The Japanese scotched the idea of a US mainland invasion based on the number of armed citizens. The Founders generally disapproved of standing armies. Who do you think would try to invade America who cannot be dealt with via nuclear weapons?
Oh. Yeah.
Damned Mexican invasion.
Well, that's going on, not because we CAN'T stop it, but because the politicians are playing silly buggers with the future of America.
The "invaded" comment was meant as sarcasm. Yet, the possibility of invasion is not completely out of the question.,what with missiles, atomic powered navy and clever strategic planning. Not likely, but I wouldn't become smug about it. Remember Hannibal -- where there's a will....etc.
If we dismantle the US Army, Navy and Air Force we will still have Homeland Security and possibly the IRS as armed forces. Of the members of those forces, which ones have taken an oath to defend the Constitution? Which have not?
I do not think it is possible to dismantle the Marines. My friend Mr. Harter passed away two years ago, but I am told by other Marines that death does not excuse, and Harter is still on duty.
There are 7 uniformed services (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Surgeon General, and Nat'l Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration {seriously, NOAA is a uniformed service!}) that take an oath to support/defend the constitution. As do FBI agents, and to the best that I've been able to identify, so does TSA.
The founding fathers had the same arguments among themselves as we face today. The Federalists wanted a strong central government with some (Adams, Hamilton, etc.) wanting to make a deal with England for reestablishment of a Monarchy, either with King George on better terms or a relative. The Republicans (Jefferson, Monroe, etc.) wanted a weak Federal government with a lot of latitude given to the states. The question of any standing army at all was very central to the issue. Washington knew that England was temporarily distracted elsewhere and that the was was not over and would be resumed. Also, Washington's military side remembered how hard it was to get the individual colonies to pay for his army favored a Federal government with enough power to maintain a military but being a Virginian, he never seemed to fully adopt the Federalist side. One strategy was to get Washington to be King but he refused leading King George to say he must be the greatest man in the world to resist the temptation to take it as a reward for all that he had given. Europe, including England, Spain and France continued to make trouble for the Colonies at the frontier and England was suspected in encouraging the Barbary Coast Pirates to attack American ships in the Mediterranean. The difference in Washington's desire for an strong military force was to defend the individual rights of the citizens of the new Republic. Luckily, that was a large enough task for that great man and he did not have to run all over the globe searching for opportunities to spread democracy to all the citizens of the planet. The example of the United States and its success was once what it took for that task, not drones or boots on the ground.
Wow, someone in the media who gets it. It is truly amazing that someone in journalism knows something about history and how it relates to the current situation. To bad Mr. Washington is not here now, he would surely put Mr. Obama in his place.
Miss Zito is a frequent guest on the John Batchelor Show on WABC radio, which is syndicated on several other stations across the country. I usually listen to the podcasts.
If Washington were alive today, he'd be crossing the Potomac again to lead an attack on a corrupt, oppressive, unjust government. I have no doubt that he would have gone to war again Obama, Bush, Clinton...
I don't imagine that Congress will agree to this cut. I'm more concerned about the cuts that have already happened to the Navy ships and the Air Force, along with what's been going on in the officer and NCO ranks of all the services.
But I can't help but come back to, we'd be a lot better off as a country if we stopped these unending police actions throughout the world. We've lost a lot of young men and money and Iraq and Afghanistan are in worse shape than when we went in.
These guys really like their drones. I guess they figure we don't need troops as long as we have drones. I'm not sure what the best course of action is but I have very little confidence in this administration to do what is best for the US.
I have ZERO confidence in this administration to do the right thing… except by accident.
In this case, they're accidentally proposing to do the right thing. Our military is supposed to exist to defend us from aggression - not traipse about the globe killing people and creating new enemies. Our military does not belong in most of the places it is sent these days. The Feral government wastes lives, treasure and good will in an ongoing effort to generate profits for the war business. You can't sell bombs to the government until it uses up the bombs it already has…so the administration (Bush or Obama) is constantly looking for new places to drop the old bombs.
Now if you think the US should be the world's policeman, you'll reach a different conclusion. But if that's part of the Feral government mission, let's revise the charter. Amend the Constitution to read, "The US military shall be deployed to invade countries and kill people to ensure that businesses that make war materiel shall remain profitable and politicians who pander to this mayhem are re-elected."
I think it may be time to withdraw our troops from Germany and Japan. Some would argue they are there in case trouble breaks out in the region. If it does its more in their interest to address it. We don't always have to be involved. I think we could have a smaller military but it has to be done right.
That one's tough to get past. We told Germany and Japan that they were bad children, no more military for you, we'll cover your military needs. Of the allied powers, the only one of military significance that can be trusted is the USA. Sad but true. It won't be solved with a magical wave of a pencil, it'd take at LEAST a decade to get the groundwork under control.
Trusted? USA? Who invaded Iraq and killed 100,000+ civilians (supposedly) to get the WMDs? Bush and Company knew there were no WMDs, but Saddam had to go regardless of the morality. In some ways the demise of the soviets was the worst thing to happen to liberty because it removed the only thing that kept the US military (controlled by corporate interests) from doing unconscionable things, the acts of war criminals. The America I was raised to love for its morality and ethics has already been destroyed. Only people like us can restore it, and voting won't get it done. No military power can be trusted. NONE! No I don't support the idiot Dems either.
Yeah, the worst part is that out of the allied powers, the US is STILL the most trustworthy that still has a military force to occupy. The UK and Russia haven't even needed that flimsy excuse. So the short answer is until the troop obligations can be resolved, the US has to be the ones supplying them
Would that include the military hospital we have in Germany? One of the reasons we have various supply, repair and medical bases around the world is so that we can get medical aide, repair and supply for our troops and equipment as quickly as possible. I personally prefer fighting our enemies on their territory, not ours. I realize I'm a minority in that view around here.
Actually, yes, Rammstein is one of the bases that we hold by the surrender. You need not worry about the whole fighting enemies on their territory, the last time that failed to happen was the Civil War, and that was a special case. Did you actually have a point here, or did you just want to display your complete lack of knowledge of military history and modern logistics (hint: a CVBG with the USNS Comfort is all you need, anywhere in the world)
Against a nuclear weapon how many more troops does it take to gain an advantage? One, a thousand, a million... How many will make a difference?
On 911 would one, or a million, more troops have done anything about the airplanes being hijacked?
For a bio-chemical attack on a city, or a dozen cities... How many troops would make a difference?
Standing armies going into fields to shoot at each other pretty much ended with WWII. Now it's squads with objectives in mind and all sorts of technical assistance.
The nature of war has changed. It's time for America to fight in 2014, not 1914. Fewer troops, more technology. More subtleties with cyber war (like we did to Iran with their centrifuges, but we didn't).
The last 'good' president said it best: "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together." Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961
The smaller "peacetime" military, the more expensive to gear up in time of war. Sure, we'll save a few $$ in the short term, but how will we be able to pay for something if we face a heavy duty adversary? If we had the levels they were proposing before Iraq and Afghanistan, the war would most likely be 3 times more costly in both dollars and casualties. But hey, we can expand food stamps!
The first thing that we need to do is pull our troops out of Europe. They do next to nothing there other than pump American dollars into the European economies. The threat of a soviet invasion is long past. And what threat there is should be countered by European forces and tactical nukes.
We should also remove ground forces from Japan. What force is needed in the region is naval power and associated Marines for a quick reaction force.
Air transport needs to be increased so that power in the form of tank and heavy infantry can be rapidly deployed throughout the world. We also need strategic alliances and partner governments to where these forces can be transported and assembled.
Somewhat off-topic, but I am reminded of a possibly apocryphal story which recounted a dialogue between Hermann Goering and a high-ranking officer in the Swiss Army.
"How many men do you have at (a location I have forgotten)?" Goering asked.
"About five thousand", the Swiss officer replied.
"I see," Goering said. "So what would you do if I sent ten thousand men into that area?"
Without batting an eye, the Swiss officer replied: "each of my men would have to shoot twice, sir".
That describes the real defense of America. Iraq and Afghanistan never should have occurred. The invasions were for economic reasons to support a dollar and corporate interest that doesn't warrant the loss of one life. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The soviets learned from Afghanistan. When will those *#&%^!)@ idiots in the Dark Center study a little history and shake off the shackles of enslavement to banksters?
This was really well written. It concisely got to the root of what our enemies will capitalize on, when we are incapable of a swift military response to an attack. The outrageous lack of concern from Hagel should be grounds for removal. He clearly has no notion of what a strong nation with ready military force looks like.
Our enemies won't be able to capitalize on anything… unless, of course, most of our military is strung out around the globe fighting wars we have no business being in.
They want just a high tech virtual military. Hagel should read The War After Armageddon by Ralph Peters. See what happens one some one figures out how to jam all the high tech. http://www.amazon.com/War-After-Armagedd...
It takes boots on the ground to win a war. If you aren't standing on it, you don't control it. When you are a short on troops as we will be, the enemy will just stretch you out until you break somewhere, when that happens, you're done as a fighting force.
Henry Kissinger said that our undoing would be that this nation has no consistent foreign policy. He was correct. We are moving into a time in this country where we are reassessing our priorities. Unfortunately, the politicians making the cuts will have to go through the process of change in a very clumsy manner because so few have any deeply held historical perspective nor philosophical view of life. Funding a military for DEFENSE (not offense) is one of the few purchases that our tax money is supposed to be funneled into. Unfortunately, the military has become a sort of entitlement program for pencil-pushers and rule-obedient non-thinkers.
We engage in endless wars of attrition for NO rational national self interest. We take down dictators in nations that haven't the philosophical ability to self-govern and then wonder why the REAL enemy overtakes the situation where we left a leadership vacuum.
We trained the Taliban to fight off the Russian invasion ... and then when we invaded Afghanistan without a clear-cut strategy and with suicidal Rules-of-Engagement for our troops we scratch our collective heads with amazement that the Middle East is historically called: "The Graveyard of Empires". I realize that our President is an anti-colonialist and that he views our military and the way that it is run as the problem with this nation. To a certain extent he is correct. The fact remains, however that George Washington was correct in stating that the best defense is a strong offense. Deterrents do work ... especially with the sort of enemies that we face today. However the type of defense that we need is changing and only the most analytical thought involved in the remake of the military will be acceptable and appropriate to maintain the future of our nation's defense.
The fact is that our foreign policy sucks and it greatly influences the thinking of certain military "geniuses." As to military incursions, I agree they were stupid. No boots on the ground unless there is a direct threat to the USA, but also, a strong military to back up strong words.
I agree... with one caveat: Strong thoughts before strong words...no "shooting from the hip" which has been the unfortunate case for the last few presidential administrations.
Oh. Yeah.
Damned Mexican invasion.
Well, that's going on, not because we CAN'T stop it, but because the politicians are playing silly buggers with the future of America.
I do not think it is possible to dismantle the Marines. My friend Mr. Harter passed away two years ago, but I am told by other Marines that death does not excuse, and Harter is still on duty.
Europe, including England, Spain and France continued to make trouble for the Colonies at the frontier and England was suspected in encouraging the Barbary Coast Pirates to attack American ships in the Mediterranean. The difference in Washington's desire for an strong military force was to defend the individual rights of the citizens of the new Republic. Luckily, that was a large enough task for that great man and he did not have to run all over the globe searching for opportunities to spread democracy to all the citizens of the planet. The example of the United States and its success was once what it took for that task, not drones or boots on the ground.
But I can't help but come back to, we'd be a lot better off as a country if we stopped these unending police actions throughout the world. We've lost a lot of young men and money and Iraq and Afghanistan are in worse shape than when we went in.
In this case, they're accidentally proposing to do the right thing. Our military is supposed to exist to defend us from aggression - not traipse about the globe killing people and creating new enemies. Our military does not belong in most of the places it is sent these days. The Feral government wastes lives, treasure and good will in an ongoing effort to generate profits for the war business. You can't sell bombs to the government until it uses up the bombs it already has…so the administration (Bush or Obama) is constantly looking for new places to drop the old bombs.
Now if you think the US should be the world's policeman, you'll reach a different conclusion. But if that's part of the Feral government mission, let's revise the charter. Amend the Constitution to read, "The US military shall be deployed to invade countries and kill people to ensure that businesses that make war materiel shall remain profitable and politicians who pander to this mayhem are re-elected."
Bush and Company knew there were no WMDs, but Saddam had to go regardless of the morality.
In some ways the demise of the soviets was the worst thing to happen to liberty because it removed the only thing that kept the US military (controlled by corporate interests) from doing unconscionable things, the acts of war criminals. The America I was raised to love for its morality and ethics has already been destroyed. Only people like us can restore it, and voting won't get it done.
No military power can be trusted. NONE!
No I don't support the idiot Dems either.
But I don't think it in our self-interest for the Soviet Union to be restored.
What you're suggesting is that Tony Stark provoked the Russians into invading the Ukraine so he could continue making and selling the Jericho.
On 911 would one, or a million, more troops have done anything about the airplanes being hijacked?
For a bio-chemical attack on a city, or a dozen cities... How many troops would make a difference?
Standing armies going into fields to shoot at each other pretty much ended with WWII. Now it's squads with objectives in mind and all sorts of technical assistance.
The nature of war has changed. It's time for America to fight in 2014, not 1914. Fewer troops, more technology. More subtleties with cyber war (like we did to Iran with their centrifuges, but we didn't).
"we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961
We should also remove ground forces from Japan. What force is needed in the region is naval power and associated Marines for a quick reaction force.
Air transport needs to be increased so that power in the form of tank and heavy infantry can be rapidly deployed throughout the world. We also need strategic alliances and partner governments to where these forces can be transported and assembled.
"How many men do you have at (a location I have forgotten)?" Goering asked.
"About five thousand", the Swiss officer replied.
"I see," Goering said. "So what would you do if I sent ten thousand men into that area?"
Without batting an eye, the Swiss officer replied: "each of my men would have to shoot twice, sir".
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
The soviets learned from Afghanistan. When will those *#&%^!)@ idiots in the Dark Center study a little history and shake off the shackles of enslavement to banksters?
We are moving into a time in this country where we are reassessing our priorities.
Unfortunately, the politicians making the cuts will have to go through the process of change in a very clumsy manner because so few have any deeply held historical perspective nor philosophical view of life.
Funding a military for DEFENSE (not offense) is one of the few purchases that our tax money is supposed to be funneled into. Unfortunately, the military has become a sort of entitlement program for pencil-pushers and rule-obedient non-thinkers.
We engage in endless wars of attrition for NO rational national self interest. We take down dictators in nations that haven't the philosophical ability to self-govern and then wonder why the REAL enemy overtakes the situation where we left a leadership vacuum.
We trained the Taliban to fight off the Russian invasion ... and then when we invaded Afghanistan without a clear-cut strategy and with suicidal Rules-of-Engagement for our troops we scratch our collective heads with amazement that the Middle East is historically called: "The Graveyard of Empires".
I realize that our President is an anti-colonialist and that he views our military and the way that it is run as the problem with this nation. To a certain extent he is correct. The fact remains, however that George Washington was correct in stating that the best defense is a strong offense. Deterrents do work ... especially with the sort of enemies that we face today. However the type of defense that we need is changing and only the most analytical thought involved in the remake of the military will be acceptable and appropriate to maintain the future of our nation's defense.