Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
For Big Pistons Forever:
Saw a tidbit today that you may find to be of interest. Your take on the whole "strategy" thing seems to dovetail with this fellow's take.
There's a whole interview that this comes from. I think he's called that right.
James Stavridis (ADM) is pretty sharp and he's operated at the higher levels of the Pol / Mil interface for some years.
(I met him back in the early 90's when he was XO of USS Antietam. Impressive then as well).
To what end do we keep blowing stuff up?
We are reasonably good at blowing stuff up.
He seems to think that a new sight line is needed for this political target.
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I met Adm Stavridis when he was CENTCOM. I was very impressed with his strategic vision and a nuanced appreciation of both the capabilities and limitations of American military power embodied by his “Smart Power” approach to thorny world problems. If you have not already read it I highly recommend his book Partnership for Prosperity,
As for Op Prosperity Guardian, I see no achievable end state that does not leave the US diminished. The political will to use overwhelming force to decisively defeat the Houthi’s, including the use of ground forces, is not on the table and is probably ultimately self defeating. It is too late to just go home and deprive the Houthi’s of the American targets so the only choice is to continue to soak up missiles and opportunistically try to degrade Houthi tactical resources.
Sadly the knee jerk reaction to the Houthi threat seems to be the US Op Plan for the entire ME. What I don’t see, and I hope it is because I am missing it, is a unified US government approach to Iran’s actions which directly or indirectly affect the National Security interests of America.