[Aaron]

So what would you do if you anticipated ever escalating military conflict going forward because of resource competition?

You have not been in a large-scale military engagement for decades, but are certain such conflicts are an ongoing component for your future. Lacking battle-hardened, military experience for your officers and career soldiers, it might make sense to kill 2 birds with 1 stone & seek limited engagements now which not only secure your strategic geographic position in a region which is likely to be in dispute in the comming years, but also provides real-world experience to your commanders prior to full-scale conflicts.

Most experienced military professionals currently serving in the US armed forces are approaching the end of their careers today.

There is only 1 way to get this particular kind of experience... war.

'Nuff Said...

Welcome to Iraq.

Your dog wants West Point.

[Concerned]

Or if you are running the place you could decide it's much easier to let your people slide into poverty and stagnant living conditions while you as part of the wealthy elite enjoy the spoils the world has to offer.

In other words give up and sell out totally.

[jlw61]

Or, you could be a college frat-boy who hooks up with a capitalist pig, both of whom having the mores of a monkey and weasle, respectively. Frat-boy has a thing for this bully who he feels made daddy look bad and the weasle sees some profits in helping frat-boy out. That a terrorist incident came to home soil was simply was too good to be true and they used it for all it's worth.

Sometimes a comspiracy is what it is, but most of the time it's just a bunch of numb-skulls doing what they do best.

[MadScientist]

Or, you could be a college frat-boy who hooks up with a capitalist pig, both of whom having the mores of a monkey and weasle, respectively. Frat-boy has a thing for this bully who he feels made daddy look bad and the weasle sees some profits in helping frat-boy out. That a terrorist incident came to home soil was simply was too good to be true and they used it for all it's worth

"simply too good to be true" mmhmmm
review the PNAC document. it sums our ongoing strategy up nicely.

[Aaron]

So this got me to wondering what other military adventures the US might engage in with the idea that we will likely need seasoned commanders going forward.

Iran seems an unlikely candidate to me, given the composition of the population, it's military & most of all Chinese financial investment there.

But surely I can't be the only person to realize that the US, as the world's police force, will very likely need these veteran folks...

Where can we send our troops to gain the experience they will need in the future, without creating a boondoggle now?

Who is next?

[Grifter]

Syria

[CarlosFerreira]

I guess that's possible. In the meantime, as America's economy stagnates and debt raises, friends and foes will get seriously bothered by the perceived american lack of capacity to pay debt. There has been talk of changing the currency in which oil is traded from dollars to euro. That you mean oil-producing nations would not have to pick the dollars and invest in US treasure bonds, effectively limiting a form of income. The last guy who said it was Saddam Hussein. Look at him now!

President Hugo Chavez came to Portugal and Spain and offered oil at $100 per barrel, pledging to trade that money directly for products and services (such as wind power technology) in Portugal and Spain. Note, what he's doing is trading (directly) oil for goods, although he used the $100 price tag and money to have a perceived price label and to be able to trade with capitalist countries; however, this is a major disruption of normal market trade rules, and the US are not going to like it. That stops their control of the market. Venezuela is also selling oil to other South American nations at lower prices and low (1% for 15 years, I think) interest rates.

That means the US may soon lose some power over South America. My guess is one of these days a B-2 somewhere over the Pacific may wrongfully launch a bomb that - bad luck - blows the Presidential Palace of Venezuela. Accidents do happen, you know?

Or I may be wrong.

[Nickel]

Note, what he's doing is trading (directly) oil for goods, although he used the $100 price tag and money to have a perceived price label and to be able to trade with capitalist countries; however, this is a major disruption of normal market trade rules, and the US are not going to like it.

He's coming late the idea. The Chinese are already dropping out of the Anglo-American oil markets scheme that's handled oil since the OPEC crisis and gone, on their own, back to the model we had before that: fixed-term, fixed-range-price deals with other governments, one-to-one. If China'd been buying anything like the kind of oil they do now ten years ago, the change would be palpable... but this is demand that's largely grown, and been addressed, outside the system. And since they can trade in any currency or barter, there's less need for them to have US dollars (the petrocurrency) to do this. Chavez is just more vocal about it.

[Arsenal]

The Arctic if there are ever any reliable sources found.

Arsenal

[Kingcoal]

Old news, started in recent history with the first Gulf War. The problem is that GWB successfully recreated the Vietnam War problem for recruiters; "Not my son, thank you."

Hello draft.

[Kingcoal]

Hmm, where next to look for war? Outer Space?

[BigTex]

I think Iraq will provide a good source of live-round combat training for many years to come (it's already given us five solid years--who would have thought that?).

At some point, there will probably be opportunities in Lebanon, SA and multiple locations in central and south America.

[Nickel]

I think Iraq will provide a good source of live-round combat training for many years to come (it's already given us five solid years--who would have thought that?).

How good can the "training" be if it's still going on after five years? German and Japanese "training" didn't last this long for US troops.

[BigTex]

I think Iraq will provide a good source of live-round combat training for many years to come (it's already given us five solid years--who would have thought that?).

How good can the "training" be if it's still going on after five years? German and Japanese "training" didn't last this long for US troops.

Personally, I think it is a complete disaster, but in the same way that Vietnam became just another big government program and many career military personnel saw it as an opportunity to get the vital combat experience necessary to advance in their careers, Iraq may be following the same blueprint.

Also, Vietnam was a great opportunity for defense contractors to try out their new equipment, which is perhaps another purpose of the Iraq adventure.

It's an incredibly sad thing to watch, however. There will be a whole generation of Americans with PTSD and maimed bodies before we're done over there. I think that the wounded to killed ratio is about 10:1, the highest ever as a result of quick evacuations. However, that means that there are going to be 50,000+ veterans, AT A MINIMUM, carrying that nightmare around for decades and requiring lifelong care.

Just like Nixon campaigned in 1968 based upon getting out of Vietnam, I think that Obama, if he wins, will find that getting out of Iraq will be a hard promise to keep.

[CarlosFerreira]

Can leaving Iraq mean Linebaker III is on the way? They'd have to blow Sadr City and half the country to do it, this time round.

[Twilight]

Depends on the content of the curriculum. For example, I would venture most experience gained in Iraq would be worthless in Nigeria, if not an outright impediment. There has been concern over the cuts made to other training since the invasion of Iraq. Armies hoping to react rapidly and project force need to be open-minded all-rounders, not carrying five years of bad habits to unlearn. Then there is the equipment issue. A sudden shift to a different theatre and it would be canvas-sided Humvees and a lack of sand filters all over again. "Training wars" would be a pointless exercise without diversity.

[Nickel]

"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do." - George W Bush

Figures, huh? Can't wait to get his hands on the controls of anything that goes BOOM, but when it comes to doing anything about something boring and messy (especially when he's getting fiendishly richer by the second because of it), ohhhh, it's CONGRESS'S bailiwick.

What they ought to do is impeach him. There'd be such happiness in the world, such utter relief, the price of oil would drop about fifty bucks a barrel.