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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (896)	3/20/2001 12:29:47 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

The mere act of steaming into port is seen as provocative by some of the people there. Imagine if Arabs kept a fleet stationed off our coast. We didn't force Yemen to accept the Cole. It was there by invitation. If a Saudi frigate was off our cost as part of an exercise with the US navy, or was in one of our navy bases as part of an offical visit I see no reason to be afraid of it. t was done to try to save lives Yes, the old "we must kill them in order to save them" argument. It isn't "defensive" to have ourselves spread around the globe, especially when we face no military threat whatsoever. We go around looking for trouble, then we're shocked when one of the many enemies we have made decides to retaliate. Perhaps it was payback for the bombing of the aspirin factory. No not a "we must kill them in order to save them" argument. A defense of others argument. I'm not saying getting involved in Kosovo was a good policy, or that the consequences of the policy were all positive, but it was not an aggressive policy or an evil one. Our military is being prepared to fight us. It is quite that simple. There is nothing the government likes better than when the tough old NCOs who are the backbone of our forces take early retirement. Yeah, we’d have no chance in a real war but they really do not care! I agree that our military is not as prepared as it should be. I also agree with some of Michael Peirce's other statements in that article. Particularly about the military becoming the subject of social experiments rather then the most efficient fighting force we can make it. However to say that the US armed forces have no chance in a real war is a crazy over exaggeration. Tim