Fighting governments and guerrillas

Americans are not yet ready to have this discussion, but the time is nearly upon us when we can no longer afford, morally or financially, to project U.S. power everywhere and anywhere. I believe there are laws of history that pretty much dictate: "Things that cannot go on forever don't." The only military we need is the kind that stays at home and mobilizes only when we are invaded; a truly defensive military. Does anyone else find it interesting that we say "defense" when we really mean "offense"? It's a change in meaning that is truly Orwellian.

Mary Ann Caton @ 3:32 PM PDT, Mar 22, 2008

How about an army that stays home and gives the rest of us 6 billion others a chance to live in peace.

John @ 9:20 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

How about a military to fight poverty in the USA? Way to much spent on going out and starting fights all around the world.

Richard @ 8:51 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

What bunch of patronizing morons. Asking us, the public, to comment on how the military should be shaped is like asking a bunch of janitors to design a nuclear power plant. That's why we pay a President, a Congress, the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs for. If we don't like what they come up with, then we vote 'em off the island.

JR @ 8:39 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

It's hard to take opinions seriously from someone who can't even spell correctly. To say that we will eventually need to protect EVERY country is a gross exaggeration since not every country needs it. If you would bother to do a little research, you'll realize that we ARE protecting our country and interests with our involvement in countries like Germany and Japan which are now ALLIES. By the way, have you noticed that we have NOT been attacked SINCE 2001? Guess all that "butting in" helped after all!

GAP @ 6:16 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

When I was in the Air Force, I had the opportunity to attend a counterinsurgency briefing at Hurlbert Field during the Vietnam War. I picked up a book there by David Galula, titled "Counterinsurgency Warfare.' When I read the book, I came to the conclusion that there was no way we were going to win in Vietnam. The good news was we won the conventional war in Iraq. It was executed brilliantly by brave members of our Armed Forces. The bad news was we won the war and had no plan for day 2. We must have the proper force structure to be successful in counterinsurgency operations.

ColMacPA @ 5:05 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

the military should have a capability to fight six wars at once, two of them with China, while four of them can be small COIN ops. We should develop an integrated space,sea, air and land all weather, all conditions warfighting machine. We should build up our robot capabilities, and link them through a global system of satellites, with advanced laser and electro magnetic artillery. We should train each child to be a warfighter, starting at age 12, and divert some of our defense budget to sowing small, inactive mines throughout the continent, capable of exploding at a moments notice, even years after the fact.

Wilbur Varela @ 4:18 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

Both Parties are squandering EVERYTHING our previous generations fought so hard for: Social Security? Squandered on PORK projects for greedy pols, who 'invest' our dollars in Treasury IOUs, paying 1-3%. Pentagon: $600+BILLION a year for fancy satellites, etc, that can't seem to find Bin Laden nor IEDs. Are Bush-Cheney looking, or is it their ruse to insure a TRILLION dollars a year for the Bush political base? National Institute of Health squanders some $28+BILLION a year. Does it GIVE this priceless research to Big Pharma, for a 3-5% royalty, or as payback, for HUGE political contributions?

Robert Laughing @ 4:13 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

You must be illiterate and vaguely stupid, we don't fight with diet aids (alli) nor do we protect other countries (look ma, spell check!) that don't have U.S. interests. As for the real question, i.e. what kind of military should we have, flexibility is key as both large strategic targets and assymetrical targets threaten our nation's security. Of course, new diplomacy would greatly ease our troops' burdens but they need to understand both conventional and non-conventional warfare.

RE: Wake up people @ 3:59 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008

The way thing are going, the U.S. will need an army for every country that is an alli or an enemy. Cause we keep on butting in on non-U.S. issues we will eventuall make more enemys. One day all of out troops will be protecting other countrys that they wont be able to protect the county they were made for. We need to pull all troops from others countrys and act on the defense and protect our country not others.

Wake up people @ 2:31 PM PDT, Mar 21, 2008