Our enemies aren't drinking lattes (LAT)

[ovidsen]

It's bad enough that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld has given the Pentagon an indefensible job. It's worse that it's being done so badly.

Max Boot

Our enemies aren't drinking lattes

"AMATEURS TALK strategy. Professionals talk logistics." That well-worn saying, sometimes attributed to Gen. Omar Bradley, contains an obvious element of wisdom. Modern militaries cannot fight without a lengthy supply chain, and the success or failure of major operations can turn on the work of anonymous logisticians.

Yet there is a danger of professional soldiers becoming so focused on supply lines that they lose sight of larger strategic imperatives. In Afghanistan and Iraq, we may already have crossed that threshold.

(snip)

Most of our resources aren't going to fight terrorists but to maintain a smattering of mini-Americas in the Middle East. As one Special Forces officer pungently put it to me: "The only function that thousands of people are performing out here is to turn food into (excrement)."

How to explain this seemingly counterproductive behavior? My theory is that any organization prefers to focus on what it does well. In the case of the Pentagon, that's logistics. Our ability to move supplies is unparalleled in military history. Fighting guerrillas, on the other hand, has never been a mission that has found much favor with the armed forces. So logistics trumps strategy. Which may help explain why we're not having greater success in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot5jul05,0,5998634.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

edit: typo

[whistle]

1. Oh yes they are, our enemies are the corporate and special interest

...lobbyists in Washington DC

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Let's not forget the ? % that really Voted for this Idiot!! Fucking Droids

[NYC]

2. Militarism.

...Most of our resources aren't going to fight terrorists but to maintain a smattering of mini-Americas in the Middle East...

Chalmers Johnson described this as militarism.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. And when you have an official supplier it's Fascism.

[ovidsen]

6. That's the word

I'll go out on a limb and call it "institutional militarism".

[msongs]

5. radio interview today w/a soldier in baghdad said the same ->

morale was better out in the killing zones than back at HQ because the soldiers got away from all the bloated bureaucracy and tons of people doing nothing to help the task besides pushing paper.

then again, maybe killing is more fun that pushing paper.

never mind.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Democrats_win]

7. All in all, I'd say they eat pretzels.

[FloridaPat]

8. If they're so good at moving supplies, why'd Halliburton get the job?

Just to get rid of treasury money and kick-backs to the war president?