What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." - does anyone recognize this famous quote? This quote is from Donald Rumsfeld during a Q&A session the Sec Def held with soldiers in Kuwait who were bound for Iraq. The soldiers were complaining that they had to dig scrap iron out of the trash to armor their vehicles against increasingly dangerous IEDs. The Democrats of course bashed Secretary Rumsfeld with one hand over this statement and proceeded to try and limit funding for the war with the other.

It would seem that this comment has returned, but is being used by the Democrats in response to Iran as a defense for America's impotent wait-and-see (how many people get killed) approach to the Iranian election. Yesterday a White House official stated, "We have to deal with the Iran that we have rather than the Iran that we wish we had," Oh really? What's the difference here? Well of course Democrats didn't cause the problem in Iran like Republicans did by sending an aging military into Iraq, right? Wrong.

The United States military clobbered Iraq in Gulf 1 thanks in large part to Reagan's hikes in defense spending for the military in personnel, procurement and R&D. Flash forward about 15 years and that same military is in place largely because President Clinton gutted defense spending and the intelligence budgets. I know because I was there. During the Clinton years funding was so tight that there almost no money for spare parts, fuel, and a vehicles were limited to how many miles they maneuver to ridiculously low levels. At one point, some military units were reduced to putting their soldiers in GOLF CARTS to practice basic maneuvers because their was no money to train. For the military, the Clinton years are referred to as a procurement holiday and nothing new was bought. That's why today, for example, the average age of a fighter jet is 25 years old and our equipment is facing increasingly dangerous maintenance problems.

Similarly, this is not the first time that Democrats have been mum on the issue of tyrants behaving badly. When Russia invaded Georgia, Obama stopped the celebrity tour and then assigned equal guilt between Georgia and Russia for the conflict (I think rapists call this the "she was asking for it" defense - or Dave Letterman calls it stand up). Now Obama, after waiting 72 hours and looking forward to vigorous debate Iranian style with machetes and mobs killing people is ready to enlighten us with his wisdom. Gag. My response is the same response Obama got from the doctor's today (June 15) as he rolled out socialized medicine, "Boooo!"

Bottom line, when Rumsfeld made that remark we were at war and that was the Army we had and inherited from a Democrat President. Obama did not have Iran thrust upon him. He has chosen the past of least resistance and has tried to placate and appease a tyrant. President Obama, please put down Neville Chamberlain's play book. We've seen how that games ends and it wasn't pretty.