WP/AP: Pentagon Now Prepares to Fight Long War

[PhilipShore]

Washington Post
Pentagon Now Prepares to Fight Long War
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
The Associated Press
February 1, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020101893.html

WASHINGTON -- Now, the Pentagon is preparing for The Long War. In the 2007 budget due out next week and a soon-to-be-released long-range plan for reshaping the military, the Defense Department talks about the military's future in terms of its ability to fight a new kind of war. It is one that cannot be won in days or weeks, and will be fought on many fronts and against a vast array of enemies.

Administration officials seem to refer to the "long war" more frequently these days. President Bush mentioned it during his State of the Union address this week. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the term is a way of telling people the truth about the fight against terrorism.

"Just as the Cold War lasted a long time, this war is something that is not going to go away," Rumsfeld said.

He said this does not mean U.S. troops will be in Iraq indefinitely, but rather that the U.S. will be fighting violent extremists for many years to come.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. The Long War against who?

Us.

[Fozzledick]

16. Against peace!

[TomInTib]

2. Take the kids and run- here come da draft.

Next on screens in your town.

[katty]

12. update your passports for you&the kids NOW-saw this in

Viet Nam...

[TomInTib]

13. And I was there. nt

[Benhurst]

3. The World's Only Superpower.

What a dump!

[Geo55]

4. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia n/t

[Barrett808]

7. What are you, a dupe of Emmanuel Goldstein? You mean Eastasia, of course

We've always been at war with Eastasia.

[Geo55]

14. 'O'Brien!' said Winston, making an effort to control his voice.

'You know this is not necessary. What is it that you want me to do?'

[EuroObserver]

11. aka The Orwellian War of course n/t

[daleo]

5. Maybe a hint about Iran, too?

North Korea, etc.

[ixion]

6. how's that 'cakewalk' coming, Rummy?

I mean, prior to the illegal invasion, there was all this talk.

How's that working out for you now? :grr:

[thebigidea]

8. how many years have to pass before they drop this "new kind of war" crap?

[Megahurtz]

9. Yeah so do any of us have a say in this?

:thumbsdown: NO MORE WAR!!!

Enough is enough!

[sofa king]

10. Dude, it's already BEEN a long war.

You know how long America fought in World War II? Three years and nine months, more or less, from December 1941 to September, 1945.

The next State of the Union Address will mark roughly the same duration for the fighting in Iraq.

By my count, we're at the two-year, ten month mark in Iraq. If this were World War II, it would be roughly September, 1944. The Battles of Coral Sea and Midway would be in the distant past. American troops had already fought their way through North Africa, Sicily, and halfway up the boot of Italy past Rome. The thousand-mile long Ledo road linking Burma, India, and China was nearing completion. The Solomons, Marshalls, Carolines, Admiralty, Palau and Marianas Islands were taken back from the Japanese, and the Philippines was next on the list. Allied forces had broken out of the Normandy beachead and were preparing to jump into Holland for Operation Market Garden.

In two years and ten months after December, 1941, the Americans improved the armor on every one of forty thousand Sherman tanks (but not nearly enough), and had developed a high-velocity gun which could actually harm German tanks. They studied the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and designed, tested, and mass produced a plane which could defeat it. They were less than a year away from using the first atomic bombs in combat.

Today, our government won't buy body armor for our troops because the manufacturers make more money by having the families and friends of soldiers buy it themselves. This is not a tradition stemming from World War II, a just war which needed to be fought and which was fought to win. It's a tradition from the Peloponnesian War, when a citizen was expected to supply his own sarissa and shield. That three-decade war, which ended with the destruction of Athens as a world power for all time, was also thrust upon a reluctant public with fallacious justification. It's the Peloponnesian War upon which the neocons dote, and we are following the exact same path to destruction because of it.

[Just Me]

23. You posted a litany of excellent points.

:hi:

:yourock:

[hadrons]

15. I guess Rummy is doing quagmire now ...

[Hosnon]

17. NOW?!?!?!?! Great military strategists...nt

[savemefromdumbya]

18. Who is going to fight it? They are not going to find many without a draft?

just who do they think they are drafting?

[GoldenOldie]

19. Rummy and the Generals will be long gone .....rotting in their graves.

Those still breathing will be sitting in their feathered nests or working as civilians for the War Industry.

The War Profiteers are like roaches they will live on through their children and grandchildren free of responsiblity while those they robbed will do their fighting, bleeding and dying.

[donkeyotay]

20. Ooh, this upgrade not be cheap. It will cost you your rights,

your retirement and your first born. Previously, the "long war" was going to be fought against 60 countries. Now it's "against a VAST ARRAY of enemies." I think another name for a really, really looong war "that is not going to go away" is permanent war. If there were any sanity left in Washington, Rumsfeld would have been fired long ago.

[llmart]

21. Can someone find the Rummy the Dummy quote.....

where he said it would be over in a few months after the infamous "Shock and Awe?"

What a flip-flopper.

[jimshoes]

24. Here ya go

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/05/225.html

Scroll to #3

[llmart]

25. That's the one....

Why can't the Dems use these quotes against this cabal? The Repugs never miss a chance to do that.

[Just Me]

22. They are preparing for their World War --> the one THEY incite.

As soon as they strike either Iran or Syria, my son and I are outta' here. In my view, that will be the trigger of "Operation Totalitarianism".

[tabasco]

26. America now has its very own West Bank. Thanks, Bush!

Perpetual war. Of course, we always knew this is what they wanted. We warned people before it even started. This is a war for corporate profits that will go on until WE stop it. The robber barons will not stop it because they are making so much money.

The American people are the most gullible in the whole world. This bloody quagmire still has 30-some percent approval.

The military is close to breaking. It cannot put up with endless war without new recruits. It seems the freepers like to cheerlead war but not participate. Just like their heroes Bush and Cheney, who did everything possible to avoid combat service. The perfect leaders for the cowardly freepers. They deserve each other.

[davekriss]

27. When will enough be enough, Rummy?

When we can say that you and the rest of the Bush Regime killed more of us in Iraq than Bin Laden did in NY and DC? More Americans GI's die in the DU-dusted sands chasing your lies about mushroom clouds, aluminum tubes, yellow cake, and we know where they are (they're north and south and east and west of Tikrit -- technically, Rummy, that's not a lie, American WMD are indeed all around Tikrit, albeit hundreds to thousands of miles away from that city's borders).

What an honor, George, when you can bluster to Bin Laden, "Bring it on! See? I don't care! I can kill more Americans than you can!! With impunity!!"

Un-f*cking believable.