to our Political PAC. They tell us that they have to have immediate cash on hand to be able to immediately give it to support candidates. When you respond "why don't you tell us which candidates you want us to give the money to so we can investigate and decide whether to give them the money ourselves", they respond that that takes too long and they need the money immediately on hand. I decline to contribute to the PAC.

[vibrator]

I have to agree with you. Keep up the good work.

[anal sex stories]

good job here