Anderson abridged (was Re: Anderson weighs in)

[Bradford DeLong]

>Right Brad. My summary got that mixed up. Here goes again: During the Cold
>War, US relied more on consent rather than force to rule over its allies.
>Since 1989, force rather than consent is increasingly the preferred tool,
>because of US preponderance of power and also the weakening of the alliance
>between the big capitalist powers. Anderson also believes that the
>"revolution in military affairs" that Rumsfeld always talks about does in
>fact represent a qualitative improvement in US military strength, giving it
>unrivaled abilities to conduct operations almost anywhere in the world.

That seems a little extreme. With total air superiority, fighting 
against mighty Serbia, we managed to blow up how many dams and 
bridges and yet only destroy 20 tanks? Fighting an unpopular 
theocratic regime with valuable allies, we failed to capture or kill 
many of the crucial targets, and now our "Afghan government" controls 
only a little more than Kabul?

What if the United States sought to wage war in a desert against a 
regime that had a real social base? I suspect the RMA would turn out 
to be a lot less than Rumsfeld is selling...

Brad DeLong