A Triumphant Sense About War?

WMAL ^ | December 14, 2009 | incredulous joe

[incredulous joe]

Obama Says Having A “Triumphant Sense” About War

Was A Mistake… Is He Rewriting History?

President Barack Obama says he'll know by the end of 2010 if his Afghan strategy is working. Obama tells CBS' "60 Minutes" that he will change direction if the US military is not on course "in terms of securing population centers" from Taliban militants. Asked by CBS’s Steve Kroft why he was even setting a deadline, Obama said that otherwise “the message we are sending to the Afghans is, ‘It's business as usual. This is an open-ended commitment.’ When Kroft suggested that Obama seemed to lack emotion in delivering his Afghanistan speech at West Point, the president responded with a jab at the Bush administration. “[O]ne of the mistakes that was made over the last eight years [was] for us to have a triumphant sense about war,” Obama said. “There was a tendency to say, ‘We can go in. We can kick some tail. This is some glorious exercise.’ When in fact, this is a tough business.” Obama said it was probably the most emotional speech that he’s made.

Have we had a “triumphant sense” about war? If so, was that wrong? Is it bad to go into war with the expectation of victory? Is President Obama reflecting on our history or is he rewriting it? Do you believe that he is taking the right steps in Afghanistan and Iraq? Is he approaching war with the intention of winning?

[incredulous joe]

I get down on my knees and thank God that we have young men and women who are willing to give everything to protect my children ~ I expect that they should have a "triumpant sense of victory" when they vanquish our enemies.

They should be very proud of themselves ~ as I am of them!

[silverleaf]

Imagine the history of the world if American troops had gone to war with the attitude of this lightweight intellectual imposter

“This is My Son”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsOT5usxkgA

[Thrownatbirth]

“[O]ne of the mistakes that was made over the last eight years [was] for us to have a triumphant sense about war,”

[incredulous joe]

God bless them all!

[ctdonath2]

"Now, philanthropists may easily imagine there is a skilful method of disarming and overcoming an enemy without causing great bloodshed, and that this is the proper tendency of the art of War. However plausible this may appear, still it is an error which must be extirpated; for in such dangerous things as war, the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are just the worst. As the use of physical power to the utmost extent by no means excludes the co-operation of the intelligence, it follows that he who uses force unsparingly, without reference to the quantity of bloodshed, must obtain a superiority if his adversary does not act likewise." - Clausewitz, _On_War_

Methinks the Obama has not read Clausewitz. The Taliban is willing to proceed "unsparingly"; will our Commander in Chief? if not, the former will win.