Oh, please! Cut the Howie Dean act. Taking prisoners doesn't make us like Saddam Hussein and we let thousands go before the country was declared 'taken'. I'm not talking about anything like the examples you have given and you know it. Your examples are better pictures of what I mean. The Allies smashed Germany, Italy and Japan unrelentingly. It didn't make terrorists out of the Nazis. They already were. Coincidentally so are these radical Muslims.
Of all the Marines I have known I have never met one who is such an apologist for weakness under a cloak of lawful righteousness as you. I didn't suggest that orders should be shirked I said 'change them'!
it's not a "Howie Dean act." It's from studying the history of warfare and understanding why people fight.
Taking prisoners doesn't make us like Saddam Hussein and we let thousands go before the country was declared 'taken'.
Mostly because we detained a lot of folks who had no weapons or any sign of actually being in the Iraqi military. You go beyond demanding that we merely take prisoners--you demand that we treat them like Saddam's boys did.
I'm not talking about anything like the examples you have given and you know it. Your examples are better pictures of what I mean. The Allies smashed Germany, Italy and Japan unrelentingly.
They didn't take huge numbers of prisoners and interrogate them using the methods of the Gestapo, nor did we simply shoot everyone in sight when a Werewolf operative planted a bomb or shot at a patrol. That is what you're talking about.
It didn't make terrorists out of the Nazis. They already were.
The Anglo-American bombing campaign did cause the German citizenry to identify more strongly with their government, and probably lengthened the war by a few months--the Germans figured that if the Americans and British were willing to merely drop bombs at random on their country before their soldiers arrived, they were certain that GI Joe and Trooper John Bull were going to engage in nothing but rapine and wanton destruction when they actually set foot in Germany. Many Germans in their early teens and in their sunset years decided that he would prefer die on his feet than to live on his knees, and the Combined Bomber Offensive was the primary motivator.
Coincidentally so are these radical Muslims.
Uh-huh. So your solution is to generate a bunch more of them by grabbing anyone and everyone, and then engaging in the sort of crap that Saddam's folks engaged in (mock executions are a standard interrogation technique in totalitarian police states).
The terrorists WANT us to behave as you wish us to: it makes us look like evil SOBs to fence-sitting Iraqis. That is the entire point of a stage I guerrilla campaign (urban terrorism). Denying them this outcome--by thinking with the big head instead of the little head--turns that campaign against its initiators.
Of all the Marines I have known I have never met one who is such an apologist for weakness under a cloak of lawful righteousness as you.
If LTC West cannot command himself, he has no business commanding others. He punishes those who violate orders, then demands a special exemption from punishment for violating those same orders.
That isn't leadership.
I didn't suggest that orders should be shirked I said 'change them'!
And to do so in a fashion that helps the terrorists accomplish their goals. No thanks.