Taking the Adam Curry view of the world, when al-Qaeda is eliminated in all these places, these forces will be left in place to enforce our control over those countries as the One World Government program of the Bilderberg Group and others pick up steam.
President Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries.
The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces, which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy.
[...]
According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House.It also emerged yesterday that Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, has ordered the Pentagon to find savings of more than $100 billion (£68 billion) over the next five years to redistribute more funds for combat forces — including special operations units. [...] The effort to provide more money for combat forces in Afghanistan and Iraq — including special operations units — is likely to lead to a clash with Congress, and also with the defence industry if favoured equipment programmes are scrapped.
Awww. The poor Senators and Congressmen can’t get their kickbacks… er, um… campaign contributions from defense contractors for weapon systems we don’t need.
lets see..
Japan, we are still there.
Pacific islands? we have bases all over them
Korea..Dont think so..
Viet Nam, yep we are still there.
Britain? I think we have a base there.
Israel.. yep, base there..
Turkey?? yep..
Turkey and Israel are having problems, we need another base in the middle east.
In case nobody has noticed our national guard has been doing one heck of a lot of combat time in war zones. Being full time professional soldiers during ??peace?? time wasn’t exactly what most of them signed up to do.
We need more regular military and a lot fewer pen pushers. The “no front lines/behind enemy lines” kind of fighting we’ve been doing for the last several years is exactly the kind of combat special forces are trained to do.
The entire military assigned to the Middle East is getting special forces training, if not from the brass, then by surviving their tours of duty.
Doesn’t a little cabin on a dirt road, about 30 miles from any town sound good about now? Of course, you would have to have a car and buy gasoline to travel to get your groceries, but no Internet, no newspapers, no Jehovah’s Witnesses. AHhhhhhh.
How are we going to support this giant military when the economy finally collapses into Great Depression II? Make no mistake about it the shit has yet to really hit the fan. All the stimulus money has just delayed it a bit.
I wonder how the creepy shrills like Dallas and Obamaforever are going to spin this.
Remember this promise?
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”
http://whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/transparencyandopengovernment/
This is smart. This is how you want to fight a war against a terrorist organization. You don’t fight 10,000 terrorists in 100 countries by invading 2 and sending 100,000 of thousands. This makes military sense and is how it should have been done.
Troll baiting.
I didn’t vote for Obama but the idea that he would broadcast all military moves for “openness” in government is ludicrous and support him in this area. Heck, I even remember some of Fox News military analysts calling for this back in the Bush/Cheney days.
#6 and #8 are thinking the right way.
The New York Times won’t leak things if a Democrat is President, so a good move.
Isn’t Obama supposed to be the Hope and Change wonder of the New America??
Bowing to every two-bit dictator, apologizing to the world for ills of the evil American Empire, and kissing everybody’s ass?
Holding hands and singing kumbaya while heralding the new and everlasting universal peace?
So how are these “search and destroy special ops” any different than the CIA death squads and mercenary armies of ages past? So exactly how are they any different than American support for the Afghan Mujaheedin, Salvadoran Death Squads, or the Nicaraguan Contras??
And that worked out so well!!
Piling on with 6, 8, and 9.
If the threat is an international network of radicals who are soft targets why would you ever need the Big Army?
Once you figure out who and where they are a handgun is going to be more useful than a tank.
#12: correct, though a Predator or other precisely aimed weapon might be/has been better in some cases. A tank, bomb, or other large weapon would be overkill.
#1 ECA
One of the most important bases in the pacific was located in Subic Bay the Philipines. Every ship that crossed the pacific stopped there. They had airbase, shipyards, R’N'R for horny sailors, the whole 9 yards. Unfortunately after the people knocked over the chump dictator Ferdinand Marcos, that the US of course was propping up, they kicked us out of there.
Myself I stopped believing in war and military solutions even before I finished my 4+ years in the USNavy.
As soon as everyone is dead, so will the terrorists be.
You gotta love armchair generals. We created Al-CIADA and now we have to kill the monster. And we never fucking learn anything…ever.
Wowee zowee. Either we go out and kill these bastards, or we don’t. Which side are you Pinkos on, anyway???
Its all one big fantasy island no doubt
Who knows what the NWO new world order group will dream up next ?
Yes, McCullough.
You nailed it here.
Are we not responsible, in a very real way, for Osama Bin Laden? Didn’t we give him and Al-Qaeda a start by making him a Mujaheedin war hero through our covert war in Afghanistan?
Didn’t we help create the monster Saddam Hussein by propping him up during the Iran-Iraq war?
Talking about Iraq, didn’t we screw the pooch there as well??
All problems of our own invention.
And now Obama is devising new and creative ways to give us MORE of the same?
#1 ECA – Turkey? We don’t need Turkey for a military base, anymore. Why do you think we fought the war in Kosovo? The US built a “temporary” base in Kosovo. I invite you to fire up Google Earth and look for Camp Bondsteel. Anything about it look temporary to you?