To Mike Nelson’s post at RealClearDefense I will only add that if the ways do not effect the ends or if you do not will the means you cannot will the ends.
To Mike Nelson’s post at RealClearDefense I will only add that if the ways do not effect the ends or if you do not will the means you cannot will the ends.
The most disturbing bit to me was this: The President and Secretaries of State and Defense seem to suggest they expect Russia to take actions “helpful†to our goal of ending the Syrian war through Assad’s removal despite the fact that this runs counter to their own interests.
It’s disturbing because (a) it seems to be true that the US rulers believe the Russians should act in OUR interests instead of in Russian interests and (b) because this is an example of incredibly stupid people being in charge of a gigantic nuclear arsenal.
The article isn’t bad, but it does miss something in its calculus. That would be that the chaos in the MENA region due to failing states is no longer remaining contained to that region. Witness everything from Boko Harum to the refugee crisis in Europe. The problems are spreading like a cancer. What I’m saying is, the situation is worse than he makes it out to be.
Peter Turchin’s prediction of maximal instability in 2020 doesn’t look like a bad bet, if you can get a bookie to take the wager.
Well of course the United States is “indispensable” while Russia, Syria and Iran are not, the only other indispensable nation being Israel, around which the foreign policy must always revolve.
The chaos in MENA is due to American intervention as is the migrant flood to Europe. Nelson’s more force insinuated strategy would ultimately require a draft and at that point the polarization would make the Vietnam Era seem like child’s play.
The “endstate” of all this is increasing anarchy and a flood of
victims into Europe which in turn insisted that the US bring Iran and Russia into the peace talks because finally what is left of our Mother Civilization is now realizing, left to its own devices,our Elite whose arrogance and incompetence vie with each other as the
leading feature of government policy will bring more instability to the world.
“The current plan, with valid but ambitious endstates – and incredibly limited methods and resources to accomplish them – will merely continue or exacerbate the current circumstances in which America is at the mercy of events and actions by adversary actors.”
“However, what is known is that these operations, whether or not they achieve Russian or Iranian objectives, absolutely interfere with the progress of U.S. goals, whether that is Assad’s removal in specific or stability across the Middle East in general.”
So naturally Mr. Nelson’s adversaries are not my adversaries
nor those of the average American citizen.
And his “stability” is that of docile submission of all parties in the Middle East to American-Israeli hegemony. It also means a necessary police state at home to protect us against the resulting enemies.
US failure to install a pro-Israel pro-American puppet to bring “stability” to Iraq should have taught Nelson the lesson he didn’t learn.