from the POST

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld upheld the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday as powerful demonstrations of U.S. military prowess that will make other countries think twice about making "mischief" around the world.

Pressed by lawmakers on whether wear and tear on U.S. troops and equipment has impaired the Pentagon's ability to meet unforeseen global contingencies, Rumsfeld said U.S. commanders have assured him that "our military is capable of performing."

Rumsfeld acknowledged concern about stress on the force -- particularly the Army Reserve and National Guard. He said U.S. military equipment such as tanks, helicopters and Bradley Fighting Vehicles are wearing out at from two to six times the peacetime rate, leading the Pentagon to request $12 billion for equipment repairs in the fiscal 2005 emergency supplemental budget.

...

"The world has seen, in the last 3 1/2 years, the capability of the United States of America to go into Afghanistan . . . and with 20,000, 15,000 troops working with the Afghans do what 200,000 Soviets couldn't do in a decade. They've seen the United States and the coalition forces go into Iraq. . . . That has to have a deterrent effect on people," he testified before the House Armed Services Committee.

"If you put yourself in the shoes of a country that might decide they'd like to make mischief, they have a very recent, vivid example of the fact that the United States has the ability to deal with this," he said.

doesn't this scare anybody?
"create mischief"????

who the FUCK does he think he is anyway?????

as one on DU noticed also:

as the us has declined as a world supplier of economic goods and services, the need for the us to still act as a 'world player' and maintain our influence has given rise to our current use of machiavellian tactics to maintain our spheres of influence and scare away possible opposition to our leaders' agendas. meanwhile on a domestic scale, our leaders fight a war on us, the citizenry, the common person. they are systematically stripping us of our rights and privileges, forcing a large gap between the upper and lower classes, profiteering off of our ignorance, and promoting a climate of fear and anxiety to keep us quite and willing to accept these changes "for our own good." They use a wide range of tools including the military, yes, but not limited to it. the end result: an fascist-style oligarchy with theocratic undertones, in short Oceania. if only wells could see us now.

"we're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death"
--fushuugi