Antiwar.com Blog

Cost of War #31415

The talent pool of the military officers is shrinking :

The army is losing its best and brightest. West Point, the alma mater of American generals going back to Ulysses S. Grant, has seen a relentless rise in the number of officers who leave at the earliest opportunity. Whereas only about 35% of the West Point class of 2000 had quit after five years, for the class of 2001 the proportion rose to 46% and for the class of 2002 to 58%. Retention problems are particularly severe among captains and majors with 11-17 years’ experienceâ€”the potential future military leaders. The army currently has only half as many senior captains as it needs, and forecasts that it will suffer from a shortfall of 3,000 captains and majors (out of a cadre of 52,000) until at least 2013. The maximum age for recruits has been raised to 42, and fitness and educational standards have been lowered.

Last week’s Economist has a whole section on possible changes in American foreign policy after November 2008 .

“He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.” ~ Declaration of Independence

Like the German mercenaries known as the Hessians who fought with the British against Americans in the Revolutionary War, soÂ now American mercenariesÂ are coming to a country near you. Since 9/11, the United States has granted citizenship to over 32,000 foreign soldiers. Thanks to a generous citizenship to foreigners plan, about 8,000 foreigners join the U.S. military every year. Then we transport these “large armies of foreign mercenaries” overseas to do our dirty work.

Liberals Silent on Iraq Atrocities

In New York, you cannot ride a subway without being bombarded with posters about Darfur and now, Tibet. Of course I have sympathy for those killed and displaced in Darfur, though the numbers have been overblown and other specifics of the situation have been exaggerated. And I am a sucker for all plainly legitimate secessionist movements, as in Tibet. But I am quite sick of being guilted into protest and “action” with the purpose of fixing problems my government is in no way (currently) responsible for.

The Tibet march poster I saw yesterday mentioned the “atrocities” perpetrated by the Chinese government. How about the atrocities carried out, abetted, enabled, and inspired by the US Government in Iraq? The death toll in Iraq beats last month’s entire cluster of clashes in Tibet practically every hour. Why, outside of a few stickers on newspaper boxes around town, is no significant mention made of what’s going on non-stop in Iraq? Are mainstream liberals just so cowed by the see-through rhetoric of the now completely debunked War Party that they still refuse to criticize a war their military is currently prosecuting?

Why are they demurely and cowardly “supporting the troops” in Iraq while wasting their rage on bullsh*t like a police crackdown against rioters in Tibet? This goes all the way up to top liberals in the country — the disgusting Nancy Pelosi tells the President he should boycott the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. Who is George Bush to express moral indignation about anything? France’s Sarkozy is just as ridiculous — he rubs his face in Bush’s crack as the Decider bends over to destroy another piece of Iraq, but is contemplating a boycott of the Olympics opening ceremonies over a few scuffles in Lhasa?

Sick.

How about some priorities reevaluation?

New Blog from The American Conservative

Finally, the premier antiwar conservative magazine has a blog!

Among many others are posts by Philip Giraldi, Daniel McCarthy, James Antele, Leon Hadar, Scott McConnell, James Pinkerton, Tim Carney, Kelly Vlahos, Tom Woods, Steve Sailer, Kara Hopkins, and our own Justin Raimondo.

Check it out!

American Comfort Women

Give your daughter up to serve Uncle Sam. He’ll take real good care of her for you.

And she’ll get money for college.

An Important Article: Read It Now!

For months, now, Reason magazine has been conducting a smear campaign against Ron Paul, and his supporters, and editor Matt Welch — eager to lose yet more subscribers — has recently unleashed a broader attack, not only on Paul, but on the libertarian heritage upheld by we here at Antiwar.com: the legacy of Murray N. Rothbard, whoÂ the ignorantÂ and decidedly un-libertarian WelchÂ accuses of being part of a “racist” cabal. A more disgusting smear has never been penned. Go here and behold how I tear this loser to shreds ….

Thanks to a commenter over at Reason, here’s a vintage quote from Welch:

“Welcome to War. Sounds like a strange and unpleasant thing to say, but these are strange and unpleasant times, requiring unusual responses. Like many of you, I am reading and hearing and watching too much about the wicked horror of Sept. 11, and finding it a challenge to keep track of how it is already changing our lives. The biggest question facing Americans and other decent people is how the civilized world and its strongest country should respond to this mass murder. I, for one, advocate a Global War to abolish terrorism. ”