Following are two comments I received from Mike Ben Moshe on my weekly Ezine.

I encourage others to either email me replies to my Ezine or post directly here on the Blog.

Thanks, Mike, for some excellent comments.

Larry,

Problem is certain actions were taking after VN to ensure that only a popular or necessary war was waged. The # of active troops was reduced and the NG was made more integral to the war effort if needed. The age, education and other requirements were purposely set tight so as to restrict our nations engagement in foreign interventions. But as with the Church Commission recommendations certain of these actions were rescind by the Busch admin.. That the requirements loosened and the war drum's beating failed to increase recruitment just offered another excuse to privatization and hence you have an equivalent # of Mercs also known as "private security contractors". Which incidentally gave the neo-cons a new opportunity to propogandise internally since the gov is supposedly prohibited from using propaganda in the U.S..
As you would know from following the past defense appropriations issue, that most of the programs the Generals said were not needed and actually fought against and were past against this opposition just highlights how this is not so much a security or defense issue but an economic and political issue.
All at the expense of 4300 dead, 30000 wounded and the potential bankruptcy of the nation.
Mike

Larry,

As I was intimating in my earlier email, and as you well know, mission creep and an undefined, unclear or "false reason" mission is what the military reforms enacted after VN were meant to prevent

Mike

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ju9le4Pg7z1WjWzvY1I_WLNEsycA