Amidst the partisanship members have missed the two excellent pearls of wisdom that appear below .
From the Source Article
“Overall, the prospect of having someone who isn’t necessarily tied to old strategies is a good thing,” said Air Force Master Sgt. David
Ortegon, who said he voted for McCain. “Sometimes you need a fresh perspective to be able to handle our military readiness and the needs of the
nation.”
Indeed hopefully some fresh ideas will continue to flow and improve strategy being deployed in Afghanistan.
Navy Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class William Rioseco, an instructor at Center for Security Forces, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, said mandatory post-deployment
screening across all services would help to reduce stigma associated with mental health disorders.
The above quote speaks for itself . No rational sensible or rational person would think otherwise .
So beyond Rumsfeld and Clinton cut backs to the US military how did things get to where they are today ?
Let me explain from the perceptive(SP?) from my backyard . Please forgive me if I go off topic . Post Vietnam Australia and New Zealand moved to a
all professional / volunteer armed forces . * In the 70s and pretty much up until 2000 a sort of policy Vacuum existed . The concept of a forward
defence against Communism was no more and no threat existed to the South of either country .
So aside from Australia and New Zealand contributing to various Peace Keeping operations that leads us to the Gulf War . Both countries made
minimalist contributions to that conflict . Never the less the Gulf War represents an arbitration that crucially skewed US and perhaps even British
military thinking . What makes the Gulf War an arbitration is the following . The conflict was a convental war that was won with massive amounts of
fire power over a short space of time .
A lot of the countries in the region were relatively friendly towards the presence of US troops in there backyard . None of the difficulties of co
coordinating the efforts of so many of the worlds armed forces appeared as they have now in Afghanistan . Returning to this part of the world for
moment things changed in 2000 with the deployment of Peace Keepers to East Timor .
Further more the Gulf War combined with the refusal of some to admit that the US lost the Vietnam War may have prevented US military leaders from
picking up the counter insurgency manual so well written by British and Anzac forces in places like Malaysia. But since British military leaders and
or there civilian counterparts forgot those lessons its probably a mute point anyway .
Fast forward to the present Obama has inherited a very unfriendly strategic situation despite the improved security situation in Iraq . US troops
that are desperately needed in Afghanistan are being tied to down fighting the war in Iraq . As the Germans discovered in WW2 if you stretch your
forces to thin you cant achieve or hang on to military gains anywhere . So aside from Obama being the new guy on the block it is only natural that US
military personal would be uncertain as to how Obama intends to unravel the strategic train wreck that his predecessors created .
* Australian units in Vietnam were made up of something like a 50/50 mix of National Servicemen and Volunteers. New Zealand had compulsory military
training but the men who served overseas were Volunteers .
[edit on 6-1-2009 by xpert11]
