On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:04:10 +0700, John
wrote:

On Sat, 3 Apr 2010 10:05:43 -0800, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:

F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Thu, 1 Apr 2010 12:07:33 -0800, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:
snip
That would, however, require the American public
to grow a pair and stop being afraid of their own shadow. That isn't
practical with all of the hype from every possible direction so it
will require that our politicians display a little courage, possibly
by falling on their own swords for the greater good.
snip
============
Even here there is no [quasi] logic applied. With the serious
problems of illegal immigration, drugs, and now narco-violence
spilling over our souther borders, why do we have troops
stationed everywhere in the world *EXCEPT* along the southern
border?

That's easy George.
The Latin gangs terrorizing places like Phoenix aren't wearing diapers on
their heads.
4th ID would be patrolling the streets from Mexico City north to the border
today if they did.

I still think my idea to parachute 10,000 naked menopausal Irish women each
with a bottle of single malt into Iraq and Afgahanistan is a winner. They'd
give a drunken Irish ass woopin' to anyone that didn't gouge out their eyes
and that would be the end of that.


I suppose that begs the question of what ARE you doing in Iraq and
Afghanistan? Or perhaps Why? And even more so, what do you hope to
accomplish?

Iraq I was relatively easy to assess, but Iraq II? Afghanistan?

Cheers,

John D.
(jdslocombatgmail)
================

There appears to be several parallel and overlapping rationales,
none of which appear to be particularly convincing to an outside
observer (or the general public). In no particular order:

(1) These "adventures" busy the giddy minds with foreign
quarrels, diverting attention from critical agenda items such as
meaningful financial [re]regulation and immigration reform;

(2) The sunk cost fallacy [Grandma called this "sending good
money after bad"] -- we have invested so much we must see it
through;

(3) "Cheap" oil [well head price only] in the case of Iraq,
mineral wealth and right-of-way for railroads, pipe lines and
considerable mineral wealth in the case of Afghanistan;

(4) Residual "Crusader" mentality, combined in many cases with
concern for the security of Israel at the expense of long-term
best interests of the American people;

(5) Psychopathic overly aggressive personalities, only a few of
which are in the military but infest the civilian branches, e.g.
BATF;

(6) Short-term economic factors such as economic stimulation and
diversion of manpower from the [un]employment pool.

(7) War profiteering, with huge political campaign contributions
to candidates from both parties from the profiteers.

It should be noted that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the
likely future wars in Columbia, Venezuela, and Iran are all the
products of the gutless US Congress that refuses to include even
the most elementary precautions such as making the majority of
authorizations/appropriations bills non fungible, i.e. dedicated
to specific activities and acquisitions, which cannot be used for
anything else, if possible under individual criminal as well as
civil sanctions.

Another helpful step would be absolute [decreasing] limits on the
numbers of U.S. troops deployed or temporarily assigned [TDY] by
countries, which would require a Congressional Declaration of War
[NO B/S CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTIONS] to override, e.g.

country marine military Other
embassy attaches
guards
Afghanistan 100 3* 5
Albania 50 1 3
Algeria 75 3* 5
Andorra 25 1 2
....
Zaire 50 1 5
Zambia 50 1 5
Zimbabwe 50 1 5

* representatives of the Army, Navy and Air Force


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).