Another Pile of It “The Air Force hasn’t forgotten how to fight. But it only wants to fight the other services.”—Peters, New York Post, April 13.
More for the Ground Forces “Following the money and resource trail leads a cynic to conclude that this Administration values the lives of its pilots more than its soldiers and marines. I speak for a generation of former ground soldiers who believe that those who do virtually all of the fighting and dying in this war should receive more attention from those who are paying for it.”—Retired Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, former commander of the Army War College, Washington Times, May 10.
The Force Is With Us
Stalin the Liberator “Our people not only defended their homeland, but also liberated 11 countries of Europe.”—Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Soviet occupation and annexation of Eastern Europe during and after World War II, Washington Post, May 8.
Hooligan Tool of Wall Street “Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as President of a country. He is a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with.”—KCNA, official North Korean news service, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman, April 30.
Dear Leader’s Domain “For us, North Korea is a black hole.”—Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, USA Today, April 13.
Pearl Harbor Not Included “In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”—Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, apologizing in Jakarta for Japan’s World War II atrocities, while back in Tokyo, Japanese lawmakers trooped to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Pearl Harbor is described as a “battle for Japan’s survival,” Reuters, April 22.
Newer and Fewer Nukes
Marines Have Arrived “What it says is that the Marines are full players at the table—that they’re no longer considered officers of limited perspective and parochial concerns.”—Richard H. Kohn, former historian of the Air Force, on choice of Marine Gen. Peter Pace as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 23.
Future Is Unmanned “I believe the momentum is building at an extraordinary rate toward the unmanned stuff, and [unmanned systems] will be providing the majority of combat platforms within a much shorter time frame than some people would like to see or guess.”—Retired Air Force Col. John A. Warden III, author of The Air Campaign and Gulf War I air planner, Washington Times, May 8.
The Enemy Adapts “To the seeming surprise of some, our enemies have brains. They’re constantly adapting and adjusting to what we’re doing. They combine medieval sensibilities with modern technology and media savvy to find new ways to exploit perceived weaknesses and to weaken the civilized world.”—Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, April 27.
Who Won the War “The CIA was ready. We knew what to do. The US military, and I’m not denigrating their activities on the ground, but they were not ready.”—Veteran CIA officer Gary Schroen, author of a book on “how the CIA spearheaded the war on terror in Afghanistan,” US News & World Report, May 16.
Oink “Congress should be ashamed of itself for loading up the [bill] with unrequested money and unnecessary pork.”—David Williams, Citizens Against Government Waste, on adding of projects such as $20 million for a road in Mississippi and $5 million for a fish hatchery in Montana to funding bill for war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington Times, May 10.
Europe With Clout “We do feel that Europe must count as an entity, because not one of our countries alone, singly, has the kind of clout, has the kind of strength, that the United States has or that China has. And it is in the interests of the United States to have in Europe a political structure that has clout, that is capable, that is able, because you can’t go it alone.”—French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, Washington Post, May 4.
Significant and Sufficient “The United States maintains significant—and I want to underline significant—deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region. So I don’t think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to.”—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington Times, May 3.
Perspective “The idea that we know what history is going to say now is ridiculous. Anybody who knows anything about history knows that history gets written as a result of a whole series of things being said and aggregated over time, and people with perspective that don’t have their nose pressed up against a deadline every five minutes.”—Rumsfeld, asked about his historical legacy, interview with New York Times, May 11.
Significant and Sufficient “The United States maintains significant—and I want to underline significant—deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region. So I don’t think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to.”—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington Times, May 3.
More Than Airplanes “The Air Force’s real strength no longer is the airplanes. The good old days of two incredibly maneuverable plans dogfighting are over and have been overtaken by data links, computers, and satellites.”—Richard L. Aboulafia, aviation analyst for the Teal Group, Washington Post, April 19.
US Can Prevail “We will be successful and prevail in anything that our nation asks us to do. … The timelines may have to be extended [and] we may have to use additional resources, but it doesn’t matter because we’re going to be successful.”—Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, USA Today, May 4.
Intelligence Stops Short “Among the military services, the Air Force is the preeminent provider of intelligence gathering and reconnaissance capability. But there’s been concern that it’s not well organized. . . Not only does the information not get well-exploited, but it’s not made available to potential uses in a timely fashion. This is a chronic problem.”—Loren Thompson, Lexington Institute, Colorado Springs Gazette, April 27.