To: MrLucky who wrote (3199 ) 1/29/2004 9:19:07 PM From: mph Read Replies (2) | Respond to Further to my comments and link re: Mollie Ivins,slate.msn.com These are the generals who criticized Rumsfeld's battle plan while Gulf War II was still raging and who beat back his efforts, over the past few years, to "transform" the Army into a lighter, lither fighting force. With Rumsfeld's star rising and the generals' tarnished, he can be expected to mount a new offensive on their bureaucratic turf at the first opportunity• I think there is one clear lesson here, and it involves our military: Those who have been arguing for the development of rapid deployment and rapid response capability have been in the right all along. Those of you who have followed this debate or read William Greider’s excellent book on the subject, Fortress America: The American Military and the Consequences of Peace, know that we have been trying to follow two strategies simultaneously and not doing either very well. The defense industry is, as always, pushing us to spend incredible amounts on advanced military hardware, which often doesn’t work terribly well: witness, the famous Apache helicopter fiasco.
