Marlantes et al. Chat Questions and Comments
00:39:58 Robert Hammond: is anyone else having internet problems cutting off the video?
00:40:33 Dick Ruffin: no problem here
00:40:46 Susan Finkel (Don Finkel): I had trouble getting on, but since then, it’s mostly working.
00:41:04 James DeAngelis: no problem for me.
00:49:53 Duncan Bremer: I seems the objective changed with the “Bush Doctrine” telling the Taliban that if they did not take action to hand over OSB, then we would destroy their ability to govern.
00:51:06 Sam Kilbourn: My audio is cutting in and out.
00:52:22 charles marshall: Can you comment about Gen. Milley’s off record conversations with CCP Gen. Li, telling him that we would obey any orders from Trump to attack and would phone him he was ordered to attack. (from Bob Woodward’s new book Peril)
00:52:36 Sam Kilbourn: Also my video.
00:53:04 charles marshall: Would not obey or attack….
01:01:33 Jack L Laub: Why were we in Viet Nam at all? Domino theory? Did Viet Nam attack us?
01:03:22 Sam Kilbourn: I was in Army intelligence. The only reason ever spoken was “the domino theory”.
01:05:50 Kyle Pruett: Karl, Can you count on the Wolfowitz doctrine and it effect on State Dept vs Pentagon struggle
01:08:28 Charles Helming: I agree completely that the executive branch bears responsibility for failures of vision and failure to evaluate and define the missions in Viet Nam and Afghanistan. But with all due respect to the military, doesn’t it bear some resposibility for failure to accurately inform the President and perhaps the public about what seems to have been the reality that what we were doing militarily was failing and was bound to fail as the mission was defined.
01:10:26 John(Jack) Schairer: According to press reports about Bob Woodward’s PERIL, general Milley took extraordinary steps to control President Trumps ability to engage in a war with
01:12:11 John(Jack) Schairer: China or Iran after January 6th and end up end-running
01:12:14 Herb Thomas: To Tom Esslinger re desk officers: Having been one (for Somalia), I have to ruefully admit that I was a small munchkin in the process. But all of us desk officers passing ideas up the chain, to somebody like Under Secretary Tom Pickering, we could have an impact. Llewellen Thompson, I think, was the Under Secretary too.
01:12:33 Jack L Laub: Perhaps we should extend our hands for a handshake and try to get to know other cultures instead of trying to judge them.
01:12:41 Duncan Bremer: What do the panelists think we could learn from China’s approach to such issues, how it exercises influence on other countries?
01:14:13 Herb Thomas: This is a fascinating discussion. Unfortunately I have another thing I have to go to. I’ll watch the video. Thanks very much!
01:22:17 Gordon Bear: Recommending Duncan Bremer’s Q (on China). Hoping the panelists will address it.
01:26:42 Jennifer Julier: I believe that two things have improved the attitude towards military service on the Yale campus: the return of ROTC and the admitting of veterans as Eli Whitney students. Having the opportunity to learn about their lives and aspirations, or to hear about their experiences, has to have some effect.
01:26:46 Jack L Laub: China is a culture about 5000 years more experienced than ours. Could it be that gives them an advantage?
01:28:34 James Marshall: Do women in active duty service help the quality of the current military? and are their numbers significant?
01:31:08 William Lindsley: Are we prepared to fight China over Taiwan? If not, hoe do we avoid that war?
01:32:50 James DeAngelis: I’m wondering if our zoom leaders should consider a session on National Service and some of the points Jennifer has made about the changes that have been happening at Yale with ROTC and vets and probably other elite institutions since these themes seem to have emerged during this session several times in differing contexts…. food for thought?
01:36:06 Del Miller: Congress is a committee of 535 politicians; not clearly better than an executive decision.
01:40:43 Jack L Laub: Whatever happened to “Thou shalt not kill:?
01:43:26 Dick Ruffin: Should we have a word about nation building?
01:44:03 Jack L Laub: Congress will never have the courage to declare war without an obvious military attack from another nationw
01:47:03 William Oakey: What if Congress accepted the lesson from WWII that nations as isolated entities are obsolete, and the lesson from Viet Nam and Iraq/Afghanistan that wars are stupid and obsolete? Would Congress then reclaim its responsibility for waging war? Would the bloated defense budget get reallocated to things like healthcare, education, the environment and rising up the infrastructure?
01:50:20 Sam Kilbourn: Two inherent contradictions: 1. President as Comander in Chief – to protect the people from our military – but then the military can be hamstrung by politics. 2. In the Army I was taught that I was duty-bound never to follow an illegal order – can you imagine one of Calley’s troops declining to kill the civilians – but thank god for Gen. Millay
01:50:35 Susan Finkel (Don Finkel): Thank you!!