[Leisler]

No enemy, no problem.

[dasboot]

Bravo!

[darth]

I wish someone would wordsmith a bumper sticker or slogan that communicates, "Slay the terrorists until there are no more to fight". Joe Six Pack instinctively understands that we must totally destroy tens of millions of terrorists, terr wannabees, and their supporters. The American Left and media, not to mention the Euroweasels, have not come to grips with this stark truth.

[fini]

Mr Peters hasn't studied Marine Corps doctrine or he hasn't kept up. Not to write a 1000 word paper: manuever warfare has never been a stand alone concept (and it is also a way of thinking) and attrition is considered an honorable way of waging warfare (though it goes against the grain of human nature). Lastly, attrition and manuever warfare are not mutually exclusive.

[struwwelpeter]

Beautiful writing with extremely valuable points. Wish it had been written by President Bush or Secretary Rumsfeld, though.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

They want to die as martyrs for Allah, and we're willing to make that happen for them, and the problem is...What?

[WOSG]

"the Air Force is the strongest opponent of admitting that we face wars of attrition, since it has invested overwhelmingly in precision weapons designed to win a war by “deconstructing” the enemy’s command networks."

Some strange comments in here and this is one of them: The Air Force easily killed the *vast* majority of people in the Iraq war *and* in Afghanistan.

Does he not recall the story of daisy cutters delivered to the Talibans' front line, until there *was* no front line left?

I think he exagerrates to fit his overall thesis. A good thesis, but with the army having 100 to 1 kill ratios it seems in the AlSadr fight and given the way we just obliterated entire Iraqi divisions with JDAMs, I think his concern that DoD is not willing to kick a** and attrit the enemy is a bit misplaced.

The one fight where it looked like we flinched a bit - Fallujah - is actually an example of the positive benefits of 'Iraqification':

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110005152

[neverdem]

Excellent!

[SpyderTim]

Leisler and Malconent: You both beat me to posting this. Great job.

darth, How about this:

"I'm on a terrorist diet. I see terrorists and I kill them."

Or:

"Terrorists. See them. Kill them."

Of course one does not have to actually see a terrorist to kill them.

[tet68]

Good read from Ralph Peters. Some real nuggets of gold in this one.

The truth is that even if you can’t kill yourself out of the problem, you can make the problem a great deal smaller by effective targeting.

But the only way you can decisively cripple the command networks of terrorist organizations is by killing terrorists. ( A lesson Israel is putting into practice.)

It is not enough to materially defeat your enemy. You must convince your enemy that he has been defeated.

Now, if only we could steel ourselves to think clearly and speak plainly: There is no shame in calling reality by its proper name. (Reality has a tendency of smacking you in the face when you forget.)