My mother was born 8 days after Pearl Harbor. She didn't even make grade school before we'd developed nuclear fucking weapons to defeat Japan.
Someone born on September 19, 2001 is getting ready to graduate high school. We're still fighting in the same places against the same people.
What the fuck?
I think it boils down to two things.
The US Army has a very German form. We're super professional, lavishly equipped and supported.
There's a problem with the German model. It's a loser's model. This model lost WW2. This model lost WW1. It wasn't in place for Korea. It didn't win in Vietnam. It hasn't prevailed in any situation that's lasted longer than a week.
Desert Storm might have been counted as a win if we hadn't handed the ground back to the assholes that caused the problem in the first place. Folks, that's not a win, that's a draw.
We're terrified of getting into another Vietnam.
Guess what, kids, we're already back in one.
We don't take and hold ground. We keep trying to rely on unreliable "allies".
We're not winning.
What's worse is we're way more worried about people we, as a people, don't give two shits about; but for some reason how they feel about us killing them matters more than killing them.
I propose we stop precision targeting and begin just iron enrichment of the entire place via dumb bombs dropped from your friendly neighborhood BUFF until we have a Hindu-Kush steppe.
Every single weapon system we've agreed to reduce the numbers of should be used on these assholes rather than simply destroyed safely.
I am just fed up with expending blood and treasure for nothing.
Part of the problem is here at home.
On the 12th of September 2001 America was united, pissed, and willing to make Arabic a language only spoken by scholars and in Hell.
But we let a certain faction of our "leadership" talk us down.
Well, here we are, in Namistan with no end in sight...
Click here to submit $0.00 US for a lifetime subscription
Posts
Comments
We should never enter a fight where the Rules of Engagement are anything less than "We will make a desert and call it peace."
ReplyDeleteWar is not capturing and reading enemy their rights. Enemy in wartime have no rights, unless they are serving and wearing actual uniforms and ranks. Anything less is an enemy combatant who is violating the rules of war and thus has no rights.
Fruck it. Death to those who oppose us. Man, woman, child, goat, camel, whatever. Level it all, scour the earth, salt it, make it so nothing can grow there for a hundred years, or more.
As to endless war...
We are still fighting the Korean War. We have lost South Korean and American lives long after the cease fire in 1953. My dad flew Combat Air Patrol missions with a fully armed F-84G a year after the cease fire. Juvat over at Chant de Depart flew armed Combat Air Patrol in the 70's in Korea. We are still there, serving as a deterrent to the Norks and ChiComs.
Or those poor service people who served during and after the Cold War in Europe. Lots of fun stories, but always waiting for the day when the Bear would come rolling through the Fulda Gap.
Endless war has been with us for a long time. Just not a lot of people realize it.
Come to think of it, the first official war we ever had was against islamists. And even after trouncing the princes and pirates of Tripoli, the people over there still remained kind of froggy towards us until, well, still now.
Some wars are endless, some just get better publicity than others.
Hey Angus;
ReplyDeleteas one of the people that stood on the 1K zone in the WestGerman/EGER/Czech border, it did feel generational because my dad was over there in the 1960's and 1970's. We won that one without going hot and I did go to desert storm where it did go hot. We were wanting to go to baghdad to finish the iraqi's after we cut the republican guard to ribbons. I knew that we would have to go back when they stopped up because the democrats back then were crying and wringing their hands because of the casualties we were inflicting on the iraqi's. Modern war is a bitch and we went whole hog because our military leaders didn't want another Vietnam and repeatedly made that statement to President Bush and we crushed them. But unfortunately President Bush got cold feet and listened to his advisors and wouldn't let us finish the job. I and my friends were proud of what we did and would do so again if we would go back in time.
We fight wars with precision targeting and a strong desire to not hurt innocents. Against a culture that doesn't value innocent life and considers us weak for doing so.
ReplyDeleteThat makes the wars longer and kills more innocents than going in there and reducing it to bare sand.
We're going about it all wrong. It requires ruthlessness. Half measures will never work; we need to not just go medieval, but Viking-level medieval.
SIGraybeard - we need to go full Mongol Empire and "Make a desert and call it peace."
DeleteOr go full William the Bastard when he smacked Malcolm the Scot's nose, after wiping out a 30 mile swath of land from one coast to another between England and Scotland (on Scotland's side) and scouring the earth flat of all living things.
Tom Kratman talks about this in his Carrerra series. We need a blue-eyed Djinn...