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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Does the sea change?

A bit of an exaggeration, but, generally, yeah.
While the U.S. has been tied up in Iraq, China is modernizing its military and its air defenses are now nearly impenetrable to all but the newest of American fighters, the senior U.S. military official in Japan said.

PS. Is it good or bad strategy to couch your budget requests as criticisms of the Iraq war?

And, as a broader question, at what point does carefully criticizing the Bush administration start helping your military career? Framed correctly, the current Joint Chiefs may like it. The next administration will likely like it.

At what point is that a good career move, and what are the implications if serving officers start grumbling about Iraq as a mistake?

5 Comments:

  • For better or worse, China is the future.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:26 AM  

  • You certainly have a way of putting your finger on the key questions. I imagine a lot of army officers will have something to say...it's a leading indicator to watch for.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:20 AM  

  • Abi, that's one of my core beliefs, and that's why I'm so anti-Bush admin.

    Bush Sr. and Clinton focused their foreign policies largely on constructing a firm international framework, now, while the US still has its fingers on the levers, that way the US's return to a "nation among nations" would be more to our benefit.

    This administration tore all of that up in an instant on some wildassed belief that the US military advantage could somehow be leveraged to create a "new American century."

    It was an idea working against the tides of history and always doomed to fail, and now we have a ton more debt, less world influence, and have to start building the post US framework all over.

    ....

    Anon, I would think that there may be alot of it, but they'll have to do it very carefully. It will have to be framed like this one where criticism is couched in an interest in defense.

    And, I don't know how much of it will bubble back to us, but I wouldn't think that being pro-Iraq war (by that I mean pro - "change the middle east" political theory)will look good as generals look to move up a star.

    Especially if a Clinton administration comes in with their Sec Def and Joint Chiefs.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:15 PM  

  • I do not look for major changes in US Middle East policy under Hillary. Bush Lite probably.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:17 PM  

  • No, no changes in the broad themes, but perhaps more subtlety and consensus.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:07 PM  

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