Comments on: Kaplan on Rumsfeld

By: lirelou

lirelou — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:32:48 +0000

Interesting article, and it does make me look at Rumsfeld in a differing light. Still, I fail to see how expansion of NATO to the East in in “American” interests. Consider this: Had we left the Philippines in the 1930s, we could have retaken them in 1944-45 with far less loss of American lives. Yes, this last point seems totally unrelated to the expansion of NATO. Yet, I wonder, what real national interest we have in first, maintaing an alliance whose major purpose has ceased to exist, and second, expanding eastwards into areas where we historically have had no acute national interests.

That said, I appreciated Kaplan’s analysis of why Rumsfeld was “Japan-centric” in his views of military force.

By: Richardson

Richardson — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:29:56 +0000

Kaplan remains best when he’s discussing different countries and trends.

Generally I agree, though his ‘When North Korea Falls’ article wasn’t so polished.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:46:54 +0000

The Atlantic once restricted much of its content to subscribers. Now almost everything (including this article) is free to all.

Kaplan remains best when he’s discussing different countries and trends. When he gets to examining the military, it’s not always pretty. This is a good, eyes-open portrait though.

His “Rummy had it right” list is off-key though. There is as of yet no sign DOD’s intel undersecretary is getting anything done of a positive value that could redeem the needless turf wars it instigated. The LCS is a sick joke on sailors and the Navy in general. The others are small potatoes considering the damage Rummy did in office.

Especially killing the Crusader…Is that supposed to be admirable? He killed one monster out of hundreds of wasteful defense projects that have nothing to do with today or tomorrow’s battlefields. He shouldn’t get credit, he should get blame. Why didn’t he do far more on that front?

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:30:18 +0000

“...that’s copyright infringement…”

That’s a legal opinion?

Sure its not fair use?

The Atlantic can enforce its own rights, if it wants to.

By: GW

GW — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:04:06 +0000

Eek! You don’t want to reproduce Kaplan’s articles in full on your site. If you just give a teaser and a link, the Atlantic will appreciate it; if you copy the whole article without permission, that’s copyright infringement. Just sayin’.