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The Counterrevolution in Military Affairs
The Weekly Standard ^ | February 6, 2006 | Ralph Peters

Posted on 02/05/2006 7:16:31 PM PST by ExSoldier

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All emphasis is wholly and completely mine! I got this as an e-mail from a retired LTC of Special Forces. He's been my friend since high school and not only have I actually trusted him with my life, but I listen to him when he says an analysis is "spot on."
1 posted on 02/05/2006 7:16:33 PM PST by ExSoldier
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To: ExSoldier

you have a link for this?


2 posted on 02/05/2006 7:17:41 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator
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To: DAVEY CROCKETT; MamaDearest; LucyT; Velveeta; nw_arizona_granny; Cindy; Oorang; Godzilla; ...
PING!!!!
3 posted on 02/05/2006 7:19:23 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: Sidebar Moderator
Got in an e-mail from my best friend. Since the article is dated FEB 6th in the e-mail, I'm guessing it's on page 18 of the newest Weekly Standard.
4 posted on 02/05/2006 7:21:33 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier; Admin Moderator
It's discussed over here with 134 replies.
5 posted on 02/05/2006 7:22:28 PM PST by Jim Noble (And you know what I'm talkin' 'bout)
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To: ExSoldier

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1567756/posts


6 posted on 02/05/2006 7:22:49 PM PST by leadpenny
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To: Jim Noble; Admin Moderator

Well, SHUCKS. Delete mine then. Spent a LOT of time in the formatting, though. Shoot.


7 posted on 02/05/2006 7:25:55 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier

This is a thought-provoking article, and I'm glad that you reposted it. Every Freeper should read it, and think seriously about what is being said here.


8 posted on 02/05/2006 7:26:20 PM PST by mojito
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To: mojito

We fight too kindly. Destroy the enemy and his will to fight is what this is all about, and we pretend it is some sort of gentlemenly duel.


9 posted on 02/05/2006 7:39:02 PM PST by mathurine (ua)
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To: ExSoldier
Your friend isn't very sharp. Peters is an idiot.

There is, in short, not a single enemy in existence or on the horizon willing to play the victim to the military we continue to build.

That is, in itself, a victory. It means we DETERED a war of that nature.

Not a single item in our trillion-dollar arsenal can compare with the genius of the suicide bomber--the breakthrough weapon of our time. Our intelligence systems cannot locate him, our arsenal cannot deter him, and, all too often, our soldiers cannot stop him before it is too late.

Horsepucky. Suicide bombers continue to attack civilians in Iraq, but few of our soldiers are being killed by suicide bombers. Name a strategic goal accomplished by the suicide bombers. US out of Iraq? End of Israel? WE're winning the fight against suicide bombers.

One of the most consistently disheartening experiences an adult can have today is to listen to the endless attempts by our intellectuals and intelligence professionals to explain religious terrorism in clinical terms, assigning rational motives to men who have moved irrevocably beyond reason.

True - but few people pay much attention to "our intellectuals and intelligence professionals" - they have a pee-poor track record.

Increasingly, our military is designed for breathtaking sprints, yet a war with China--were one forced upon us by events--would be a miserable, long march. For all the rhetoric expended and the innumerable wargames played, the best metaphor for a serious struggle with Beijing--perhaps of Homeric length--comes from that inexhaustible little book, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, with its pathetic image of a Western gunboat lobbing shells uselessly into a continent.

Dude, a war with China doesn't mean an invasion of China. That would mean nukes, and most folks understand we cannot win in any meaningful sense such a war. Peters is raising a strawman.

The media may constitute the decisive element in the global counterrevolution in military affairs, and the video camera--that insatiable accomplice of the terrorist--the cheap negation of our military technology.

Peters is a media darling, but most folks trust the media about as much as they trust used car salesmen. Those cameras didn't count for squat against the US military in 2003, did they?

Peters is simply anti-F22. I can sympathize with that, but Peters has no rational alternative.

10 posted on 02/05/2006 7:39:06 PM PST by Mr Rogers
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: ExSoldier
A man of invincible conviction--call it delusion, if you will--armed with explosives stolen or purchased for a handful of soiled bills can have a strategic impact that staggers governments.

This is ridiculous -- I stopped reading early in this article. The "invincible conviction" rhetoric is silly. And furthermore the sentence is just wrong.

No suicide bomber can "stagger" our government, while our armor (along with innumerable other stragegies) have kept our casualties in this war exceedingly low.

12 posted on 02/05/2006 7:51:21 PM PST by 68skylark
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To: Mr Rogers

You wonder whether they really take themselves seriously or whether the publisher just wanted more than the usual number of pages of the usual paranoid drivel. This is entertainment for some people out there.


13 posted on 02/05/2006 8:23:19 PM PST by dr_who_2
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To: ExSoldier

BTTT


14 posted on 02/05/2006 8:47:36 PM PST by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")
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To: Bookmaestro

ping


15 posted on 02/05/2006 9:15:07 PM PST by fooman (Get real with Kim Jung Mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: mojito
Well, I thought so, but apparently freepers 68skylark and Mr Rogers don't agree. I especially liked what was said about China, because I think a confrontation with them is inevitable. In fact, I think if we let the UN pussyfoot around with Iran until they actually do get a functioning nuke with a good launch vehicle, everybody is in big trouble. BUT Watch for China to move against Taiwan the moment they perceive that we are fully involved in an Iranian confrontation over nukes.
16 posted on 02/05/2006 9:24:30 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: 68skylark
No suicide bomber can "stagger" our government....

Tell that to John O'Neill who retired from the FBI after 10 years of both hunting Osama and trying to warn everybody who'd even bend him an ear about the threat to our country from Osama. He was forced out of the Bureau and took a cushy job for $300,000 a year as chief of security for the World Trade Center. This was August 2001. On September 11th, he died along with the others.Those 19 Hijackers were suicide bombers. I'd say they not only staggered the government they staggered our economy pretty hard after the government grounded all commercial air for a week. What about a suicide bomber that walks down to the middle of WallStreet with a nuke in a duffle bag? Think that'd stagger the country?

The general militia of flight 93 were struggling with their enemies in the cockpit. A voice was heard in the background, right before the staggering end to the battle screaming ALLAHU AKBAR!! (God is Great). In fact nearly every Jihadist screams the same thing as they give their lives to enter paradise by killing infidels. I think that qualifies as "invincible conviction" in a pretty concrete manner.

17 posted on 02/05/2006 9:41:11 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: Mr Rogers
Name a strategic goal accomplished by the suicide bombers.

Regime change in Spain and Spain out of Iraq.

18 posted on 02/05/2006 9:43:42 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: Deepkimche
He says that if we had had to invade the Japanese homeland, we might have been pushed back into the sea, at best we would have lost well over a million men.

My wife's dad was also a marine in WWII. He flew with the Blacksheep Squadron and he holds the Navy Cross and two Silver Stars among others. He says the same thing. In fact he was so grateful for the A-Bomb that after he left the marines at the rank of Colonel, he went on to get a Ph.d in Nuclear Physics and run a nuclear power plant until his retirement about 12 years ago. I frankly think we as a country lack the guts to use nukes against anyone for any reason. Carter and Clinton were so gutless, they took our only real trump card out of our deck when they dismantled the Neutron Bombs we had, at least so says pop.

19 posted on 02/05/2006 9:49:11 PM PST by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: ExSoldier

Your comment raises a number of points that would take awhile to respond to. Let me just say that I think the author's phrase about the "invincible conviction" of the moronic Muslim bomber is way too florid and maudlin -- it gives the murderer a lot more moral and tactical credit than he deserves. The author is on weak ground, so he strains too hard to make his points.


20 posted on 02/05/2006 9:55:48 PM PST by 68skylark
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