December 07, 2004 October is Koufax Pledge Drive month
A Winter Count
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It is fortunate the "Thrusters" did not carry the country under FDR's watch, and Secretaries Cordell Hull (State), Frank Knox (Navy), Henry L. Stimson (War), Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (Treasury) and also Secretaries Harold Ickles (Interior) and Frances Perkins (Labor) did ... nothing. War Plan Orange 3 called for caution and calculation, and the two-theater Rainbow Plans articulated the strategic vision that placed a much higher value on the Atlantic theater than it did on the Pacific theater. Had the US committed its resources to a thrust campaign in the Central Western Pacific in reaction to the attack of December 7th, blind to the military and industrial consequences of the conflict in Europe, the Mediterranian and North Africa, whether it won or lost the deciding battle between the Japanesse and American fleets, it would still be Springtime for Hitler in a militarism-dominated Greater Mittleeuropa.
The wisest person in American public life is still Representative Barbara Lee (D Berkeley), who voted against the Authorization for Use of Military Force. The evidenciary issues arising from the Atta Group's provocation operation of September 11th were far from settled the night of September 14th. The decision to conduct a military campaign aginst one fragile government of Afganistan resulted in an even more fragile government, a return to the narco-state model, and little effective infiltration of the Atta Group's peers operating outside of the theater of operations. The decision to conduct a military campaign aginst one fragile government of Iraq resulted in endemic indigenous asymetric operations and civil war(s), and little effective infiltration of the Atta Group's peers operating outside of the theater of operations.
The comparison of the methodologies pursued by the US and the EU could not be more clear. I wrote about this last August, in Samurai Spy. According to the best work product arising from the US methodology, the US was attacked again by elements of the al-Qaida network sometime in September or October of this year. According to the best work product arising from the EU methodology, the al-Qaida network is no longer operationally dependent upon its first generation leadership -- Osama Bin Laden et alia.
When I took an oath to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, there was nothing in the oath about "unless I need to be elected". As heroically patriotic as the Gruppendenke may seem on the surface, it isn't effective. Then again, maybe the al-Qaida network will move on to banks and narcotics and loose its ideological focus. They wouldn't be the first to expire by indirect means. Maybe we'll all be lucky and the opfors will get out of politics and go into business. The way the Bush Democrats are proposing to replace Bush, a change in Party won't be a change of regime and it won't be an improvement in defense strategy.