Quote of the Day – Iraq Edition

“After almost 6 1/2 years, and 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded, with a war spiraling downward in Afghanistan, it would be indefensible for the U.S. military — overextended and in need of materiel repair and mental recuperation — to loiter in Iraq to improve the instincts of corrupt elites. If there is a worse use of the U.S. military than ‘nation-building,’ it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples’ politicians.” – George Will

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. mpw280 says:

    Hasn’t the US military been providing adult supervision for Euroweenie elites for the last 60 years? Has that been a waste this whole time? mpw

  2. rodney dill says:

    Hasn’t the US military been providing adult supervision for Euroweenie elites for the last 60 years?

    No… You seem to have overlooked the Cold War and the presence of the Soviet block for about 40 years of that time.

    Has that been a waste this whole time?

    Since the end of the Cold War mostly yes. Before that, not so much.

  3. Davebo says:

    Coming from George Will this is indeed rich.

    Shouldn’t he now be forced to share an apartment in Georgetown with John Kerry?

  4. Mr. Prosser says:

    Since Will is a baseballl fan I’d describe him as a manager who was high on his players (Bush, Cheney, Rummie)in April but now it’s September, he’s down 15 games and he’s just waiting for the end of the season.

  5. Triumph says:

    Since Will is a baseballl fan

    If I’m not mistaken, the guy is actually a Cubs fan–which explains why he is a pathetic loser.

  6. norbizness says:

    I’ll ask the same question I asked after his Afghanistan column: How is it that we didn’t know he was a coma for the last seven years?

  7. Bill says:

    If there is a worse use of the U.S. military than ‘nation-building,’ it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples’ politicians.”

    Yeah, adult supervision is a smarmy throwaway line that obscures the more accurate “responsibly transitioning parties recently engaged in a civil war toward a political process, in order to avert reanimation of civil war, potential regional war, and potential genocide.”

    What a tool.

  8. floyd says:

    Heck, we can’t even supervise or modify the behavior of our own politicians!

    Once in a while we do get a new “statesman” though,
    when one of our politicians dies!