If you believe Max Boot, then you'll believe anything:In a WaPo op-ed
urging that the U.S. not cut the defense budget, Boot goes the historical route and comes up with this:
After World War I, our armed forces shrank from 2.9 million men in 1918 to 250,000 in 1928. The result? World War II became more likely ...
Instead,
Imagine how Hitler might have acted in 1939 had several hundred thousand American troops been stationed in France and Poland. Under such circumstances, it is doubtful he would ever have launched his blitzkrieg.
Britain guaranteed Poland and didn't have any troops there on September 1, 1939. The United States was, in the wake of World War I, staunchly isolationist and
there is absolutely no way American troops would have been stationed in Poland, or France for that matter.
Boot's argument runs like this:
There was a war. U.S. bolstered its defense capabilities. The war ended and the U.S. demobilized. And there was peace.
But then there was another war!
post hoc ergo propter hoc
posted by Quiddity at 7/30/2010 07:37:00 AM
Maybe Max and his clan can provide the "Boots" on the ground needed to fight all these wars.
Those Max-ed out and wishing to give him the Boot should take a look at Andrew Bacevich's take on the U. S. Military in his recent essay at Tom.Dispatch.com.
Max suffers from Boof/Mouth disease.
