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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3h

If America wasn't path dependent designed for strategic failure, we could've done Afghanistan right, and all the big things that came after, all of which were dependent on the post-9/11 choices, would never have occurred.

No Iraq means no GFC; means no Obama; means no TEA party; means no Trump.

Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3h

Nah. It was Iraq. They got fooled into a dumb war that was lost generations before the first shot was even fired. And instead of learning from that, they hunkered down and blamed it on all of the black president who did what he was elected to do: leave. And then blamed ISIS and Benghazi on him also.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 1d

Constitutional amendments that nullify everything that allowed Trump to exist, use power as they have, and make it clear this was wrong; also should declare the Trump Admin an insurrection; and exiling of large numbers from Govt—elected and Admin. As in, if you joined ICE, you cannot serve in Govt.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 1d

You’d need formalized surrender agreements; political prosecutions that are really historical documents of their crimes; executions for treason; debaathification from all Govt positions; general de-Confederatization; complete 180 turns on policies that animate MAGA, like War on Drugs.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 1d

He signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban, and Douthat calls that "dealmaking".

But that's what everyone learned from that moment--write the deal yourself entirely to your benefit, make Trump surrender by allowing him to call it a win, then praise him profusely for being such a good boy.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 2d

With 250k being military governance—basic trained soldiers who are hyper-local community police.

That could’ve easily been done if the system already existed pre-9/11; and Bush called for volunteers, instead of ‘go shopping’.

America is path dependent designed for strategic failure.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 2d

The AVG needs a 2nd Tier like auxilleries in WW2 for all the secondary jobs—no more contractors!!!. And it needs to ability to absorb rapid recruiting in times of need.

If we replay post-9/11 again, we’d need 450k for af over 10 years. So 1m recruits. Mostly border guards, bureaucrats, logistics.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah. But we never know what’s going to happen, whether Trump will demand his Gaza Riviera/ethnic cleansing plan, or even how the territory will be made safe.

This is what happens when no one thinks about the end first. As usual.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3d

Considering this Administration's definition of a 'radical leftist', Exum likely meets it technically.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3d

You'd need 80-100k troops to hold down Gaza effectively and do reconstruction for real. Even if it was broken up equally between Israel, the EU, Arab States, the UN, and the US, that would still be 15-20k each.

200 monitors is nothing. They're there to write reports.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 3d

The Blob is gonna blob

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 4d

No one learned a damn thing from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 4d

We'd all love to see it one day.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 4d

How many new constitutional amendments have you thought up to have to deal with what Trump and the current Supreme Court have done?

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 4d

30 million people played Far Cry 5. There is clearly a market for fighting Confederates online.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 5d

Never heard that detail before. Why do you think there was a difference?

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah. A lot of innocent people died from getting sprayed because they got too close. It’s why you started to see humvees with signs in Arabic on their back very quickly, telling everyone to stay back.

It didn’t help that Iraqi driving norms and values are barely above carnival bumper cars.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 5d

It was also a total lack of training, understanding, respect, and fear, especially once the car bombs, IEDs, and snipers got going.

Then the triumphalist ideals that got shattered by reality breeding a 'how dare you'-attitude.

Contractors will always be worse, and will always make things worse.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 5d

This was normal in the early days in Iraq, particularly that first year. And didn't stop, only lessened over time. Contractors acted like this constantly. Iraqis remember it all too well.

I'm glad you'd stop that immediately. But many, many more refused to do so, and actively encouraged it.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 5d

They’ve already lost us a few damn wars. That’s the point.

No one creates a stabbed-in-the-back narrative unless they’re the ones responsible for the failures in the first place.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 6d

So, say, we pass and ratify 10 Constitutional Amendments and 5 major bills to re-Sherman the Confederacy, everyone gets a $75k in their wallet over 8 years, while funding multiple new programs that'll put tens of thousands to work, and the debt disappears.

Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 6d

While bad policy and politics at the current time, handing out money is really great 2028 electoral politics.

I'd love to see someone say that for every major policy enacted, the Fed prints $5T. $2.5T to the debt; $1.5T in payments to everyone; $1T for a policy like student debt relief.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 6d

It'll be interesting to see if the NDS/NSS actually tells anyone what victory is, what it means, or how it'll work.

My guess is they'll make rhetorical jumps between battlefield victory into 'Peace through strength' with nothing in between.

Pure underpants gnome strategic theory in practice.

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 6d

Also, they went down because we were clearly losing two wars, doing lots of other stupid things, the Bush Admin were perceived as corrupt, incompetent, and stupid, the legitimization of the Wars of 9/11 were shown to be bunk, and America was proving to be unworthy of fighting for.

Why sign up?

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Michael C. Davies @blobodelendaest.bsky.social · 7d

Every single copy of Harry Summers' book should be burned after this admin disappears.

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