Gov. Bill Richardson Is Second Tier--And Should Go Lower!

Governor Bill, as we New Mexicans affectionately--or not--call our governor is still off and running for president. As the Geek has written before, the man is not well qualified on the basis of his past jobs in foreign policy implementation for the presidency. As was once said of the French Marshall, Joffre, "He has forgotten nothing--and learned nothing."

The Geek watched the clip of an interview Governor Bill gave to AP in which the paunchy and not particularly articulate candidate gave his views on what he would do regarding Iraq, Afghanistan and the US military. http://player.clipsyndicate.com/view/130/399429. It's a hoot. Compared to the guv, John Edwards and Barrak Obama are strategic geniuses.

(Attention, please. This is not a mere personal rant. The Geek promises there is real substance. It comes at the tail end of the post.)

Richardson proposes to pull all US forces out of Iraq. He would leave a small "contingency" force of "Special Forces" in Kuwait, "where they are needed." He does not explicate the reasons why this contingency deployment is needed in Kuwait more than some other country in the Arabian Peninsula. Perhaps it is because Richardson's advisers don't know the name of any other potential host in the region.

The Governor would send some of the withdrawn forces to Afghanistan. The number is uncertain but he says it would be "Whatever the military believes is necessary." It should be mentioned that the deep thinking Richardson and his team give no explanation as to why Afghanistan is more important to US interests than Iraq. Nor does he explain why it is so unnecessary or so remote to longer term American interests that we not finish cleaning up the mess we made in Iraq.

In an obvious bid to make himself look strong on American defense, the Governor states that he would mount a "recruiting drive" to "rebuild the "Army and Marines." He would also seek the purchase of new equipment.

Such obvious political pap needs (and deserves) no comment.

Suffice it to say that there is no apparent need to "rebuild" the ground combat forces of the US. The performance of the troops in the field has been good within the limits of current doctrine and command philosophy. What the governor might want to consider is that should the US prematurely withdraw from Iraq, the US might just need a considerable expansion of its ground combat capacities since there would be a better than excellent chance we would be facing an expanded threat from emboldened Islamists.

Bill Richardson, like the Geek, is a product of the Vietnam generation. Richardson evidently learned the wrong lesson from the Vietnam debacle. He learned that the US should never use force either in support of diplomacy or as the ultimate extension of diplomacy.

A military exists for the purposes of direct physical defense of critical national interests. Beyond that, it exists as the backer and extender of diplomacy. If Richardson actually was the diplomatic heavy hitter he so obviously thinks he is, then he would be aware of these twin, historically defined realities.

He would also be aware that, while the term "appeasement" was massively, and incorrectly overused to justify our failed effort in Vietnam, it is still a relevant term. While not the intent, the effect of a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be the attempted appeasement of the Islamists in that country and elsewhere.

If Richardson was, as he thinks he is, the greatest gift to diplomacy since Talleyrand, he would know that appeasement is the international form of blackmail. The more that is given, the more that is demanded.

Get a grip, Governor Bill!