I recently posted an entry about an exchange I had with my Congressman. That exchange demonstrated the utter clueslessness of the man regarding military strategy and the operational arts.

This article demonstrates one reason for his cluelessness--He is not getting any help from his party's leadership. The article also has an assessment of where we are now and what needs to be done. Here's an excerpt.

"Expanding War, Contracting Meaning

"The Next President and the Global War on Terror
By Andrew J. Bacevich

"A week ago, I had a long conversation with a four-star U.S. military officer who, until his recent retirement, had played a central role in directing the global war on terror. I asked him: what exactly is the strategy that guides the Bush administration's conduct of this war? His dismaying, if not exactly surprising, answer: there is none.

"President Bush will bequeath to his successor the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone. To defense contractors, lobbyists, think-tankers, ambitious military officers, the hosts of Sunday morning talk shows, and the Douglas Feith-like creatures who maneuver to become players in the ultimate power game, the Global War on Terror is a boon, an enterprise redolent with opportunity and promising to extend decades into the future.

"Yet, to a considerable extent, that very enterprise has become a fiction, a gimmicky phrase employed to lend an appearance of cohesion to a panoply of activities that, in reality, are contradictory, counterproductive, or at the very least beside the point. In this sense, the global war on terror . . ."

Here's a link to the full article.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174996/andrew_bacevich_strategic_vacuum