Even Bush's Most Loyal GOP Soldiers Alarmed by Strain on Troops

[poe]

The strains on the volunteer army from the war on Iraq are now unsettling as many Republicans as Democrats- and exposing an enduring contradiction in President Bush's agenda.
"The problem for the United States is not imperial overstretch, it's trying to run the planet on the cheap," American Enterprise Institute fellow Tom Donnelly, a leading neoconservative defense commentator, wrote recently. Military historian Frederick W. Kagan delivered a similar indictment in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine.

Most strikingly, House majority whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) this month urged an increase in the active military and condemned lengthy deployments that he said were compelling Guard and Reserve volunteers to effectively "serve in the permanent forces."

www.latimes.com/brownstein

[Redstone]

1. Brrrr, I need to get a sweater,

it's getting damn drafty in here.

Redstone

[MADem]

2. This is how Watergate started

Which GOP heavyweight will go to the White House to play Barry Goldwater to weecowboy's Nixon??? "You don't have the votes, you must resign...."

One can dream!

[Ganja Ninja]

3. What these people don't understand is that Bush has faith ...

in God. Bush knows that God will help our troops to overcome. So you see there's nothing to worry about. Everything will be all right. Just leave it in the hands of God. He's going to take care of everything. :silly: :crazy: :silly: :crazy: :scared:

[hatrack]

4. "We can support the troops without supporting the president"

Trent Lott, 1999.

[Supersedeas]

15. he ought to have been charged with aiding and abetting terraists

[radric]

5. Say what?

""The problem for the United States is not imperial overstretch, it's trying to run the planet on the cheap,""

But I don't want to run the planet at any price. I want all the troops brought home from everywhere and to get back to our pre-WW I isolationist policies. No foreign entanglements for any reason!

[Benhurst]

6. Gosh, maybe George Washington was right after all. NT

[saigon68]

7. The reserve re-up rate is 15%

They'd better KILL all the Rag-Heads soon (except of couse Allawi and all his CIA puppet thugs in Crime)

[rurallib]

8. Maybe if we had a draft we could shorten the tours?

[Ganja Ninja]

9. or start another war with Iran. n/t

[mikeytherat]

10. Bless them lil' pointy-headed 'ol neocons!

"The problem for the United States is not imperial overstretch, it's trying to run the planet on the cheap," American Enterprise Institute fellow Tom Donnelly, a leading neoconservative defense commentator, wrote recently. Military historian Frederick W. Kagan delivered a similar indictment in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine.

Who gets to inform these chucklenuts that "imperial overstretch" and "running the planet on the cheap" are THE SAME THING. If you cannot commit the money and muscle necessary to maintain your empire, you must scale back or lose control.

And they get paid big bucks for coming up with this crap, don't they?

mikey_the_rat

[Terran]

14. Thanks for pointing that out...

I was beginning to wonder if anyone else noticed that. Ruuning the planet pretty much equals imperialism, uh, right? Seems like the intellectual depth for which the Neocons are noted is spurious. In this case and others, like Don Rumsefeld's ability to plan an invasion.

[poe]

17. Donnelly is a well manicured technocrat for empire and a PNAC'er...

he is quite smooth and always sounds reasonable which is why he is often trotted out to NPR(National Propaganda Radio). this plastic empire doesn't suit Tom's fine tastes he wants a gilded one in his image. he hangs out with wolfie, cheney, devon cross and the boys. oh yeah i forgot we're killing people. sorry that slipped out. gotta go back to the think tank boardroom where we have got it all under control. gotta long position paper on Iran for the AEI for us Tom?

[EVDebs]

11. So should we start a Malox concession ? They should be concerned.

[steely]

12. this just in, loyal Bush supporters wake up and smell the coffee.

they are alarmed because people get shot in war? huh?

how long before the kool aid wears off and they come to their senses.

[wildflower]

13. "...it's trying to run the planet on the cheap"...

Wow. Very well and concisely put. And from the AEI Institute!

[Dhalgren]

16. Two years ago the "crazy left" was telling anyone who would

listen that this is how this war would turn out - but no one listened. The "crazy left" was telling every one who would listen that the Bush gang was trying to "run the planet on the cheap", but no one would listen. These stupid bastards are now going to struggle around to the same position that two years ago they were sneering at? Where are the apologies? Where is the eating of the crow? Where's the "my bad"? Not only are these steaming bags of pus demented and intellectually deformed, they are sniveling cowards, as well...

[deutsey]

18. They're the "personal responsibility" crowd

but they're the first ones to whine, "Don't blame me."

Bunch of hypocrites and liars.

[KittyWampus]

19. "The Problem Isn't IMPERIAL OVERSTRETCH"????

AEI is hunky dory with Imperialism... it's the short-sheeting of the Military Industrial Complex.