Osler's Razor

I am very happy with the number at this point. I thought it would be smaller; would like it to be more. Bringing the soldiers home is easy; the hard part is bringing the equipment home or getting it back to the major bases, accounting for it, etc... before bringing it home. We are there because Pakistan and India don't like each other and they have bombs. Afghanistan won't change much if we stay or go. Also bringing a lot of soldiers home means that they will leave the military and need jobs. Returning veterans are not finding it easy to get a job, but the unemployment rate is higher than non-vets.

Libya, we have a bunch of people sitting on a base (probably MacDill) programming the cooridnates of the drones. Diplomatically we are hoping that MQ doesn't slaughter his dissenters. The tough part is people die in civil wars. If we stand by idly we get blamed because it is easy for people to blame the 'world' cop.

Iraq - well we still have bases in Germany and Korea all these years later so I expect we will continue to have a small presence their for years to come.

Somalia - arghh.... they have pirates over there preying on ships full of oil and supplies. One might say we are providing protection at sea to world commerce.

Just some thoughts.... it's early
 

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The military is one area in which Republicans fight to the death in support of big government. Perhaps, American corporations and multnationals have not made enough profit yet from our never ending involvment in foregin civil wars.
 

I can't tell if anon 9:40 meant "multinationals" or "maltnationals" (which just seems like a delicious concept). I do like the particular bent of paranoia expressed though where they make it clear that both American AND multinational corporations are war profiteers. Quick question, what American but non-multinational corporation profits from war? Or is redundancy just your thing?

Anyways, I'm disappointed in Obama's move here because his generals (you know, the ones that have directed a strategy that has seen significant gains in Afghanistan in the past two years) say it is the wrong thing to do. His Secretary of Defense also thinks it is a bad move. We take 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan and it makes fighting more dangerous and harder for the 67,000 that remain. I think if he was going to adopt a policy that flew in the face of his generals then he should have just announced he was bringing them all home, now. This feels like a half measure that is policitically motivated when all decisions in this area should be strategically motivated.

I just hope that both the American and multinational corporations get everything they can before he brings all the troops home. That way when Colonel Sanders calls the next meeting of corporate fat cats where everyone smokes huge cigars and plots the oppression of the workers at the hands of the military industrial complex and everyone takes turns riding around on black helicopters there will really be cause to celebrate!
 

Oh...if I were president? Where to begin!?!?

First of all, before I ever touch the war issue, I would sign an executive order banning public use of the expression “I could care less.” If you could care “less,” then you must at least care some, thereby rendering this popular misstatement illogical within the context it is often used. I anticipate that some people will accuse me of “trampling on the Constitution,” but I COULDN’T care less about what they think.

Moving on to War (or “kinetic military action”), huh, what is it good for? Absolutely...strategic national interests.

I think the draw-down in Afghanistan ought to be swift and immediate. I can get behind a sub 10K troop level for the purposes of training and equipping the Afghan military and targeted spec-ops, but our occupying force needs to come home. This, along with Obama’s surge in 09', should have happened under Bush.

Now that we have exhausted discussion on the countries I think we rightly invaded, let’s talk about ILY (Iraq, Lybia, and Yemen).

Iraq: I think we are doing well there, insofar as well=not terrible. We should probably go ahead an install our large, permanent military base and dig in for a long-haul relationship with the people, the government, and the oil!

Lybia: Either target Gaddafi/Quadaffi/Kadafi/Goofoffee/Hotcoffee or get out. I know we want the people to achieve their own freedom, but how long should we sustain a bloody stalemate?

Yemen: Aside from initiating hostilities against yet another country that most Americans cannot point to on a map, our military objective here is so miserably unclear that we may as well throw in the towel. The alternative–a protracted, perhaps indefinite, drone war with al-Qaeda affiliates.

But back to the issues that matter! Why the H-E-2(hockey sticks) do people say “irregardless???”
 

"That way when Colonel Sanders calls the next meeting of corporate fat cats where everyone smokes huge cigars and plots the oppression of the workers at the hands of the military industrial complex and everyone takes turns riding around on black helicopters there will really be cause to celebrate!"

Well, it's a well known fact, sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world known as The Pentaverate... Who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado known as, "The Meadows." Who's in this Pentaverate? The Queen. The Vatican. The Gettys. The Rothchildes. And Colonel Sanders before he went teats up. Oh I hated the Colonel with his wee beady eyes, and that smug look on his face, "Oh you're gonna buy my chicken, ohhhhhh!" He puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it for a fortnight like smartarrrrrrse!
 

CTL - I want to know why people always re-iterate? Does it sound better?
 

Christine,

People reiterate because it helps to more fully convey the main point of the author’s contention to those reading.

Let me say again, because a single iteration is often insufficient to solidify an argument in the minds of the audience, it is sometimes useful to restate the basis of a claim for clarity’s sake.

In other words, one might need to repeat themselves in order to get a point across.
 

Let me iterate:

I would withdraw from Afghanistan immediately.

I have no problem with the President disagreeing with his generals (civilian command of the armed forces is a good thing), but I have a nagging thought that the 33,000 being withdrawn in 2012 is at least in part intended to be a DNC 2012 election talking point.

I believe that the Razor is a mouthpiece of The Pentaverate.

I could care less about pandas.

Let me reiterate:

Afghanistan.
Civilian command.
Election.
Pentaverate.
Antipandite.
 

As the guys who supposedly wear the white hats,I think we have to ask ourselves,have we improved the lives of people of the countries where we have fought? Is the life of an Iraqi better because we went to war there? Are they able to go out into the street to buy a loaf of bread without worrying they'll be killed? Do they have the basic necessities for life? And I don't think the answer is yes. And now maybe it is irrelevant,since we can't afford to be at war anyway. It's finally happened. $10 billion a month for Libya.Just Libya. And we're cutting our education budgets more and more,and people are still hungry,homeless and unemployed here. I'm for bringing the soldiers home now.
 

CTL -
Well if one must reiterate they
1) did not explain themself or the point in an adequate manner the first time,
2) they don't think the listener was paying attention or
3) they like to hear themself speak.

Back to the topic at hand:
Yemen (I swore it read Somalia this morning): poor, unstable and a previous safe haven for Al Queda. USS Cole bombed while refueling in the port of Aden in October 2000. In all honesty, I haven't followed Yemen much as of late.
 

Christine,

When I reiterate, it's always because of #3.
 

CTL - but you are the intern and interns wish to be heard!
 

You have no idea how true that is!
 

Dee dee needs to let you get out more...
 

I'm pleased with the numbers for Afghanistan withdrawal overall. It's more than a lot of us over here were expecting.

Disclaimer - I'm speaking for myself here, not for the Army or DOD.

It's time for us to get out of Afghanistan. Our nation-building initiatives are admirable, but (a) that's not really the mission of the Department of Defense, and (b) it's an example of what the military calls "mission creep." Instead of staying with our original mission (take out al-Qaeda and make Afghanistan where it's no longer a safe harbor for AQ), we've gotten very involved with nation-building - more than is required. My personal opinion is that when we leave, the country's going to return to its tribal roots where bribery, corruption, and distrust of the government are the orders of the day. If that isn't gonna change no matter how long we're over here, why not get us out of here ASAP?

As far as Iraq, we shouldn't have gone there in the first place. I supported the invasion in 2003 based on the "intelligence" showing there were WMDs in Iraq that could be used against us. I was wrong, as was that intelligence.

We need to stay out of the civil wars entirely - a stable Middle East is important to America's national interests, but those are fights between the rebels and the ruling governments. Plus, our military continues to be overextended and exhausted. We simply can't afford to respond to every crisis in the world, no matter how many people call for us to do so. In the end, we have to look out for our own national interests. Getting this militarily involved in this many conflicts isn't, in my opinion, in our national interests.
 

Campbell--thank you for your comments.Saying a prayer.