lbo-talk-digest V1 #5178

[Hakki Alacakaptan]

US forces have never been particularly brilliant at any time but I agree
that their failure to take the Red Army's misadventures into account appears
puzzling. However, I've browsed through some recent US military writing and
it seems that all that US strategists are interested in are cyberwars and
star wars-type hitech systems. "The battlefield of the future" is all that
you hear. Studying and training to fight the Taliban is just hard work with
nothing to show for it when you retire. Dreaming up some star wars battle
scenario, on the other hand, means hugely expensive weapons programs that
makes industry and congressmen very happy, and allows the generals to look
forward to a life of ease after leaving the services.

Likewise, intelligence failures can be at least partly attributed to the
CIA's bad drug habit, amply documented by Cockburn & St. Clair, Mike
Ruppert, and others. What I mean is, the CIA is plagued with agents like
Secord whose only field activity consists in drug trafficking to fill their
own pockets. Of course, having no Pashtun speakers also puts a severe crimp
on intelligence-gathering.

Hakki Alacakaptan

 || -----Original Message-----

 || From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com

 || [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood

 || Sent: 30 Ekim 2001 Salý 17:26

 || To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com

 || Subject: Re:lbo-talk-digest V1 #5178

 ||

 ||

 || Daniel Davies wrote:

 ||

 || >My personal bias, as you correctly detected, is that individuals can

 || >outperform institutions systematically under conditions of pressure.

 ||

 || I've been amazed over the last few days by Washington's amazement at

 || the tenacity of the Taliban and by U.S. forces' failure to get any

 || useful intelligence in their ground raid the other day. Any

 || reasonably literate newspaper reader could have predicted both. Is it

 || groupthink that led them to these idiotic expectations? Racist

 || underestimates of the foe? What?

 ||

 || Doug