VIEW FROM WITHIN THE PHALANX

We are forced to intervene in many directions simply because we have to be on our guard in many directions; now, as previously, we have come as allies to those of you here who are being oppressed; our help was asked for, and we have not arrived uninvited.
- THUCYDIDES, The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War spanned twenty-eight years (431-404 BC); in the end Athens surrendered to Sparta. Completely devastated, Athens never regained its pre-war prosperity.

If the war we are in is no longer to be known as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT, then why don’t we call it the One Hundred Years War? If it is not that, then it is certainly at least the Thirty Years War. (These nicknames for the war, by the way, have been American GI wisdom since at least 2002.)

Our enemies are myriad; committed friends and allies few. Thousands of dedicated Taliban fighters swarm throughout the Northwest Tribal Areas of Pakistan, with their complimentary propaganda / indoctrination organizations, Sharia tribunals and enforcers, political wing, logistics, support, etcetera.

The Obama Administration’s response is to dedicate 20,000 troops to the Afghan theater of operations – but the enemy’s main effort is across the border, in Pakistan. We have limited forces located in Pakistan of course, but they are not deployed in sufficient numbers or troop configurations to decisively engage the Taliban.

Two weeks ago we were all going to suffer and die a horrible death at the hands of the Swine Flu Pandemic. As it turned out, this seems simply a crisis of convenience, a diversion readily lapped up, regurgitated and magnified a thousand fold by the Obama Administration propaganda machine a.k.a. the Mainstream Media. The Swine Flu story served to divert attention away from the Obama Administration’s nationalization of the banks and the auto industry.

And so while our enemies swirl around us, consolidate their forces and prepare for the next terrorist offensive, Barack Obama has committed the nation to a trillion, or three trillion, or ten trillion-odd dollars over the next four to ten years. Perhaps only ten percent of this incredible amount is to provide stimulus to the economy; the rest represents the greatest growth of government agencies and projects in the history of the Republic. This unnecessary expansion will require running the printing presses, of course – there is no other way to produce the required funds – and this will inevitably bankrupt us, of course, via a combination of hyperinflation, taxes, and high interest rates.

That's a Hell of a way to prepare the nation for a decades-long global conflict, Mr. Obama.