This is an expansion of a long post in this diary about which presidential candidates are in favor of expanding the military.
I want to talk about reasons for expanding OR changing the job of the military.
Perhaps the least discussed idea on DK is that we live in a world that requires that the US needs a military, and that the future will require a different military makeup AND mission than before, and that it is no small thing to change such a massive institution.
How do we rework the military to counter the religious fundamentalist threat?
Turn on your TV. Where do those thousands of raving lunatics come from, to staff the cartoon riots, the Iraq riots, the anything-anyone-does to offend Islam riots?
Can we afford to ignore the possibility of a violent Reformation of Islam? Has the time passed for religious insanities to work themselves out at the expense of the sane and secular portions of humanity?
What is the "best" way for secular society to restrain the abuse coming from people infected with the brain virus that radical Islam represents?
Do we think that improving the underlying economic conditions will reduce the jihadist threat, or have the mistakes made already by the crusading bumbles of Bush destroyed that chance, leaving us nothing but population reduction in jihadist societies as an alternative.
Yes, I'm aware I'm speaking the impolite reality, the elephant (how apt!) in the room.
But if you're in a bar, having a polite drink, and happen unfortunately to catch the eye of a large crazy drunk, who has it in his mind that you have offended his sense of honor, perhaps by speaking politely to his wife, who you know from her job as a grocery checkout clerk, what do you do when he takes a swing at you?
That's the situation we're in, and if the jihadists insist on taking offense at our corrupt and degraded morality, which apparently we will not be changing in any significant way, then what is our most rational response to them?
I'm aware that there is an anti-jihadist revulsion in Islam itself, but Islam has no Pope, and it has many Jerry Falwells. This raving mania is not being sufficiently damped out to where we seculars can afford to wait them out, so we end up fighting the "Next War", not the last one.
Police actions? UN Police Actions? Endless handwringing while we watch our embassies blow up?