Up to Job One?

HEADING to Los Angeles for their convention, Democrats promised that they would talk specifics. Not for them the airy generalities that Republicans had allegedly lofted at their own conclave two weeks before. When it came to matters of national defense, however, that prescription apparently did not apply.

In fact, the featured speakers appearing in the Staples Center gave only the barest attention to the armed forces of the World’s Only Superpower. When they touched on defense at all, it was simply to offer ritualistic assurances that all is well with the troops. Bill Clinton testified that the American military continues to be “the best-trained, best equipped, most effective fighting force in the world.” Joe Lieberman, the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee, outdid Clinton by insisting that “our fighting men and women are the best-trained, best-equipped, most powerful fighting force in the history of the world.” Without offering details, he vowed that under a Gore-Lieberman administration, “they will stay that way.”

AJ

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Andrew J. Bacevich

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Presidential Election

HEADING to Los Angeles for their convention, Democrats promised that they would talk specifics. Not for them the airy generalities that Republicans had allegedly lofted at their own conclave two weeks before. When it came to matters of national defense, however, that prescription apparently did not apply.

In fact, the featured speakers appearing in the Staples Center gave only the barest attention to the armed forces of the World’s Only Superpower. When they touched on defense at all, it was simply to offer ritualistic assurances that all is well with the troops. Bill Clinton testified that the American military continues to be “the best-trained, best equipped, most effective fighting force in the world.” Joe Lieberman, the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee, outdid Clinton by insisting that “our fighting men and women are the best-trained, best-equipped, most powerful fighting force in the history of the world.” Without offering details, he vowed that under a Gore-Lieberman administration, “they will stay that way.”