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Home Front: WoT
A Military for a Dangerous New World
2008-11-16
The NYT opines on what a President Obama will need to do with our military. They and the Democrats have spent the last eight years depicting our troops as broken, depressed or damaged goods, or as heartless killers, or as ruthless automatons bombing enemies into submission, or as stupid, bitter young men and women with no other prospects for getting out of the sticks to which they cling.

Now they think they know what our military needs.

And no surprise, they think the military should cut all the expensive stuff like the F-22 and new naval combat ships, dump the ballistic missile defense until it can be 'guaranteed' to work, and so on. And no one should think that their advice have more marines and soldiers, more transport capacity, and more 'preparedness' and training for small wars is genuine: that's the sort of thing a Democrat always cuts first when they're looking for spare change to fund new social welfare initiatives.

The NYT is calling for less military. It's what they believe in. It's going to be a rough four years.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  The WEEKEND OF FIVE(S) continues.

WORLD MIL FORUM > THE FIVE MAJOR TASKS OF CURRENT US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES, as vee OWT + World Affairs.
* Monitoring CHINESE NAVAL. MIL DEVELOPMENT + MOVEMENTS.
* Ascertain and determine RUSSIA's intentions as per CENTRAL ASIAN ENERGY, ESPEC MILITARY UTILITY = ENERGY WEAPONIZATION.
* AL QAEDA + TALIBAN > vital intel data collection and interpretation, "divide-and-conquer" of same.
* Identify NEW EMERGING REGIONAL-INTERNATIONAL STATE(S) POWERS = GEOPOL "YOUNG TURKS", espec those wid NUCLEARIZED = HYDROGEN/PLUTONIUM BOMB CAPABILITIES [thermonuclear] + EFFEC TARGETING-DELIVERY SYSTEMS.
* CLOSE ATTN TO NORTH KOREA, espec as per KIMMIE SUCCESSION + NOKOR NUCLEARIZATION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-11-16 23:59  

#9  Yes, Joe.  We know.

And if it weren't that it would be some other reason to blame us.
Posted by: lotp   2008-11-16 19:45  

#8  E.g. WORLD MIL FORUM > "official" US GDP of US$13.0 +/-Trilyuhn offset by excessive US global debts levels possibly as high as US$50.0Trilyuhn, THUS MANY US DOMESTIC SECTORS ARE SCREAMING FOR US GOVT-LED, INDUSTRIES- AND STATE(S) BAILOUTS!?

MANY NET POSTERS > argue the USA is directly responsible for its probs just as all other World States, or just as drug addicts are responsible for their own drug [over]consumption and resultant personal legal, criminal, moral, psychological, and pan-econ probs > WHY SHOULD THE WORLD HELP = BAIL OUT IMPERIALIST ZIONIST NWO, ETC. AMERICA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-11-16 18:44  

#7  "Dangerous New World > POTENTIAL LACK OF A CLEAR WINNER IN THE US-ISLAMIST GWOT; + ISLAMIST-LED, PAN-ASIAN/AFRICAN DESTABILIZATION/BREAKUP, + ON-GOING ENVIRO-LEFT DEMANDS FOR IMMEDIATE ANDOR NEAR-TERM GLOBAL WARMING "FORCED/GOVT-EMFORCED" + "GLOBAL" SOLUTIONS???

Dare I say to include PROTRACTIVE US-GLOBAL FINANCIAL + FOLLOW-ON ECON CRISES FOR THE SAKE OF GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER - you know, PROGRESS = REGRESSION, REGULATION = LIBERTARIANISM, etc???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-11-16 18:30  

#6  all we can hope is that most of the appeaseniks inhabit that City. Might wake a few of the rest up
Posted by: Frank G   2008-11-16 18:01  

#5  Not to sound like I am eager for it.

But it would be interesting to see the nutjobs of the world pull off their next massive terrorist strike against DURING the administration of the party that creates the situation instead of nine months after they are voted out of office.

Of course, I shudder to think of what would have happened if the world trade center had occured under Clinton instead of Bush and I shudder to think of what BO will do in similar circumstances.

Cutting defense and our capability to search for, close with and destroy the enemy invites a big fat lip of a terrorist act that will kill thousands.

I sincerely believe that not even the disappearance of one of our cities will wake these nihilists up.
Posted by: James Carville   2008-11-16 17:57  

#4  This time, though, I'm afraid the bottom line is that Defense is going to have to take a 25% hit, and though the Democrats want that, they aren't going to have a choice in the matter.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all their other spending is also going to have to take a 25% hit as well. Which they are not going to like one damn bit.

To start with, next year, tax revenues are going to be down by double digits. And nobody is left who has the money to fund deficit spending. China is our biggest creditor, holding over $1T of US debt, and that gravy train has run out. Even if they just don't buy any more, the US is broke. If they cash in their bonds, very, very broke.

This means that one dollar beyond tax revenues will have to be "monetized" debt, like what Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe. This results in the unpleasant weirdness that at the same time our money is terribly deflating, prices are terribly inflating.

As far as the military goes, when the economy tanks, they will have to turn away huge numbers of the unemployed. But almost all will be light infantry, carrying a rifle and getting room and board.

The international crises will probably mean that they get sent to other countries for heaven knows what.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-11-16 09:26  

#3  The Obama Youth can take up the slack.
Posted by: Grunter   2008-11-16 09:20  

#2  I'm sure this recruiting message is just waiting for January.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-11-16 08:32  

#1  The Donks are going to do their usual thing: Slash military spending as long as they are in power. This has a double-upside for them. Since they don't seem to give a $hit about military spending beyond what is absolutely necessary to hold onto any credibility among centrists whatsoever, they get to use the $$$ to buy votes in the next election or two and it makes it easier to "balance" the overall budget. When the Trunks grab the reigns back, they end up having to rebuild the dilapidated military, and all the Donks start their usual rhetorical whining about how the Trunks warmongering is bankrupting the country in the process. And after things are about as patched up as they can be given the combination of legitimate spending plus pork/earmarks (and whatever else the Donks can sabotage the process with by taking advantage of weak-willed politicians) that are competing for the military budget, the people vote the Trunks back out of power so they can get "Change" or whatever other mantra seems to resonate with the public's short memories and idiotic expectations that the US will somehow always end up on top after taking yet another four or eight year nap while the rest of the world plows forward.
Posted by: gorb   2008-11-16 07:22  

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