I totally agree with the sentiment
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cavguy
I apparently am in the minority, but think Prof Bacevich is spot on in his whole interview. I also sympathize with his diagnosis of how our foreign policy should be re-toolded.
Here's my favorite quote, which I have stated here before:
that Bacevich expresses in the quote that Cavguy has highlighted. I have observed the same thing in CONUS and down under. I think he is spot on.
I had the opportunity to meet Andrew Bacevich and spend some time talking with him and TX Hammes after dinner at an event in Oxford (UK) last year. It was an enjoyable evening - he struck me as honorable and smart. I think that it would not hurt a few more folks to spend some time reading his material and thinking objectively about what he writes before jumping to conclusions.
Speech of & discussion with Bacevich
http://ericpalmer.wordpress.com/2009...evich-usa-ret/
I agree 95%.
I do not tend to publicly agree with others often, so this is quite exceptional.
(The only thing that irritated me was the supposed theft of California by Mexicans, maybe I just misunderstood something - it doesn't fit into his speech.)
Andrew J. Bacevich: The Revisionist Imperative
Andrew J. Bacevich: The Revisionist Imperative
Entry Excerpt:
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The US military deserve better
A WaPo review of 'Breach of Trust : How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country’ by Andrew J. Bacevich:http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...cd6_story.html
I do like this phrase for describing (US) All Volunteer Forces:
Quote:
....a civil-military relationship founded on the principle that a few fight while the rest watch.
The reviewer's best passage:
Quote:
Evading civic responsibility is the order of the day, replaced by a politics of insult, enmity and evasion. The men and women we so blithely send off to fight wars in places we’ve never heard of deserve better than that, but there’s no reason to believe we’re going to give it to them.
Whilst I appreciate the book is about the USA, the principles have an application in Western Europe, where conscription has dwindled, but I cannot recall any public debate about an all volunteer military except on the far left.