Current US Military

[C-Mag]

It's not about oil. That's a canard. America controls the oil from the sea.

The ME is all about the Iranian Revolution and associated Carter Doctrine from 1979.

It's just institutional inertia in effect.

Otherwise known as a Cold War Zombie Legacy Project.

Which nobody remembers the original purpose of, after 40 years.

Oil is not the issue, America doesn't need to sit on it to control it.

More Please

The reason I said oil, because that is what was breifed to me in '09 by a 3 Star.

[brewster]

Isn't running government like a business a core tenet of Conservatism? Businesses know where their money goes and where their shit is. This whole thing seems like Marxism for the Military. It's the same lack incentives to actually work. If productivity is never quantified, then success is whatever the brass says it is, just like the Politburo. We talk about Stalin throwing away Divisions on the Eastern front, but we throw away our trillions with the same lack of accountability. In both cases all that matters is winning, and not the cost. In fact our problem is worse, since so many like Smitty and pork eaters are cheering the waste on.

I joke about Military Keynsianism, but my little fantasy is just that. But for me, it is a mere stage to the end goal. NOTE: I'm not a Conservative, Classic Liberal here, that is the end goal.

Current military strategery in the ME is not about winning at all. It's all about stability operations and making the ME safe for resource extraction. Can't let the crazies in dirty night shirts control the crude. Can't let independent sheiks not aligned with NATO have control of the crude. This is Progressivism in play, they think they can nation build the ME into a Neo-Liberal land that pumps oil for us. It's Dan Carlin's give them blue jeans and rock n roll failing. It doesn't work for me. I don't want the Progressive foreign policy.

Military Keynesianism is the worst possible kind, you have nothing to show for it, productivity without a purpose. It's a game the military really has no incentive to end. At least transportation infrastructure we would have for another half century. And if we put a fraction of the resources devoted to keeping oil cheap and flowing into developing alternatives, we could walk away from that mess. More money has vanished into the ME shithole by orders of magnitude than was lost on Solyndra.

[Smitty-48]

It's not about oil. That's a canard. America controls the oil from the sea.

The ME is all about the Iranian Revolution and associated Carter Doctrine from 1979.

It's just institutional inertia in effect.

Otherwise known as a Cold War Zombie Legacy Project.

Which nobody remembers the original purpose of, after 40 years.

Oil is not the issue, America doesn't need to sit on it to control it.

More Please

The reason I said oil, because that is what was breifed to me in '09 by a 3 Star.

The Washington National Security Consensus internalizes the "Oil" rubric.

To say what it really is, the Domino Theory, that would invoke Vietnam.

"Oil" sounds like America is gaining something by sitting on the oil.

So the Army in particular upholds that narrative.

Because if anybody realized that America can control the oil entirely from the sea, the Army is out of a job.

[Smitty-48]

The trick is to go back to the beginning.

Why did you go to the Middle East?

Why was the force moved from the Inner German Border in the first place?

Because the Dominoes were falling in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian Revolution. Dien Bien Phu.

Then nobody ever rescinded the mission. It's a zombie legacy project which never got demobilized.

[Smitty-48]

What was Kuwait?

Another Domino falling. ZOMG.

HW Bush "this shall not stand!" (Margaret Thatcher's line, Bush as Thatcher)

[Smitty-48]

What is Yemen right now?

Domino muthafuckahs. ZOMG.

[Smitty-48]

Everything is the Domino Theory, Vietnam and Watergate.

It's an epoch.

Trapped in a loop.

Groundhog Day.

[Smitty-48]

Don't brame me, roundeyes.

I didn't make the Domino Theory.

That was Eisenhower, muthahfuckahs.

[Smitty-48]

In the end it serves a purpose.

Eagle One has to keep those thunderbolts primed.

There really is only one free country.

It is in fact surrounded on all sides by Anti-American barbarians.

Supercounterforce Option needs to be a well oiled machine.

Periodic flare ups for theater wars, is good training.

[GloryofGreece]

When exactly did we decide to take Britain's spot? Circa 1917 I'm thinking, no?