[Vision2020] A Thought to Ponder

[Ted Moffett]

A war the US was victorious in since the Department of Defense was created?
This depends on how you define victory.

Saddam Hussein's rule was ended, his regime displaced, and he was executed.
Attempts are under way to establish a better form of government in Iraq,
however difficult.  Some define this as "victory."  But our "victory" in
Iraq may only be realized in decades.  Those who defend the US invasion of
Iraq still insist history will show whether or not the US invasion and
occupation was the best course of action.

Maybe in 50 (or ? years) years when the US/West in facing a massive energy
crisis, our military and/or economic presence in the Middle East will be
declared crucial, as this presence gains the US and/or its allies access to
critical oil supplies, and ensures the oil is not hoarded or used as an
economic weapon against the West, by whatever powers might try to rule the
Middle East (Iran, et. al.).  Isn't this the bottom line reason for the
invasion, given the Middle East holds the most quantity of the world's most
valuable high quality oil supplies, and overthrowing Saddam's regime offered
a path to the West's control of the oil, including defending Israel, and
encircling Iran?

Violations of international law, the Geneva Conventions, the spending of
hundreds of billions of dollars, and the death of hundreds of thousands
of innocents, might seem irrelevant at that point in time, just as we now
dismiss the genocide against Native Americans in North America, as
we dominate and exploit what was the homeland of native cultures and
peoples.

I could be ridiculous and claim the war against Grenada a "victory."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande07.html
---------
But my question was meant to address the often heard claim that the private
sector does things best, that "highly centralized government programs do not
work," when aiming this claim at the US military.

If our government can run a military (and this is a highly centralized
government program(s)) that can guarantee the freedom of the so called "free
world," as we often hear from those of many political viewpoints, then why
is it not possible for the government to run an effective national health
care system?  Which is a more difficult endeavor?

No institution is perfect, whether private sector or government run.
Private sector endeavors fail frequently, and can feature corruption, waste,
deception, crime and greed.  The evidence of these claims has been front
page news the past year; and governments are often corrupt, inefficient and
wasteful, and so forth, anyone of reason will agree.

Of course the military should remain under civilian control; but turning
most of the operations of the military over to the private sector (including
all VA hospitals and military personnel health care) would be the logical
result of following the arguments of those who insist the private sector is
superior in efficiency and effectiveness, to the government, therefore there
should be no government run public option health care.

I'm not arguing to privatise the military, only pointing out what seems to
be an inconsistency inherent (a private sector champion might have arguments
why the US military, including VA hospitals, should be government run, but
public health care should not) between the position that "highly centralized
government programs do not work" and the position that the US military, as
currently constituted, does work.

Ted Moffett

On 9/16/09, Wayne Price <bear at moscow.com> wrote:
>
> Ted,
>
> What I would say is that the "Department of Defense" doesn't work. All it
> did was add an extra layer of bureaucracy and has done nothing to increase
> efficiency or add to victory, what ever that is in this day and age.
> Since the DoD was created, name a war the US was victorious in. While I
> believe in civilian control over the military, the DoD has gone too far and
> it tends to go too much into the sphere of responsibilities of the uniformed
> officer corps without using the established military chain of command. They
> have all the authority with none of the responsibility, and they are not
> subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice as they are not in the
> military.
>
>
> And the DoD, for the most part, has become a dumping pot for patronage
> positions, most filled by political hacks or incompetent former military
> officers that couldn't hack it in uniform so they then come back in a suit!
> I worked for one Brigadier General that was passed over for promotion even
> though the General he worked for was the President of the Promotion Board -
> TWICE.
> He then wiggled himself a position as a deputy assistant secretary of
>  defense, and could then really (and did) screw things up! He was so
> "beloved" by not only his enlisted soldiers but also by the officers that
> worked under him that we were ordered, in writing to attend his retirement
> party! Otherwise no one would have been there!  In the words of one of the
> older soldiers from Alabama, "That boy couldn't lead soldiers to free liquor
> and loose women"!
> And yes, he was one of the strong advocates of  using
> contractors/mercenaries, and you see how successful that has been!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  On Sep 16, 2009, at 5:03 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:
>
>  On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Kai Eiselein <editor at lataheagle.com>wrote:
>
>>  Highly centralized government programs do not work.
>>
>
> This statement implies you think that the Pentagon, the US Marines, Army,
> Navy and Air force,
> "do not work."
>
> I am amazed again and again that the critics of government run programs
> rarely attack the US military when they make their arguments against these
> programs, yet the arguments they use apply just as well to the government
> run US armed forces.
>
> Perhaps the US armed forces should be completely privatized?
>
> Ted Moffett
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> =======================================================
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090916/758032e3/attachment-0001.html