John LRR™ Edwards has outlined a six point plan discussing how his administration would handle the problem of terrorism. Bob Owens quickly takes it apart point by point at Confederate Yankee. Here’s a taste:

“Rebalance our force structure for the challenges of the new century”

• Force Structure: The force structure of our military should match its mission. The Administration’s mismanagement of the military has not only breached the faith at the highest levels—it has led to a very dangerous situation for our security. We are sending some troops back to Iraq with less than a year’s rest. Edwards believes we need to ensure that our force structure is well equipped for the challenges of the new century. We must have enough troops to rebuild from Iraq; to bolster deterrence; to decrease our heavy reliance on Guard and Reserve members in military operations; and to deploy in Afghanistan and any other trouble spots that could develop. As president, Edwards will also double the budget for recruiting and raise the standards for the recruiting pool so that we can reduce waivers issued for recruits with felonies, which have skyrocketed under President Bush.

Stripping the politics out of this statement (if that can actually even be done) and looking solely at the policy, Edwards is suggesting that our troops need a full year’s rest between deployments, that our troops need to be “well-equipped,” that our standing military needs to be larger, that we need to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, and that we need to significantly increase recruiting and standards for those recruits.

Correct me if I am wrong, but as I recall history, the idea of our soldiers needing a year between deployments seems to be a modern phenomenon. Our soldiers in the Continental Army did not get year-long rest breaks in the Revolutionary War, the World Wars, or any other conflict in this nation’s history until the current war in Iraq. I seem to recall that units were sent into battle, fought, and took brief “R&R” breaks of much shorter durations during a major conflict, sometimes lasting just a few days or weeks, and other times lasting months.

Captain Ed focused on the last of the six points:

In the thirteenth century, the fabled (and almost certainly mythical) Children’s Crusade set out to bring peace to the Holy Land. According to the legend, a young boy proselytized throughout central Europe that Jesus had told him in a vision that an army of pure children could liberate Jerusalem just by showing up, and that the waters of the Mediterranean would part to greet them when they arrived in Italy. They set out in boats instead, sail to Tunisia — where they all get sold into slavery and are never heard from again, even in legend.

One might think that anyone relying on this kind of strategy 800 years later would automatically discredit himself as a leader. However, John Edwards thinks this is a better way to fight terror than actually fighting terror:

I recomend both posts highly.