November 19, 2006

Editorial

The Army We Need

One welcome dividend of Donald Rumsfeld’s departure from the Pentagon is that the United States will now have a chance to rebuild the Army he spent most of his tenure running down.

Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t like the lessons the Army drew from Vietnam — that politicians should not send American troops to fight a war of choice unless they went in with overwhelming force, a clearly defined purpose and strong domestic backing. He didn’t like the Clintonian notion of using the United States military to secure and rebuild broken states.

And when circumstances in Afghanistan and Iraq called for just the things Mr. Rumsfeld didn’t like, he refused to adapt, letting the Army, and American interests, pay the price for his arrogance.

So one of the first challenges for the next defense secretary and the next Congress is to repair, rebuild and reshape the nation’s ground forces. They need to renew the morale and confidence of America’s serving men and women and restore the appeal of career military service for the brightest young officers.

That will require building a force large enough to end more than three years of unsustainably rapid rotations of units back into battle, misuse of the National Guard, overuse of the Reserves and conscription of veterans back into active service.

More here.

And I see that an innovative and timely back channel "Iran Desk" is being formed in Dubai for the purpose of getting to know the "Evil Doers". Nothing like staying ahead of the curve.

And I see where the Democrats are now all a flutter about how far to goes with the re-establishment of an ETHIC in government.

My party, my party!?

I think perhaps as far a necessary and let the chips fly.

"But, Maa - umm, he got to somethin' and I cant . . .?"

Get a big bunch of knotted cords!

Lantern Bearer