Mattis and his buddies in the armed forces had over 10 years to get the war in Iraq fought and won. The US military squandered trillions of dollars and thousands of servicemens lives in the war effort, but failed miserably. We’re still in Afghanistan 20 years after we started. These people should all be cashiered out of their positions in disgrace, never to be heard from again. World war 2 was fought from one end of the planet to the other and was concluded in 6 years altogether. Eff Mattis.
Oh great! An expert in geopolitics and warfare.. I really appreciate you nonserving sorts that know all about combat.
1. We are a global power - we coward out of the wars we must not avoid and we’ll be gone.
2. Wars end when they’re over. Get used to it.
3. Now go back and pull the covers over your head and let the men (and military ladies) protect you. Just pay your taxes and stay out of the way.
> Mattis and his buddies in the armed forces had over 10 years to get the war in Iraq fought and won. <
You’re gonna catch some flak for that one. And you deserve some of it. Because the politicians ultimately called the shots there, not the generals.
But your premise is sound, very sound. If a war cannot be won in 10 years, it will not magically be won after 11 years. After a reasonable amount of time, the old saying “Do not throw good money after bad” must apply.
Three years, eight months and seven days
IN WW II, the good guys used the same tactics that the bad guys used.
They bombed our cities and killed our civilians and we did the same to them, in spades.
When we nuked the japanese cities, we killed several hundred thousand and saved several million and the entire world knew we would do it again, if we had to.
We fire bombed dresden and many german cities and never flinched.
If we killed 2-3 hundred thousand taliban and several hundred thousand civilians got killed in the bombings, we could walk out of Afghanistan in a month.
If that happened, iran, the Norks, and the russians would piss their pants trying to make peace with us.
We don't have the political will to do what is required.
Your comment is a bit near sighted. WWII was the last ‘total war’. Yes, over in 6 years. But you cant blame the military handling of wars since for not being so devastatingly effective. The change is political. Politicians are reluctant to go back to ‘total war’ when we have tools like surgical strike and precision munitions to minimize civilian casualties. So its about the constraints we put on our warriors, not our warriors failing us.
Mattis is right to criticize Biden and the Obama admin for haphazardly pulling out of Iraq after our hard fought victories. Pissed away the sacrifices made.
Mattis’ recent comments regarding Trump are not a betrayal. They are a warning to Trump not to make the same mistakes as Obama. Trump is right to want an exit strategy, but every course of action has consequence, even withdrawal. Finding the ‘best’ way to end this is difficult and frustrated by an enemy that is still trying to fight. You should never ignore someone who is trying to kill you.
No one has a clue how to “win.” The only offered solution, such as it is, is to stay forever. Whenever you pin someone down as to what they think we should do, it comes down to “stay forever.” Not them, of course. They won’t be serving over there. They want other people to stay there forever. Apparently it’s the right thing to do or something.