Quote Originally Posted by Rob Thornton View Post
In the five or six years after 9/11 it seemed correct to lump together together the current and potential conflicts on the horizon together into a single GWOT or a Long War - maybe it was needed to get our arms around it - maybe it was a way to consider how our perception of the world had changed - although arguably the conditions were there, they'd just not come to our shores in so violent a way.
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The GWOT or Long War constructs while possessing some validity were always, IMO, a bad choice of words on many levels. Aside from the obvious negative PR aspect, your point that it was and is not a good way to look at the problem is I believe correct. Mostly because in addition to developing an "us against them" mindset or belief structure on both sides of the problem, it induces in us a mind set that is not conducive to flexibility.

Your second and third paragraphs are very cogent and point at a big part of the problem -- appearances. Our overly bellicose statements do not help our case and, far more importantly, out national media portray us as a group of mindless idiots concerned more with the Tartlet of the day or the latest heinous crime in Missouri that is really not of national newsworthy caliber. Our international news coverage is so superficial as to be laughable and our domestic (and international) political coverage drips with bias in both directions and thus is not helpful. No sense beating that donkey here but those guys bear a lot of responsibility for that global perception.

Your comment that we see things as we'd like them to be is certainly true and we always have. Every war or major operation since WW II proves that. Our massive egos get in the way of reality and the military decision is turned to because it -- often quite wrongly -- seems to offer a quick solution. Most Americans are wedded to quick solutions. "There's a problem, let's fix it and move on." We do it internally (sometimes not at well thought out or successfully) and we continue to try to apply that mantra to a world that does not work that way -- and then, most Americans wonder why we are in an unpopular situation...

Because a pathetic education system has told them little about how their government works, about the rest of the world and our even more pathetic news media and its pop culture focus do nothing to aid in changing that.

I digress...

The whole GWOT / Long War syndrome is the result of a narrow worldview and a media focussed approach. It is not helpful. Our system of government is good and I wouldn't change it but a downside is that it reinvents itself every four or eight years, usually with inexperienced people with large egos at the helms of every executive agency and a Congress that is more concerned with its reelection and district rather than heeding their oath of office.

That's why we get to reinvent wheels so often. The continuity in the system can in theory only come from the Executive branch and if the system is structured and the elected leaders are disposed to ignore that continuity, then the Government will wobble back and forth. That's sort of okay.

However, the Armed Forces not only do not have to wobble back and forth they should not. Regrettably they do and that's why there is no consistency.

People are like that...