JensJohansson wrote:I think ... not enough things happened! Like not enough x-ray machines at the airports, not enough intelligence coordination beforehand. Nobody was prepared..
As the 9/11 Commission mentioned in its report to the American people, what happened was a failure of the
imagination. Moreover, too much of the American intelligence infrastructure, which is far from being cooperative with each other, is ran too much like the personal fiefdoms of each Director.
JensJohansson wrote:That the plan for Iraq was in the wings nobody doubts.
I agree. However, the Pentagon does have war plans and contingencies for many different scenarios. War with North Korea being one, and it is also very likely that the Joint Chiefs of Staff also have plans for Iran, in addition to Russia and China. This does not mean that war with any of these nations is
imminent, but we do have experts in the Order of Battle of the militaries of many adversaries and even potential opponents.
JensJohansson wrote:That the Bush II administration's foreign policy sometimes has been like a drunken, tone-deaf retard showing up at the choir recital.. not so much in doubt either.
It is difficult to dispute that, and, may I add, a very colorful illustration!
JensJohansson wrote:I think GWB himself is just not that intellectual and not that interested (to put the situation kindly), and some of his most trusted advisors have been heavily reductionist and very gung-ho.. drunken with a very simplistic view of the complex world, and having read way too much Clausewitz and Sun-Tzu platitudes. Foreign policy guided by coffee table books written hundreds of years ago...
I actually think that the Pentagon has for the large part, stuck with Clausewitzian principles, at least in the beginning, when Saddam's military machine was routed and then destroyed. That was about as textbook a victory as you can get. Regarding Clausewitz, although I personally think was brilliant, was really much more of a military theorist than a political expert.
It has been during the occupation and administration of Iraq where the problems began. Actually, the problem goes back even further than that. One could argue that Clinton flirted with disciplining Saddam (via missile strikes), but even he was not that interested in the overall problems there.
Neither was Bush I, being the internationalist that he is, allowed Saddam to stay in power after Gulf War I- since we were not "authorized" by the UN to take Saddam's regime down, but to only expel them from Kuwait. Looking even further back, it seems that Iraq was basically an artificially created (Balfour accords) country full of ethnic groups that simply hated each other, and a secular dictatorship was really the only option to keep them together to begin with.
JensJohansson wrote:The simple military truth is that the US war and intelligence machine with a budget of almost a trillion bucks per year was outflanked by some guys with carpet knives.
Precisely, and in reality, the U.S. Army has very, very little to do with the
primary defense of the U.S. homeland at the moment. That is a fiefdom of civilian officials who are a bit territorial when it comes to internal security, and that is where the larger part of the problem lies.
JensJohansson wrote:Some of the momentum for starting wars always comes from within the military itself, of course. This is how it's always been.. if all you have is a hammer the world looks like a big nail. The US Dept of "defense" have a humongous fucking huge ass budget... it's just an unbelievable amount of money. The word "astronomical" doesn't even cover it... they get 40 times more money than NASA.
And some of the bureaucrats often become too dependent upon gadgets and the latest hi-tech wizardry, and then forget about
accurate intelligence gathering/analysis, and most importantly, relationship building with the enemies of our enemies. I think that the US Special Forces definitely understand this type of warfare much, much better than the regular army types do. Unfortunately, the special forces have always been regarding as "red headed step-children", due primarily to their unconventional methods, their secrecy, as well as their lack of the traditional parade ground "spit and polish" that old war-horses like Patton loved. There is a lot of stupid things that happen in the Army, as well as in Washington.
JensJohansson wrote:The conspiracy theories that "the US was behind the 9/11 attacks" I personally don't believe in, if stated that simple. Could elements from within the US government have aided the plot? Possibly. Did (like some people suggest) no plane hit the Pentagon? I don't believe so. I believe this idea (and many similar ones) is the result of muddled thinking and a general desire to stir up shit.
I could not have said this better myself. Have you ever noticed how the media, for instance, loves to stir up trouble with nearly
any administration, and yet, we never ever hear the end of their own self-righteous and self-congratulatory propaganda. As if
they were the ones that held the true power in this country.