Ready for Bush's perpetual war? Pentagon prepares to fight 'Long War'-

[bigtree]

"Our own generation is in a long war against a determined enemy -- a war that will be fought by Presidents of both parties, who will need steady bipartisan support from the Congress. And tonight I ask for yours. Together, let us protect our country, support the men and women who defend us, and lead this world toward freedom." (Applause.) Bush SOTU

Pentagon now prepares to fight Long War

Feb. 01, 2006
Associated Press
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/13767475.htm

WASHINGTON - Now, the Pentagon is preparing for The Long War. In the 2007 budget due out next week and a soon-to-be-released long-range plan for reshaping the military, the Defense Department talks about the military's future in terms of its ability to fight a new kind of war. It is one that cannot be won in days or weeks, and will be fought on many fronts and against a vast array of enemies.

Administration officials seem to refer to the "long war" more frequently these days. President Bush mentioned it during his State of the Union address this week. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the term is a way of telling people the truth about the fight against terrorism.

"Just as the Cold War lasted a long time, this war is something that is not going to go away," Rumsfeld said.

He said this does not mean U.S. troops will be in Iraq indefinitely, but rather that the U.S. will be fighting violent extremists for many years to come.

"The United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war," the defense review document says. "Currently the struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we will need to be prepared and arranged to successfully defend our nation and its interests around the globe for years to come."

full article:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/13767475.htm

[firefox]

1. It's the PNAC war for global domination

Gee, do you think there will be resistance? The rest of the world can have our freedom if they only surrender.

[bigtree]

2. war president

he hates their freedoms

[KansDem]

3. It becomes ever so obivious...

The "Terrorist Boogieman" has replaced the "Communist Boogieman." Corporate USA will profit handsomely while Americans will die violently. Just like Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War--it will go on for decades.

Shit! I thought we were through with this fear-mongering in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell!

[cdsilv]

4. Terror is a tactic, not an enemy ...

I believe it was Lenin who said that 'Terrorism is the way a small power gets the attention of a larger power'.

How do you wage war against a tactic?

The cold war was waged against enemies - USSR, China, etc... all by fighting their proxies - never them.

We beat the USSR by scaring them into bankrupting their economy building up their military.

The Chinese have always taken the 'long view', so they are kicking our asses economically - what happens when they call in our debt.

The true way to stop terrorism is to remove the reason for terrorists to exist.

That is, let the indigenous peoples of the middle east control their own destiny.

Quit being imperialists. We can glut our oil needs from the Canadian oil sands.

Anyone notice the communique' from OPEC saying that bush is destabilizing the world economy
by calling for 'independence' from ME oil?

They didn't like it.

F'm - I'm all for letting them keep their oil. Let'em sell it to China - the Chinese haven't yet figured out that overuse of oil will poison their people.

I know here in amerika we use unleaded gas only. What about India, China and Europe, Africa?

Using leaded gasoline will cause an epedemic of stupidity - some speculate the use of lead in aqueducts, piping and dinnerware caused the fall of the Roman Empire (among other causes).

Sorry for the rant....

Of course we could just cut off the water supply in the ME.

[bigtree]

5. remnants and origins of the 'long war'

from War Blog:

FrontPageMagazine.com | February 4, 2005

In The Shield of Achilles, Philip Bobbitt looks the interrelationship between law, strategy and history, and how these subjects influence the course of nations. The reasons nations choose to go to war cannot merely be distilled down to greed or malice; wars are ultimately determined by constitutional issues (not always a “document”, constitutional can also mean the makeup of the nation) and the need to grant legitimacy to the constitutional order. Changes in the constitutional order of states contain “the seeds of future conflict”; the “peace” outlined at the end of World War I provided the “seeds” that led to the outbreak of World War II, and the “peace" established at the end of World War II led to the Cold War.

The primary example used to explain this idea is “The Long War”. The Long War, which he states spanned most of the Twentieth Century, from 1914 to 1990, was fought over the legitimacy of three competing and incompatible forms of constitutional governments – Parliamentarianism, Communism and Fascism. After Fascism was defeated in WWII, the fight for legitimacy between Communism and Parliamentarianism continued during the Cold War, which included battles of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the crises of the Berlin Blockade, Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. According to Mr. Bobbitt, the Long War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union and the defeat of the Communist constitutional form of government.

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Retiring top soldier warned of 'the long war'

9/29/05

Gen. Richard Myers spoke repeatedly about "the long war."

"The enemy knows very clearly they cannot defeat us militarily, so they rely on acts of terrorism to chip away at our resolve, our resolve to win," Myers said. "We are talking here about the long war against terrorism. So consequently, we must remain steadfast against a very determined enemy."
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American Forces Press Service

DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 17, 2005

"This is going to be a long war against a small group of people for a long time," Abizaid said. "As long as we're wearing the uniform, things will never go back to how it was before 9/11."
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Woolsey: Expect long war on terror

November 14, 2004

His topic was the war on terrorism, which he called "the long war of the 21st century."

"Some refer to it as World War Four," he said. "The Cold War was World War Three. And there are some similarities to the Cold War, which lasted for decades with some fighting, but not all the time."

The war on terrorism, he said, "will last for decades. For the younger people in the room, it will be to your generation what the Cold War was to mine. It will probably last the rest of your life."
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Navy Chief: Settle In For A Long War

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 14, 2004

Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, reflecting on past conflicts involving Navy servicemen and women, told a Seattle gathering yesterday that the war on terrorism "is going to be a long war."

"We are a nation at war, and this is not a war of months or even years; this is going to be a long war."
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