"To fulfill its self-imposed obligations as sole superpower, the United States would need a citizenry that subscribes to the cwarrior-patriot’s code: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. How sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country. Most Americans are far more likely to subscribe to the code vividly displayed each weekend in Style sections of newspapers. There, the appeal of dying for one’s country takes a backseat to the latest tips on relationships, restaurants, recipes, street wear, household furnishings, and places to be seen.
Between what our duties as a self-proclaimed indispensable nation ostensibly require and what our freewheeling culture encourages, there exists a contradiction. In the White House, the Pentagon, and the Congress, the stewards of U.S. national security policy assume they can manage that contradiction. Yet day-by-day, evidence suggesting otherwise piles up." Dallas news.
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Colonel (Ret.) Doctor Bacevich believes that the numbers recruitable for the US armed forces on a voluntary basis are not large enough to sustain a foreign policy as aggressive as ours.
He and I fought in Vietnam. We had over 500,000 troops there in 1968 just before Nixon's phased withdrawal began. There were also several hundred thousand anticommunist native troops. South Vietnam and the adjoining countries were very large. The numbers available to us were, IMO, marginal in the task of trying to defend the country against the Viet Cong/NVA.
If that is so, then how ridiculous was the attempt to occupy and pacify Iraq and/or Afghanistan with what amounted to a relative handful of men. It was obvious from the beginning that the numbers available were too small. The voodoo semi-religion of COIN was used to inflict the delusion of sufficiency of forces on the armed forces of the US. This doctrinal fantasy was spread by people like McMaster, Nagl, Kilcullen and a cluster of other "children" who professed to have learned in libraries that VN was lost to the communists because the US blundered around in the jungles and rice paddies throughout the war trying to re-fight the Battle of the Bulge or the Okinawa campaign. In fact the US sought assiduously to apply the COIN folly to VN throughout the war, and did it with resources that were vastly greater than any available in the GWOT. I was there and worked with the CORDS/COIN apparat. So, I guess I probably know what I am talking about.
Colonel Bacevich does not seem very specific about the solution to the question that he poses.
It seems clear to me that the draft will not return. Bacevich says that as well. He and I agree that American culture is now so sybaritic and self-obsessed that it is unlikely that the force necessary to pursue our self-assigned mission of world "purification" can be created and maintained.
As a rationalist I feel it necessary to say that the "reach" of US foreign policy has, since 9/11, exceeded its "grasp." We should give up our R2P dreams and define US security interest as being the defense of the homeland. If we do that then the numbers available and our policy would begin to match. pl
Jus'thinkin
I do not share your "supposition." The awful truth is that if you are American your government's FP is run by a lot of post-adolescents with arrested development and fancy degrees. In the case of SA it is a long standing habit, hard to overcome for the group think to assume that SA is an ally when they are not. The Saudis have from to time bought military material from other countries, UK, and France mostly, but they think of US equipment as the best and so they prefer to buy it. It is a matter of prestige for them among the GCC countries. Are the arms manufacturers pleased? Certainly they are and the US government is pleased to see American industry patronized but I think that less logical and rational habits of mind are the main factor in the "alliance." pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 25 April 2016 at 08:57 PM
During his question and answer session, he was allowed to comment on a few pictures related to his tenure as SOS. The famous UN picture was shown and that was were he contorted his arguments to prove to us that he made an innocent mistake, because "everyone believed the information that was given to him by the intelligence services". I have to admit that this is a black mark on his soul that will not be easily washed away. I had the impression that he believed this/his lie, after having repeated it so many times. I guess he is human but then again his attempt to rationalize his choices lead to death of hundreds of thousands.
Posted by: Amir | 28 April 2016 at 02:32 AM
moribund republics tend to bring out the grump and the worry wart in old republicans.
Posted by: rjj | 10 May 2016 at 12:28 PM