> cHat wrote: > I'll answer this but I want to hear the opposite answer from you - > what action by an external force would it take to justify US military > involvement? >
Hey, cool challenge. Well, of course it's a case-by-case basis but here's a good starting point for me: Any direct attack of US civilians or unprovoked attack of the US military anywhere in the World. Now it gets complicated: who, what, when, where, and how to attack? In general I'd say the mission needs to be SMART (<- six sigma) which I'll define as: * specific * measurable * attainable * releasable * time-bound (We'll exclude all-out everything-you've-got war for now as they're the exception.) As a leader of US military forces, my first duty is the safety and security of the men and women who choose to serve. With that in mind I should ensure that any mission I send them on is SMART. So let's look at Vietnam (Johnson), Desert Storm (Bush 1), Afghanistan (Bush2), and Iraq (Bush2) through this lens: Vietnam ------------------ * Specific? Yes. Defend South Vietnam from North Vietnam aggressors. * Measurable? Yes. South Vietnam is free of northern aggressors. * Attainable? Yes, however by what means puts this into question and adds excessive risk. * Releasable? Yes, we eventually bugged out and the problem solved itself although this was not clear at the time. * Time-bound? No. Desert Storm ------------------ * Specific? Yes. Defend Kuwait for a northern aggressor. * Measurable? Yes. Kuwait is free of northern aggressor. * Attainable? Yes. * Releasable? Yes. * Time-bound? Yes. Afghanistan ------------------ * Specific? Yes, remove the Taliban government. * Measurable? Yes. * Attainable? Yes. * Releasable? Yes, with a small to medium risk: military support may be required for continued security. * Time-bound? Yes. Iraq 2 ------------------ * Specific? No. WMD? Democratic Iraq? Regime change? Terrorism? Iran? Nation-building? Humanitarian? * Measurable? No. You can't measure what you can't define. * Attainable? No. You can't achieve and attain what you can't measure. * Releasable? No. You can't exit when you can't define a goal or measure progress. * Time-bound? No. You can't time box what isn't defined or measurable. Thus, I would not deploy troops to Vietnam or Iraq2, but would deploy troops for Desert Storm and Afghanistan as in each case the mission is SMART; the risks are small, but manageable and the missions have a built-in exit strategy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade to ColdFusion 8 and integrate with Adobe Flex http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:246850 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
