I’m always amazed at how easily Americans have allowed themselves to be duped into supporting these stupid military campaigns after Vietnam. I would have thought we’d never forget that our lives should be based on an utter distrust of our political leadership who would send someone else’s family members to fight a half-assed war that the politicians had no interest in winning ... halfway around the world in some Third World sh!t-hole.
My wife left me a few years back, and I spent more time, than I should have, drinking my sorrows away, in bars. Since it was in California, I ran into a lot of returning Marines, and Soldiers, who just came back from Afghanistan. They were kids, and I’m in my 50’s... it was chilling to hear their tales that echoed the lessons we should have learned from our involvement in Vietnam. We sent a lot of brave men to be maimed, and killed, with no particular purpose. Sure, defeating communists, and terrorists is a noble goal; the guys weren’t allowed to be victorious. Sad story . . .
Bush Senior took the lesson’s of Vietnam to heart. He and Weinberger established the “Weinberger Principles” for waging a war:
-Use Troops When Political Efforts Fail
-Go to War When you Intend to WIN
-Go to War When it is Vital to US National Interests (“Mama Factorâ€)
-You Win When you have Well-Defined Political-Military Goals and “End-Stateâ€
-You Win When You Reassess Size, Composition and Mission
-You Win When You Have the Support of the American People
Sadly, Clinton changed all that and his criteria was (with my comments):
-Is it Important to National Security
-Are Americas Allies Behind the Endeavor (Who cares if it is in the US national security interest!!)
-Is Military Action/Deployment the Only Option and will the Cost of the Mission be Proportionate to the Objective (Putting a price tag on US national security. . .sheesh)
-What “Special Factors†Might be Involved that are Unique to the Circumstances at Hand (what the heck does that mean??)
The Messiah has no standards as he has no clue about anything having to do with US national security. In fact, I suspect he doesn’t really care about US national security.