In my last blog posting I asked the question “Did we win?” in Iraq. The relevance of the question is that it informs our ongoing involvement in Afghanistan. The “Part II” question is “Did we win in Libya?” The stated mission was to protect civilian lives and remove Kaddafi. Both were accomplished at virtually no cost to the U.S. treasury, no U.S. service member’s lives lost and no cry from the international community to spend a trillion dollars to rebuild Libya. President Obama was criticized for leading from behind and allowing NATO to do the heavy lifting. Leading from behind looks pretty smart.
The relevance of asking this question regarding Libya is that today some are calling for the U.S. to intervene in Syria to protect civilians and oust an autocrat…sound familiar? I would suggest that what we learned about winning through our experiences in Iraq and Libya should be used to inform our decision regarding Syria.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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General, I greatly appreciate your perspective especially when it comes to matters of the pentagon and our military involvement around the world.You are asking some rather cogent and inciteful questions..
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion when do you think the decision makers in Washington, including our unaccountable and free spending pentagon will wake up to their inefficient and wasteful approach to the use of our resources especially our Military? And also what role should I play in all of this.
P.S. I am including a quote from George Freidman's recent Book "The next Decade"
"The United States has not yet caught its balance, let alone faced directly and honestly what it has become. Nor has it faced the fact that there is no longer a choice. The United States is 25 percent of the global economy and deploys troops in dozens of countries. It was easy to avoid foreign entanglements when it was a small country clinging to the Eastern Seaboard of North America. The concept is charming, but has nothing to do with the reality of American power today. It can disengage, but only at a terrible economic, political, and military cost. There is no going back.Sincerely Bill O'Donnell
The grass becomes dormant and doesn’t have a quick growth output in the winter, but it still needs moisture.
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