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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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From: bentway	3/17/2006 9:20:19 PM
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( thanks to Karen Laurence ) "While I was at the U. S. Naval Academy (Class of 1966), I was awarded minor degrees in U.S. and Russian military history along with a B.S. in nautical engineering. A requirement in one of those military history classes was to write a paper about how I would destroy the United States. The Professor who made that request was a very respected civilian named Russell who also worked for the Pentagon as a consultant. My answer (which earned an A+) was simple - I'd keep the U.S. tied up in multiple "Vietnam type" conflicts in as many places as possible without putting my own troops at risk. My suggestions were to use the North Koreans to keep the Korean peninsula active, the Huks to continue raising h#ll in the Phillipines, the Cubans to do the same in Central and South America, and the Angolans (or was it Nigerians? I forget) to stir things up in Africa. The idea was to get the Americans to keep their eyes off the real games that would be played in the real power centers of the rest of the world, and also to break the American spirit from inside as the support of the general populace was gradually worn down over time. It should be noted that I never even considered in this paper bankrupting the U.S. thru astronomical military spending as a possibility since we still had politicians in control then who understood the fiscal policy of either "guns or butter - but not both." This paper ended up in the Pentagon (thanks to Prof. Russell) and probably is still lying around in someone's dusty filing cabinet. Following graduation, I then proceeded thru the U.S. Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico, jump school at Ft Benning and flight school at Pensacola before heading off to DaNang, Vietnam as an RF-4B/TA-4F pilot serving in MAG-11, 1st Marine Air Wing for 13 months - knowing the whole time that we probably could not win that war the way it was being fought. If I were to be asked to write that same paper today - (i.e. How would I destroy the U.S.?) - It would be a much simpler task. It would simply say that there is no requirement for me to do anything but to sit back and do nothing - since Mr. Bush is doing a better job at accomplishing this than I ever could from the outside. As I write this, my older son is now back in the Gulf for his 3rd tour on board a carrier. My younger son is considering going into the Marines (like his old man did during his time of war) when he graduates from college next year. I don't know what to do or to say to either of them right now. On the one hand I want to be a patriotic, supportive father; while on the other hand I view Bush as a complete village idiot who has only achieved disastrous results in everything he has attempted to accomplish while serving as our President. That's a dilemma that at some point I'm going to have to deal with. So far I've just kept my mouth shut - a coward's path to be sure. finance.messages.yahoo.com.

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