Is the mess in Iraq a side effect of our military focus on high-tech?

Great Debates
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[QUOTE=tomndebb]
You are free to ignore whom you choose. You are not free to make a public issue of whom you are going to ignore.

[ /Moderating ]
[/QUOTE]

Sorry.

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[QUOTE=tomndebb]
One thing to note regarding that article is that it was written after five years of Rumsfeld carrying out the goal of making the military “lighter” and a couple of years after the Joint Chiefs tried to stop the Iraq juggernaut. After that long a time, the original military commanders have all retired (or resigned in frustration) and the ones who are left are more in sympathy with the “high tech obviates the need for troops” notions of Rumsfeld and his cronies.

Such attitudes are liable to keep us in Iraq indefinitely, but they were not the rasons we went into Iraq with too few troops to begin with.
[/QUOTE]

I agree that Rummy is a major component of the reason with went into Iraq with the troop levels we did.

I thought the article provides a good overview of the budgeting process. My takeaway from it is that the current budgeting process tilts towards the purchase of high-tech over low-tech, regardless of need. That, to me, is troublesome generally, and particularly so if the US is going to continue these sort of nation-building endeavors.

23

[QUOTE=tomndebb]
One thing to note regarding that article is that it was written after five years of Rumsfeld carrying out the goal of making the military “lighter” and a couple of years after the Joint Chiefs tried to stop the Iraq juggernaut. After that long a time, the original military commanders have all retired (or resigned in frustration) and the ones who are left are more in sympathy with the “high tech obviates the need for troops” notions of Rumsfeld and his cronies.

Such attitudes are liable to keep us in Iraq indefinitely, but they were not the rasons we went into Iraq with too few troops to begin with.
[/QUOTE]

I agree that Rummy is a major component of the reason with went into Iraq with the troop levels we did.

I thought the article provides a good overview of the budgeting process. My takeaway from it is that the current budgeting process tilts towards the purchase of high-tech over low-tech, regardless of need. That, to me, is troublesome generally, and particularly so if the US is going to continue these sort of nation-building endeavors.