Do you think the U.S. military is better or worse since the changes enacted by Donald Rumsfeld?

Question

I think the military of our nation is too small and unable to mobilize in sufficient numbers to be successful in a war situation. We needed three-times the hundred-thousand troops to be successful in Iraq, but the military leaders say they would be hard pressed to get an additional 20,000 troops. I believe we need a bigger, stronger military if we want to fight terrorism. Donald Rumsfeld's inept policies have left us vulnerable. What do you think?

Answer 1

I would like to see a larger army as well. But our troops are the best
there are any where.

Answer 2

Rummy botched things badly. We really need to rethink where and on what we spend out money. This is a new kind of fight and technology plays a bigger role. We do not need to maintain all the nukes... we could dispose of half of them and still have more than enough to blow everything up AND it would save allot of money that could then be used on other things we need more.

Answer 3

George Bush's Uncle's frat brother as Secretary of defense now makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Looking foreward to some keg stands in the white house bunker whooooooo hoooooo

Answer 4

It is not the number that will be the key point in Iraq

if the Iraqi is not happy with the invasion, no matter how much money and soldiers we have there, it is no use.

It is better top leave Iraqw and let them settle their own problem

Answer 5

US armed forces must expand and be equipped with modern weapons. China might be stronger militarily if their whole armed forces will be provided with modern weapons.

Answer 6

how much should be said on these things ? u know the people of iraq do have computers and they can read to when do the people smartin up and realize not just the u.s. people read these things

Answer 7

The situation isn't that our military was too weak to conduct the war, the invasion force was too weak; according to Donald Rumsfeld's design. And, there was no plan on how to handle Iraq after the military victory was won.

Rumsfeld had an idea that the US Army had such advanced technology that it could fight with far fewer soldiers. Rather than war game this tactic or, rather then run computer simulations, Rumsfeld decided to make it the new policy for the second Iraq invasion. So that is what left us without enough troops to secure Iraq.

Then there was no plan on what to do after the victory. Our invading troops had no MPs, had no security force other than normal infantry. They had no one knowledgeable about how the government worked in Iraq or what to do after it was beheaded. Normally the CIA would handle this, but Rumsfeld hamstrung the CIA over the supposed failure in intelligence to predict 9/11.

If the Bush Administration had planned for what to do after the war then we might not be in the fix that we currently are in. Instead he kicked out of government anyone that knew how to govern the country. His "Mission Accomplished Banner" proved that he had no plan for after the war. They were just going to leave Iraq without any leadership and hope that things would work out. That is what brought the Taliban into power in Afghanistan and started 9/11 in the first place.

Pentagon to take over their mission; a mission that the US Military is not trained to handle. Of course the so called failure of intelligence was because of the increasing reliance on If Donald Rumsfeld wasn't happy with the performance of the CIA then he should have sacked the people in charge instead of forcing the electronic intelligence rather than human intelligence. That works well if a high tech country like the Soviet Union is you opponent, but when you face a country where a camel is considered up to date transportation there aren't enough electronic sources for the NSA to eavesdrop on. Oh, and that warrantless wiretapping that George Bush Junior authorized was just an expansion of a program over 20 years old.

As a result, shops, government offices, and armories were left wide open for looting. The police, all of the government, and al of the military were fired. Not only were they let go from their jobs, but they were blackballed by the incoming forces so they couldn't get a job. There aren't many jobs out there for unemployed military fighters and police. They aren't skilled in any civilian profession; there are very few jobs for trained killers in the meek and mild civilian world.

The best jobs available were as terrorists. The pay isn't great and the threat of death is pretty high, but at least their families would be taken care of, they would have a chance to use their skills and the weapons they trained on, and they could strike back at the people who put them out of work and blackballed them. Only just this week did the Bush Administration allow the re-hiring of former Bath party members. Since people couldn't work in the government unless they were members of the Bath party this meant that all of the civil service and anyone who knew anything about ruling Iraq couldn't find employment, and they weren't in a position to help the new government.

So now our military has to live with the blunders of the Bush Administration. Our supply of active troops has been sorely hurt, our troops had to spend their time training the new military and security forces rather than patrolling, and they had to once again fight the army that they had defeated twice. Since there were not enough troops to win the peace we have in effect lost the war.

Our reserve forces are depleted, most of them have had serious casualties, and either lost or left most of their equipment in Iraq. Recruitment is down, because few people want to fight, and die in a war that can't be won (see Vietnam for a similar reaction).

Meanwhile we finally find why the Shaw of Iran and the dictator of Iraq were such tyrants that put heavy controls on the population; they had to if they were going to keep order. Since no one was doing that, since the weapons were lying around in caches all over the country, and since there was so much fighting the Sunni and Shiites decided to bring up their 1400 year old civil war again.

So now that the Iraqi security forces and military are only half trained our troops have to turn around and fight a budding civil war. With the election of the Democrats our troops are going to be pulled out of Iraq (how far do you have to stick your hand into a meat grinder to figure out that this might not be a good idea, and you should really pull it out). Once this happens then the insurgents, the civil war fighter, and the terrorists are all going to move in. The Iraqi Government will fail (Iran will make sure of that, they and Syria hate the US for supporting Israel). When it fails the only group that has enough clout to control the civil war will be a religious one. The same thing is going to happen in Afghanistan since no one wants to fight there either, and the war there isn't even being discussed any more. Many people blame the media for this, but when they write NBC Nightly news telling this, NBC sent reporters into Iraq.

The result of all this mess is that the US went in to remove the Taliban. The US is going to leave the region with 2 Taliban like governments in power. The US will not have just lost the war on terrorism, they will have made it WORSE. Our well leaked Intelligence Estimate states that the continued presence of the US in Iraq is only fueling the cause of Terrorism.

If that isn't bad enough we have Iran, well on its way to building an atomic bomb. They have ignored any US sanctions since the 1980s when they were first put in place, and they are ignoring any new sanctions that the US has tried to put into place. The UN is powerless on this issue because Iran is a good customer for China and Russia, so they will stop any international action against Iran. Therefore it isn't a question of IF, but a statement of WHEN Iran develops the atomic bomb they will sell it to Hezbollah who will quickly try to use them on Israel and the US. Luckily we have a 747 based laser system that can shot down incoming missiles so we could protect Israel--except Congress canceled the program. With only Patriot Missiles to protect Israel it is only a matter of time (and a short time too) that Israel will be nuked. Israel has had the nuclear bomb for over 20 years. They have them dispersed to their bases and forward positions all ready to use. WHEN Israel is attacked with nuclear weapons they will have no choice but to respond in kind. If the Israel government failed to respond then a "no confidence vote" would be held in record time and a new government that would use their nuclear weapons would be put into power.

If that isn't bad enough we have Iran, well on its way to building an atomic bomb. They have ignored any US sanctions since the 1980s when they were first put in place, and they are ignoring any new sanctions that the US has tried to put into place. The UN is powerless on this issue because Iran is a good customer for China and Russia, so they will stop any international action against Iran. Therefore it isn't a question of IF, but a statement of WHEN Iran develops the atomic bomb they will sell it to Hezbollah who will quickly try to use them on Israel and the US,

Luckily we have a 747 based laser system that can shot down incoming missiles so we could protect Israel--except Congress canceled the program. With only Patriot Missiles to protect Israel it is only a matter of time (and a short time too) that Israel will be nuked. Israel has had the nuclear bomb for over 20 years. They have them dispersed to their bases and forward positions all ready to use. WHEN Israel is attacked with nuclear weapons they will have no choice but to respond in kind. If the Israel government failed to respond then a "no confidence vote" would be held in record time and a new government that would use their nuclear weapons would be put into power.

Therefore a nuclear war in the Middle East is only a few months or a couple of years away. No one is doing anything to prevent it, and once the nukes fly no one can stop them. The only thing the US can do is to hunker down and vainly hope that they won't be a target and that WW3 won't start.