Rictor, it's very clear to me you don't know what they're on about. The weaknesses are in no way inherent to the military. That is a base canard. I know people who've served tours in Iraq. The military is still as good at enduring hardship as it was at the time of WWII or the Civil War. Better, even. (With the probable exception of the Air Force; they have not had a serious threat to them in too long.) In the areas of killing stuff and breaking things they are vastly superior. The weakness is a weakness of the civilian governments who control the military. The military knows intimately that it will bleed when committed to the field. It's the public who doesn't believe it.
You misunderstood me. I'm not badmouthing the American military, it's surely the greatest military power currently in existance, I'm saying that the technological superiority, even great superiority (can't get much more uneven than US vs Iraqis) doesn't cut it any more. What is required is savagery, and the US doesn't have it. The poorer and more backwards you are, the more used to hardship you are. 3000 people died on 9/11, and the whole country went through shock. But when 3000 people die in Africa, the Africans don't even notice, that's how much of a non-event it is. The reason that the Afghans and Iraqis will win in the end is simply the ability to bleed, bleed, bleed and not care.
Not to be offensive, but if New York lived for one day the way that Baghdad has lived for years and will live for many more, people would be writing about it for decades to come, analyzing it, mourning over it. Trained soldiers getting shot at by an inferior foe is one thing, civilians living on the battlefield is quite another. America hasnt't had a war waged on its soil for more thana century. Simply put, you guys don't know how to suffer. Losing soldiers is not suffering. Flag-drapped coffins coming back to a heros funeral is not suffering. 200 nameless, unmourned, tortured bodies turning up a day, every day, with no end in sight,
that suffering. And the Iraqis don't care, they have a thick enough skin to endure it for decades. There won't be any soul-searching or existentialism or despair, they'll just take everything you can dish out and keep fighting. Suffering and death and injustice are just part of life over yonder. The West can't take real suffering because we've lived in luxury and comfort for too long. Real, nasty suffering, either giving it or recieving it, is simply not within our ability at present.
In order to win against the kind of stubborn resistance that is present in much of the world, you would need nothing short of genocidal maniac. If some general ordered all American troops in Iraq to start shooting civilians on sight, burn every building, block off any rebel-held down and napalm the place, how many troops would even obey such an order? Not many. And it would be a day at most before the press starting dwarming over the place. No one, not even Russia or China, have the kind of carte blanche any more that is required t put down an insurgency. In the Chechen wars were to happen today, you can bet that there would be much more pressure on Russia from the likes of Amnesty and do-gooder MEPs to be humane and restrained. Governments don't have undisputed authority to do as they please anymore.
Mind you, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think the world would be a better place if the West stayed out of everyone's business. And they have already lost, to a great degree, the ability to successfully interfere. So I cosider it a good thing. Even China I'm not too worried about. Just because they have a dictatorial government doesn't mean they're impervious to outside pressure or the "rules of the game". No one is going to tolerate real, bloody wars anymore (unless its Africans vs Africans, and that too is going slowly). Hell, they deserve it, all the world's Afghanistans and Iraqs, after they've bled so much to at least win themselves the freedom to be left the hell alone.
edit:
The technological edge is real and it works. You don't hear about IEDs anymore because they are no longer effective, because if there's one thing the US military can do, it's spend money on technological solutions to problems. Give them two years and they will do the research and deploy the technology to neutralize a threat.
No, you don't hear about IEDs any more (though actually you do) becuase the Iraqis are too busy killing each other to even bother with the Americans anymore. If there's one thing that might save America from its stupidity, it's Iraqis' stupidity. They've probably split up, or at least get significant autonomy, before it's all over. So everyone wins except the Sunnis, who are stuck in the hot, dry center with no oil in sight.
