Our military is no longer respected

It looks like Bush has ruined the reputation of our military with possible far-ranging consequences. Because of this Iraq fiasco, our allies in Australia, Japan, and South Korea believe that we would lose a war with China. Japan in particular would like to raise its own army and kick our soldiers out because they believe our soldiers are "extremely incompetent."

Personally, I don't believe our military is incompetent, but I see how other countries would view our military that way given the way Bush has misused it.

So not only has Bush lost the war in Iraq, he has caused our allies in Asia to lose confidence in our military. Our allies don't trust us enough to rely on us and our enemies (China, North Korea) no longer fear us. Not good. It will take years and years to re-build the reputation of our military which Bush has destroyed in 6 short years.

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/Medi...eastasia_1.htm

[jthegreat]

Lose confidence in our administration, maybe... but not the military itself. They aren't that f'ing stupid.

[whiskeytown]

doesn't matter - their orders are to follow the C-I-C.

If the C-I-C drags them into a quagmire from which there's no escape but won't withdraw cause he's afraid of looking like he has no spine (like father like son) then the Military can't do a damn thing about it but get picked off....

Now, we could have a Military Coup - we get another bonehead like the current one that'll actually look appealing - but if this experience has taught me anything, it's that an incompetent C-I-C who tailors war intelligence to fit his goals is capable of killng a lot of good young men, even if they do have the finest military hardware on earth.

RB

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...quagmire...

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Didn't I see this word on a poster some guy/lady was holding up at a rally somewhere? Think I saw it on CNN. Anybody else see it?

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

The military is primarily composed of the lowest common denominator, backed by world beating technology and led by some very clever and experienced top brass. The administration is is simply composed of the lowest common denominator.

In my experience the forces on the ground lack the empathy required to occupy a foreign nation, the top brass are politically constrained from running a conflict as a conflict ought be run, and the administration are out of their depth in trying to keep the war effort palatable to the general public.

However, this is a small part of the puzzle, as the US is in decline in Asia over a wide range of areas. Even Australia, itself a staunch ally, has aligned itself with China on some trade issues - much to the chagrin of Washington.

The Japanese are merely reflecting the emergence and reemergence of a several powerful Asian nations.

[vulturesrow]

ITs a much more complex issue than "losing a war with China". What type of war are we talking about? I highly doubt we would ever invade China, although it is an outside possibility. The most likely scenario is defending Taiwan from an invasion across the Strait of Taiwan. The military is well prepared for this situation. China's primary advantage at this point is numbers, although they are aggressively ramping up their technology and training.

Im sure this is all part of some political game, although I cant think of the advantage to allied nations in making pronouncements like this.

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The most likely scenario is defending Taiwan from an invasion across the Strait of Taiwan. The military is well prepared for this situation.

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Given events in Iraq I have a lot less confidence in this than I once did. Could we win such a conflict without using nukes?

[vulturesrow]

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The most likely scenario is defending Taiwan from an invasion across the Strait of Taiwan. The military is well prepared for this situation.

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Given events in Iraq I have a lot less confidence in this than I once did. Could we win such a conflict without using nukes?

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It is definitely a knotty scenario and I cant really go into specifics. But we dont need nukes to win and the scenario isnt really comparable to Iraq in any fashion.

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[ QUOTE ]
The most likely scenario is defending Taiwan from an invasion across the Strait of Taiwan. The military is well prepared for this situation.

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Given events in Iraq I have a lot less confidence in this than I once did. Could we win such a conflict without using nukes?

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The Chinese wouldn't blow themselves up.

[lehighguy]

The Iraq war should have further driven down the fact that American air and naval supremacy is unmatched. If we fought a large naval conflict in the Pacific today we would decimate China, it wouldn't even be close. We have more planes, more aircraft carriers, better technology. The problem with Iraq wasn't the destroying the [censored] out of them phase, it was the cleaning up stage.

The better question is WHY are we so obsessed with beating China in a conventional war. Because of nuclear weapons we never fought the Soviets, just as we will never fight the Chinese. Spend all that money on developing infastrastructure and education so that we remain the #1 economy, since all military power stems from economic and technological power.