Message Accomplished
My latest column for Navy Times has been pushed to the free section of their website. Here’s a teaser:
You can’t turn on the news these days without having coverage of the latest celebrity miscreant interrupted by the endless debate over pulling out of Iraq. OK, it’s not really debate, it’s arguing, but you get my point. If you’re paying attention to the arguments and aren’t just surfing through to the Paris Hilton channel, here are three things to consider before you decide whether to stay in Iraq and for how long. (Read More)
Trackposted to OTB, Stop the ACLU, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, 123beta, Big Dog’s Weblog, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, The Populist, Nuke’s News & Views, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, third world county, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, and Dumb Ox Daily News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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Bio: I am currently a Professor of Security Studies, hold a BS in Management and an MA in National Security Studies, and am pursuing an MA in Systematic and Philosophical Theology. I've written for Navy Times, Proceedings, Armed Forces Journal and a number of blogs. As a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve, I attained the rank of Commander, deployed five times for four different conflicts and served as a Foreign Area Officer and a Surface Warfare Officer. During my 7 years in the private sector, I worked in the fields of information technology and publishing, and even ran for public office once.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:57
Really good stuff…
Adding your site to my sidebar…
September 15th, 2007 at 11:12
Hai! Domo!
September 15th, 2007 at 12:08
Good article. However I think you are dancing around one very important point-we need to get away from the idea of this as a “war”. Because a war implies a clear cut winner and a loser and its not going to happen. Not in our lifetimes or in our childrens or their childrens.
What the US can do though is continue the long term policy of trying to float as many national boats as possible and in the process starve the two things that feed terrorism to begin with. Economic insecurity and Islam. We need to fix the first and make the second irrelevant. That will take a lot of time but it builds a more long lasting solution than simply invading a soverign nation that never attacked us AND as an added bonus galvanize moderate nations against the US.
The two models for this “policy initiative” (its proper name) are the PI ops and the HOA. Helping nations help themselves out of the hole.
September 15th, 2007 at 13:36
Funny, I thought a war was tossing around ordnance with the intention of killing poeple, breaking things and bending someone to your political will. Or maybe I’m just misinterpreting your comments.
Now, I think you can debate the purposes of war we’re fighting in Iraq from a grand strategy perspective, if that’s what you mean. After all, Iraq started as a war of counterproliferation, evolved into a land conflict against Al Qaida and remnants of the Saddam regime, and today is predominantly a war of regional security and stability – probably the only accurate parallel to Vietnam.
If that’s your point, I think we are in agreement. My reason for writing the piece in the first place is because I think the Iraq War and the War on Terror have been too closely linked. There’s overlap between the two, but they’re not identical.