You're right. I was low ranking. I was an E-4 running the communications team for Prime Minister Alawi in the Green Zone. We were the only Americans allowed inside of his compound except for his Navy SEAL bodyguards and a small detachment of MI people who briefed him. I got to meet Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and I picked the brains of the two MI majors assigned to him. I was kept VERY well up to date on what was going on while I was there.lowing wrote:
Gee I served as well, and I also was over in Iraq in 07 and 08 dodging rockets and mortars, I was a civilian over there. I assume you were a low ranking enlisted man filling sandbags somewhere. This does not make you anymore aware of the big picture than it does me. Being in Iraq does not automatically give you some special knoweldge of foreign policy and world vision. So please give your speech about how much more you know about the world because you were in Iraq, a rest. You were a soldier and you did what you were told to do, you have no greater knowledge because of it.
I believe in peace through deterrance, if you think we have no reason to project power and military might to the world to keep the peace, we will just have to agree to disagree. However, I have history on my side.
Since getting back I've read a ton of books on the situation there which just added onto the knowledge of history I already had. I was reading tomes on Civil War and WWII battles starting in 1st grade. I've read more war history than most of the people working in the Pentagon today. So yes, I'm a total noob who doesn't know what he's talking about at all.
What you fail at is world history. We have the exact same advantage that Russia has maintained throughout the centuries. Our vast size. No one, and I repeat no one has the resources capable of invading our country and winning. It's just not feasible. So please tell me why we need 1 million people on active duty to prevent an impossibility. Could it be that every single talking head ex-general you see on Fox News and other networks yelling and screaming that we need more troops or a certain armament system is on the board of a defense contractor? Could it be!?
Reagan did good things. He updated the military equipment across the board that has given us our current edge. We still use the Hummer, M1A1, Bradley, Apache etc that he approved. No denying that. And nowhere in my rant did I say that we should stop designing weapons systems. We just don't need a million people on active duty wasting our money. Make them all reservists.
Last edited by JohnG@lt (2009-10-05 12:42:47)
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat