Pacific Pivot vs. Mideast Crisis: Army Reinforces Korea As Iraq Burns

[unhappycamper]

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/01/pacific-pivot-vs-mideast-crisis-army-reinforces-korea-as-iraq-burns/



Pacific Pivot vs. Mideast Crisis: Army Reinforces Korea As Iraq Burns
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on January 07, 2014 at 4:51 PM

WASHINGTON: Two years ago, the Obama administration announced its “Pacific Pivot” (hastily renamed a “rebalance”), but crises keep yanking US attention back from a rising China to the unstable cradle of civilization (as we predicted at the time): Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic, Syria disintegrated into an increasingly sectarian civil war, al-Qaeda revived as a fighting force, and now several key cities in the Iraqi province of al-Anbar appear to have fallen again into the hands of al Qaeda, undermining stability that thousands of Americans died to build.

That strategic tension was painfully evident today when the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, spoke at the National Press Club. The most newsworthy thing the service did today was to announce the deployment of a combat battalion to South Korea, a move Odierno confirmed would be a permanent reinforcement of US forces in the dangerous peninsula. But that topic only came up at the end (and only because I’d submitted the question in advance), after Odierno had been bombarded by questions about things the Army could no longer change.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing to all of us to see the deterioration of security inside of Iraq. I spent a lot of my life over there,” said Odierno, whose own son was wounded in Iraq. “I believe we left it in a place where it was capable to move forward,” with rising oil revenues and a nascent democracy — but a lot has changed since the US pulled out in 2011.

~snip~

The problem Odierno didn’t address is that there’s precious little we can actually do about that threat as long as the Obama administration, the general public, and the military itself remain deeply reluctant to risk American lives in the Middle East — reluctant for the very good reason that even if we did intervene forcefully, it might be another disaster.

[GeorgeGist]

1. I think the US has gotten a good kickstart to long-term Middle East and Central Asian turmoil ...

so now it should shift attention to fucking up the Far East.

[newfie11]

2. Yep time to move on

time to use up some of our military stock pile so our MIC can make more money.