Professor Andrew Bacevich has become a military guru for me! His military and academic career are special. His articles were always extremely thoughtful and reasonable (they agreed with my views!!). Since he suffered the tragedy of having his son die in Iraq, a conflict strongly opposed by his father, his stature has even increased.
His article starts from the statements made by both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who are supporting a significant increase in military manpower.
He disagrees because the war on terrorism (or any other verbiage to describe what our nation's interests are) is misleading.
The problems confronting the free world is a conflicted Muslim world. They are not homogenous and clearly have agendas independent of the West. Dr. Bacevich stresses the need to develop a new strategy that will focus on how to co-exist with Islam, minimizing the terror, assist where possible, and expect that a more moderate Islam will take much time.
However, Niall Ferguson does caution any scenario that does not include the distinct possibility of a melt-down in the Middle East, especially now that Iraq is further deteriorating, the Palestinians are imploding, Iran is marching towards nuclear capability.
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