Thursday, November 22, 2007

US Navy RIP-3

"In October, the Navy published a new maritime strategy called 'A cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Sea Power,' which, as its name suggests, focuses on deterring conflict by partnerships with other navies. ... It argues that [t]he Navy--together with the Marines and Coast Guard--is to forge international partnerships, develop trust, and learn foreign languages and cultural awareness. ... Moreover, if the Navy is concentrating on preventing wars, what happens to its ability to win them should deterrence fail? ... Indeed, the document contains the observations that 'war with another great power strikes many as improbable' ... China's purchases of advanced Russian anti-ship missiles and quieting technology have helped to turn the Chinese submarine fleet into a serious threat. ... But if the new strategy's view of the causes and kinds of future war is perplexing, the potential consequences are downright troublesome. The idea for the U.S. Navy to cooperate with the fleets of other like-minded states in the cause of avoiding war was originally callled the '1000-ship navy'. ... Under either name [1,000 or 600 ship], the strategy encourages Americans to think that peace can be preserved by supplying humanitarian services and that a smaller fleet can do this because others will take up the slack", Seth Cropsey (SC) at http://www.weeklystandard.com/, 19 November.

Our Pentagon generals and admirals are useless. They should have resigned in mass in lieu of lulling Americans into thinking our defense posture is tenable. As George Washington said, "It you want peace, prepare for war". Not running a constabulary like the French Foreign Legion. Our generals and admirals apparently think they are Peace Corps workers. Why not, Colin Powell (CP) was a general before he went to State. The last time I looked after leaving State, CP's net worth was reported as over $7 million. Should we farm out our foreign and military policy to Goldman Sachs (GS)? After all, wasn't Hank Paulson GS's point man in China?

SC noted the British Royal Navy adopted a similar "cooperation strategy" in 1902. It got World War I 12 years later. I wonder if our admirals are aware of Royal Navy's plan? See my 20 October post on this "new" naval strategy.

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