Rudy Giuliani continues to be one of the potentially most dangerous men in the world. Tonight he used the phrase "terrorist war".
OUT OF SYNC WITH OUR ALLIES
With Giuliani, how are we going to re-join with our allies, who emphatically do not share his view that the World is a battlefield, simply because there is a credible threat from some terrorist groups? [More on why John Edwards is right to keep hacking away at the GOP's poor usage and its broad-reaching implications.]
JUSTICE, NOT 'WAR', STILL THE BEST IDEA
Giuliani gainsays 'criminal justice', but he never mentions that Mary Jo White, et. al., despite the hurdles, did manage successful prosecutions pre 9/11. So, what he is suggesting is that, as Executive, he'd rather not have his hands tied by the criminal justice system, or perhaps by the justice system at all. This is Bush-Cheney all over again! While the U.S. is just now getting to trials for its Gitmo detainees, other nations, including Britain and Spain, have *concluded* trials for *post* 9-11 conspiracies!
HAVE YOU EVER MET A COMMANDER WHO DIDN'T WANT MORE TROOPS, EXCEPT A STRONG ONE?
Romney wants more troops and to exclude defense spending from fiscal discipline (he wants defense spending to grow geometrically with the economy). Is he planning another nation building exercise, in the near future? Obama is onto the same 'more troops' thing, perhaps because he thinks he needs to match the GOP's rhetoric.
This is something that Milton Friedman never foresaw: an all-volunteer force means that no politician, Executive or Legislative, is willing to call up a draft. So, instead, we build an ever bigger standing military, putting dollars into a non-productive part of the economy with almost zero productivity growth! (I'd like to see Romney and the "growth economy Americans" spin how that b.s. is "pro growth").
BUSH-CHENEY DOCTRINE :: "WAR" ON THE SIDE, NATION BUILDING ALONE AND ON THE CHEAP
If "The Government" wants to make a "war", let them call up a draft - no more of Rummy-like 'war-on-the-side'. The Bush-Cheney doctrine on sending just the troops we have has hobbled the nation's ability to secure the peace, to perform counterinsurgency, by separating the combined strength of the nation into "discretionary forces" already conscripted and a "non discretionary force" unwilling to be conscripted. And it's even worse, because we have Blackwater and the HUGE "contracted, semi-discretionary forces".
CONTINUE TO GO IT ALONE :: THE U.S.S. TITANIC
Last, McCain continues to use the phrase, "titanic struggle" in relation to the ... well, he never really says. I assume he means the fight with al-qaeda, broadly, without specifying whether he means their military capabilities or the pull of their ideology. In any case, he continues to use it in the context of explaining his Iraq stance. He seems to be so lost on how to direct the ideological and military confrontation with al-jihad that the irony of applying "Titanic" to the current status of our Ship of State, in Iraq and perhaps elsewhere and otherwise, apparently escapes him (and his advisers).
(Oh, just for kick in McCain's pants, this is what Ken Mehlman was saying back in November. We have met the enemy, and ...)
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
GOP Candidates Flub Defense
