Goodbye War on Terrorism, Hello Long War!!!!

[AGENDA21]

One phrase contained in the draft Quadrennial Defense Review document circulating amongst defense experts is sure to be a part of your life for years to come: The long war.

Defense experts want the long war to be the new name for the war on terror, a kind of societal short hand that will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cold War, promoted to capital letters, an indisputable and universally accepted state of the world.

"This generation of servicemembers will be in what we're calling the Long War," Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this week.

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/01/goodbye_war_on_.html#more

[Democrats_win]

1. When does the law of averages start working against you in a long war?

There's the lesson of Beirut where our Marines will killed. How long can we keep up this super security? Then there's our rivals like China who will take advantage of our preoccupation on war.

[neuvocat]

3. You beat me to it.

[neuvocat]

2. As long as the U.S. can sustain it.

Of course there is the matter of resources and manpower. The problem with any war is that there are practically millions of variables that affect its outcome-including how long it could last.

One thing for certain however is that the U.S. is in a position of helplessness regarding Iran. Too much money, time and manpower have been spent on this boondoggle with Iraq. There's also that deficit of "political capital" (which IMO is another name for "creditability").

The U.S. has caused this problem with Iran by giving it the rhetoric to justify the building of nuclear weapons. After all, the U.S. has proven that it is willing to go to war strictly for its own self-interests. Iran could argue to the U.N. that it has to defend itself against agressors.

But there is one country who will most likely put an end to all this: China.

China has a lot of money invested in the U.S. in the form of treasury bills (loans that the U.S. made to stay afloat). China has a great deal of economic influence and doesn't want to have its money scattered afloat.

So let's just say the U.S. decides to have its nice litte war. It says "FU" to the Chinese. The Chinese simply say "We're calling in our loans then. Pay up."

Now if you're the U.S., are you going to look China in the eye and say "no"? Not when you're getting your ass kicked by a small country. China has a very, very large army. There are plenty of troops to send all over the world.

Including the mideast, which is where it gets a great deal of its oil.

[Beelzebud]

4. Hell, call it what it is: Perpetual Warfare

War Is Peace

Freedom Is Slavery

Ignorance Is Strength

The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'. --George Orwell's 1984

[stellanoir]

5. The military is broken

Our economy is a mess. Our deficit is mushrooming by the minute.

Sorry you guys (aka chicken hawks) a "long war" is simply unsustainable.

In the Cold War innocents weren't getting killed, getting maimed, contaminated by toxic DU, or tortured on an hourly basis.

It was nuclear proliferation: a potential of mutually assured annihilation not a violent reality.

Stupid comparison.

[alfredo]

6. Bush claims dictatorial power because we are at war. Now we see

the war is without end. George W Bush, dictator for life.

[carolinalady]

7. Bushisms need to be exposed-

Expose it, demean it and diminish it!

War on Terra
Long War
Terrorism Surveillance Program
Pre-911
Post-911
Alert level
Imminent threat
"known Al-Quiada operative"-aside note: If they know who they are, why don't they bust them?
Unitary Executive
"Freedom's on the march"
"War on Christmas"

I know there are more-just can't think right now.

[Jara sang]

8. I have never heard anything more Orwellian before in my life. n/t