THE PENTAGON’S NEW MAP

U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE ^ | 3/5/03 | THOMAS P.M. BARNETT

[Brian Mosely]

Since the end of the cold war, the United States has been trying to come up with an operating theory of the world—and a military strategy to accompany it. Now there’s a leading contender. It involves identifying the problem parts of the world and aggressively shrinking them. Since September 11, 2001, the author, a professor of warfare analysis, has been advising the Office of the Secretary of Defense and giving this briefing continually at the Pentagon and in the intelligence community. Now he gives it to you.

LET ME TELL YOU why military engagement with Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad is not only necessary and inevitable, but good.

When the United States finally goes to war again in the Persian Gulf, it will not constitute a settling of old scores, or just an enforced disarmament of illegal weapons, or a distraction in the war on terror. Our next war in the Gulf will mark a historical tipping point—the moment when Washington takes real ownership of strategic security in the age of globalization

[expatpat]

.....regions plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder,....I call the Non-Integrating Gap.....

The NIG! Is this guy a racist, or what?

[Billy_bob_bob]

I was doing fine until I reached the part where he included South Africa in the "core" states, instead of being one of the "gap" states. There is no rule of law in South Africa any longer, that nation is about two steps behind Zimbabwe in the race to the stone age. If this "deep thinking" author doesn't recognize this fact, then how I can believe that he has a deep understanding of global politics?

[Free the USA]

fyi

[Lyford]

Bump for later

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Congressman Billybob]

Note the nearly obvious medical treatment analogy to this geographic and military analysis. When a cancer is solitary and isolated, the proper treatment is surgery (i.e., war). When the cancer has metastasized to many parts of the body (the world), the proper treatment becomes chemical and radiological (isolation, sanctions, ulitmately embargoes).

If in the course of treatment, one of several cancers in the body becomes life-threatening, that one alone requires immediate surgery even while the others remain in "less-aggresive" treatment. Any oncologist could have written this strategy in his sleep.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, not yet up on UPI, and FR, "Truth, the First Casualty?"

Latest book(let), "to Restore Trust in America."

[mikenola]

regions plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder, and—most important—the chronic conflicts that incubate the next generation of global terrorists. These parts of the world I call the Non-Integrating Gap, or Gap.

The reason I support going to war in Iraq is not simply that Saddam is a cutthroat Stalinist willing to kill anyone to stay in power, nor because that regime has clearly supported terrorist networks over the years. The real reason I support a war like this is that the resulting long-term military commitment will finally force America to deal with the entire Gap as a strategic threat environment.

[hchutch]

Ain't a promoinent GOP leader (Majority Leader Frist) a surgeon?