Letters to the Editor
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Bush Preempts his Democratic Successor
A coordinated military withdrawal, and a new round of arms sales, makes a lot of sense. I feel sure this is what the Democrats would have done, in 2008 when they retook the White House. The larger plan would be to rely on diplomacy, and MAD, mutually assured destruction, which on the conventional level means everyone is equally well prepared to defend themselves.
There is a second important reason to sell military hardware to our creditors, the U.S. dollar is in real danger of becoming a worthless fiat currency. The problem is not the trade balance, its what our creditors are allowed to buy with those dollars. We blocked the port deal with Dubai, the sale of UnoCal to the Chinese, and previously the Saudi Arms deal.
In this global economy the arms trade is fungible, Hugo Chavez cut a deal with China for military hardware. Previous more nimble Presidents would have recognized the benefits of selling weapons to Venezuela, while stoking the rhetoric, and maintaining the critical advantage in state of the art technology. One way of recouping some of the inflated oil prices third world dictators charge us, is to sell them some overpriced military equipment. And our MIC knows all about overpriced, underperforming military hardware..
When Israel failed to deliver in the Lebanon campaign the blush was off the rose. Now it makes sense to arm everyone in the region, create a mini cold war standoff, and let the parties try negotiation. Israel was never going to negotiate in good faith as long as they had military superiority.
War with Iran? More likely Bush will use the Kerry option, and give them nuclear material in exchange for the fissionable byproduct. That was the North Korea solution, and it required a long American presence along the DMZ. That's the long term plan, and Democrats will probably continue it in some form or another.