The human and material cost of America’s occupation of Iraq is reaching a climax. The ongoing “surge” of ground combat troops into Baghdad and its surroundings is producing higher U.S. casualties, exacerbating intersectarian violence and draining the last reserves of American patience.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/10/2865287

Profoundly insightful piece. This is precisely the type of examination that is regularly dismissed in the Pentagon both before and after the fact. It directly addresses multiple specific points that require consideration, thus making it "overly academic" as far as the various Commands and the politicians are concerned. They like things simple. It's easier for them to make decisions when situations are presented as not being excessively complex. Unfortunately geopolitics, politics in theater, the decision to go to war and warfare itself are rarely if ever simple.

Col MACGREGOR has written a very fine piece, but I beg to highlight the more profound moral backruptcy of all of America's institutions, beginning with a war criminal as a vice presdident and a village idiot as president, with a Congress that is totally impeachable for failing to fulfill its article 1 responsibilities, a media that refused $100,000 cash in advance payments for information advertisements against the idiocy of attacking Iraq (and who today dishonor our 75,000 amputees by ignoring them).

Dick Cheney is impeachable on 25 different documented counts. Donald Rumsfeld, and the Air Force officers who helped him target a missile into the computers with the evidence on the missing 2.3 trillion, is indictable.

We cannot move forward in America until we first hold accountable all those public servants, in uniform and as elected, for treason against the soveign people. This Republic is headed straight toward an economic meltdown that will be firmly mired in the moral abdication of all of us in service. Consider the chart below. We have lost our integrity. Everyone in the Pentagon has drunk the kool-aid. We need a general strike, and the immediate arrest of the Vice President.

En passant, see the one-pager on Chinese irregular warfare at the below URL. The war is OVER. It's time to wage peace, and no one outside of ASD SOLIC understands this.

http://www.oss.net/dynamaster/file_a...re%201.2 .doc

Semper Fidelis,
Robert David STEELE Vivas
CEO, OSS.Net, Inc.
CEO Earth Intelligence Network (non-profit)

LOYALTY -- INTEGRITY
Fitness Report as Foundation -- Constitution & Oath as Foundation
To the chain of command -- To the People, the Mission, the Intent
Work as labor for money -- Work as a calling for outcome
Scientific values without humanity -- Human values leveraging science
Accept Authority -- Question Authority
Be Blind to Collateral Damage -- Collateral Damage as Context
Individuals inter-changeable, cogs -- Each individual unique
Impose unilateral values -- Respect indigenous values
Vital/Emotions dominate motivation -- Higher Emotional/Mental/Consciousness
Self-centered forces demand loyalty -- Transcendent forces support integrity
Limited in time and place -- Sustainable and scalable
If each got $10M, would walk -- If each got $10M, would stay
False, bad, and ugly -- True, good, and beautiful
Unconscious (e.g. to language) -- Conscious (to everything in and out)
Separation, silos, closed -- Reconciliation, integration, open
Reliance on tools and rules -- Reliance on thinking and intuition
Human speed coord. of machines -- Machine speed coordination of humans

Like so many tragic events in human history, the occupation of Iraq could have been avoided if military and political leaders in Washington had recognized the tectonic shift in international relations created by decolonization after World War II. This shift made any occupation, with the exception of very brief American or European military triumphs over non-Europeans, especially Muslim Arabs, impossible.

Someone should inform Vladimir Putin... oh, wait, too late. He won in Chechnya already.

Someone should also tell the Marines in Anbar province that... oh, wait, no, they won there. Apparently, a lot of Iraqis decided Uzbeks, Syrians, Lebanese et. al. from al-Qaeda assassinating their sheikhs constituted "foreign occupation." Hmmm.

Gen. Petraeus has made the point before that in the post-colonial political environment, all occupations have a 'half life', and that policy decisions can extend or shorten this half-life. I'd the caveats of "unless a society has the kind of birthrates that let it throw vast manpower at the problem" (vid. Tibet), and "the enemy's actions can also extend or shorten that half-life." This strikes me as a far more sensible and considered lens than MacGregor's obviously wrong blanket generalization.

There is still a debate to be had over the wisdom of long term societal change as a use military action, vs. bringing back those old-fashioned punitive expeditions as the default norm. But if MacGregor thinks he can short circuit that debate with this kind of crude rhetorical sleight of hand, he's deluded.

Owing to the geographical positions of those areas most important to American economic interests — the Persian Gulf, West Africa, the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea, the Caribbean basin, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean — any strategy to preserve access to these areas is exceptionally well-suited to the use of air and naval power. Moreover, unchallenged American control of the oceans and the air gives the U.S. the opportunity to wage war on its own terms, at places and under conditions of its own choosing. Whatever we undertake on land should exploit, not ignore, this enormous strategic advantage.

The Gentleman you are looking for is Sir Julian Corbett of Britain, who has a very different take on naval power than Mahan's. One that offers considerable theoretical and practical guidance for this kind of framework. The book can be read online thanks to expiration of copyright, and its is titled: "Principles of Maritime Strategy."

Aside from its usefulness as a naval/land guide, there are a lot of frameworks and concepts in it that are extremely well fitted to looking at space power.

"The Army’s Future Combat Systems , the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle , the Air Force’s F-22 and the Navy’s DD1000 collectively exemplify the problem. On the grounds of cost overruns and strategic irrelevance, all should be canceled."

Let's see. "...unchallenged American control of the oceans and the air gives the U.S. the opportunity to wage war on its own terms, at places and under conditions of its own choosing. Whatever we undertake on land should exploit, not ignore, this enormous strategic advantage."

But the one American aircraft suited to ensure that air advantage in the face of modernizing missile defense systems and advanced SU-30 family aircraft proliferating in... oh, yes... "the Persian Gulf... the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea" - that aircraft needs to be canceled as "strategically irrelevant."

I seem to remember MacGregor having a central complaint about his opponents... what was that.. let me see.... Oh, yes. That they are "blinded by ideology."

Pot, meet kettle.

MacGregor's take on land force modernization has been consistently perceptive, and the US Army would be a lot further ahead if it had listened to him. And retained him - his combat record and ability to think point to someone who should have been more than a Colonel, impressive though that rank may be.

Unfortunately, those strengths are badly diluted here by his own set of ideological preconceptions. A deeper and clearer analysis along the lines he has laid out, bereft of its own ideology, might have much to contribute to America's future force debate. Sadly, this article wasn't quite up to it.

Joe Katzman,
Defense Industry Daily

Joe,

That was pretty well said. I completely agree. Macgreggor has been really good in his vision for Army reorg, but short-sighted on AF and NAVY projects. This goes back to "Breaking the Phalanx". I remember that list of projects to cancel in the back of the book.

If we had went with all those recommendations we'd have essentially lost our forced entry capability and our top cover. The F-35 is not an F-22 replacement... Maybe we should buy Sukhoi equipment or Rafale.. LOL. The reason the F-22 is uncontested is because the bar is so high. If we lowered the bar with the F-35 (as an air superiority fighter) prospective enemies would start building to take advantage. Same goes with the DDG 1000- dual band radar, meet Russian and Chinese supersonic cruise missiles.

Too bad, I really like his vision of land force organization. His views on the AF and Navy posion his credibility and make his views less acceptible.

Sal Magnone

I particularly enjoy reading the well crafted disagreements. What we need to agree on seems to me is of particular interest.
1. The congress has the lowest approval rating in history, around 22%.
2. The people they represent feel they have no control over their representatives they had thought were elected by the voters.
3. According to Wealth track, in the last 5 years the dollar has lost 60% of its value. When President Nixon droped the gold peg the dollar was worth 1/32nd of an ounce of gold. Today its worth about 1/750th of an ounce.
4. According to CNN (assuming their half right), in the last 6 years, more national debt has been accumulated than all the past presidents debt - combined.
5. WE cannot control our borders, unsafe products and food flood into our ports less than half of which even have inspectors. Less than 1% of imports are inspected at all.

Many of you have no doubt watched episodes of "The War" as I have, or known many who participated in The War of WWII. I have known several who were in WWII. I don't think we had many Enron’s, sub-prime mortgages, or other evidence of a general lack of ethical behavior when that generation ran things. When that generation began to retire, those things emerged including - schools that no longer teach American History and fewer still teach ethics.

When Peter Navarro spoke of his book, "The Coming China Wars" he was quick to point out that in his profession (both as an educator of Economics, and most assuredly as an investor, ethics was never taught, though he tried to make that part of the curriculum and was denounced.

All of you, regardless of your points of view are quite simply my heroes. I respect you all, and defend all of your points of view when discussed with others - to a point. But just as you may have learned in project management where cost, schedule, and scope are the three elements of any project, the contingency of the first two are obvious, for the third, it is risk.

We are ALL at risk. WE the People are at risk. Our country's future is at risk. The scope of this "project" ought to include the significant resources that should have some time on their hands. That would be all retired military and other veterans that should contribute to the future facing our next generations expected to be leading when we are all gone, and threats larger than any threat we currently discuss today are then at our door step.

You want better leaders as I do but none of the articles I've read in this or similar magazines suggest how to obtain them so our military and our country's "risk" is minimized. All Americans, and those who desire to BE American's, must learn our history with a number of truly compelling stories along the way told eloquently by a new breed of "recruiters" that ask nothing of students they teach these lessons to year after year, but those seeds will grow a harvest today's services can only envy - school districts permitting that is. I have found myself in "classes" with young officers who know nothing of what the CMTC, CCC, or WPA were that helped prepare that "Greatest Generation" to do extraordinary things. They and most of American today knows nothing about what the Bonus Army was, or when and which organizations efforts the first "GI Bill" obtained a free college education for all returning veterans. That public service is needed again.

Ayn Rand individualists have an increasing following that has merit to study, as did a former Fed Chairman and current Supreme Court Justice both making news recently. But, today's organizations want leaders that (rightly) worked in and led TEAMS, and cared deeply about those they led - not just themselves. The latest Fortune magazine is much about Leadership, mentioning how those who came from the Rangers and similar training make the best leaders today. Yet precious few ever, EVER, seek public office. Understandably the two choices for "membership" are not just out of favor; they're completely out of touch and owned by the real WE of the People, that 1% that owns 21% of everything there is to America. The rest is being sold off even though much of those assets were purchased with tax dollars.

We need to create a political organization that competes with the two out of touch organizations that has the highest of standards and whose candidates are unquestionably qualified for LEADERSHIP. Crazy as most of you will think I am or this idea is, we must have more of you off the golf course, and setting this country straight. There are millions of us who will support you. And, with this organization, the standards of belonging, much less leading it, are so high, that far less money will be needed to campaign for office. Because WE are the resources needed to make that successful. Only then will this country have a hope of getting back on course to leading the free world again, by earning it. The oath we all took prevents the ugly alternative. But as Jack Cafferty says, "Its Getting Ugly Out There". The trend is not yet to the better, either.

& Because the press's so obsessed with maintaining the facade of ideological dichotomy, it's also the type of exam regularly dismissed by the so-called mainstream media, which prefer diversionary tearjerkers about limbless vets to putting the gaggle of well-heeled ersatz-strategists to the fire.
MacGregor wrote, "where ideology masquerades as strategy, disaster is inevitable." Ideology continues to masquerade as such; hence, we find solace in the fact that Sunni militia only now chase down al-Qaida reps. (& insist U.S. troops stay clear!). & Although Col. MacGregor steadfastly beats the drum to "fire the generals," I firmly believe that the US of A could right itself on the domestic & world stages by taking suspect civilian authorities to task.
There is something seriously amiss stateside when the worst luck that can befall the perpetrators (especially past, e.g., Rumsfeld, Tenet) of the Iraq grotesquery is to fail to earn a hefty advance from a book publisher. "All enemies foreign & domestic": maybe some of our sharp-suited, moussed-hair Kissinger clones could use a little waterboarding, eh Atty. Gen.?

I played the same silent game that Tony Zinni, Colin Powell, and General Shinseki did when it became clear that they were going forward, but I started getting tough on Cheney when I absorbed two threads of reading and viewing:

1) 9/11 discovery

2) documentation of high crimes and misdemeanors by both Executive and Congress.

If any of you want a fast overview, here is the zip course:

On Cheney's 25 documented high crimes and misdemeanors:

One Percent Doctrine (Cheney's record since Ford of acting in President's name without President's knowledge)
VICE: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency (my review itemizes the high crimes and misdemeanors for which this one person could have been impeached and dismissed long ago).

On Congression abdication of it article 1 responsibilities in favor of grotesque ideological partisanship, as you discuss:

The Second Civil War
Running on Empty
Broken Branch
Breach of Trust

On reality in general, a graduate degree in global reality in return for 2-3 hours of your time, start with my profile page below, view all of the lists to get a sense of the content (Amazon does not allow uis to order our reviews, something I have been asking for for years), then just click through the reviews. I might make an index. If you select me as an "Interesting Person" from my profile, it automatically shows you my review regardless of where it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-...137449-7832747

Here is the bottom line: we have a culture of cheating and a culture of loyalty that are completely inconsistent with our oath to defend the Constititution (not the Administration) against all enemies, domestic and foreign. The world is not stupid. They think we are.

I am looking for Ron Paul or Barack Obama to call for a one day general strike as part of forcing Congress to pass the Electoral Reform Act of 2008. The ONLY thing we need to do to unscrew our Republic is to put We the People back in power, and while doing so, eliminate the "winner take all" corruption of both the Cabinet and the Congress, and the corporate ownership of policy and budget.

My reviews are my gift to the band of brothers and sisters who mean well, but have no clear path in sight.

Semper Fidelis,
Robert

This truly began, @least in modern times, with the assassination of JFK; later, with the resignations of Agnew & Nixon.

WRT V.P. Cheney, what should you expect from a guy that got his foot thru the public door advising a President that no one elected? This the media have always played down, & so it's very easy for me to have so little regard for media that promote the notion that an unelected President is the natural product of abuse of executive power & that, after Iran-Contra, 1st Gulf War, & the current Iraq debacle, Watergate remains their Everest of Presidential miscues.