Posted on 02/06/2005 12:02:40 PM PST by proust
People are really starting to understand what strategy is and isn’t. A reader writes:
Mr. Gagliardi, I hear alot in the news, particularly from the liberal Democrats, that attacks the Bush policy of finishing the job in Iraq. The democrats keep crying out for what has been constantly called an Exit Strategy. An Exit Strategy? Correct me if I’m wrong, sir.. but if I’m not mistaken, Strategy isn’t a straightforward plan, is it not? We can’t have a single “exit strategy” because things change.. the environment changes and we must adjust to the environment by positioning ourselves to achieve success. So the Democrats must be wrong about accusing the President of having no end game. Am I right?
This reader is absolutely correct. Strategy teaches you to analyze your situation and see what moves are possible given the changing circumstances. You then make your moves without first revealing them. If you reveal what you are doing, your opponents have better information with which to counter you.
There is a second misconception in this misnomer of “Exit Strategy” as well. It assumes that at some point, we want to withdraw all our troops from the Middle East and put Iraq behind us and forget about it. Since the War on Terror is still going on, this would be a strategic error of the first magnitude. we would be giving up an advantageous position in a war for no reason other than internal politics. While we must get out of the peace-keeping business in Iraq and get our troops out of harm’s way in terms of sacrificing them to defend the civilian population there, we still need to fight terrorism in the Middle East rather than at home. Again, how long did we have military basis in Japan, Germany, and Korea after the wars there? The answer is forever. You only withdraw your troops when you conceded defeat and surrender a position.
The Democrats may or may not understand this strategic reality. If they do, they are betting that the President cannot articulate this fact and that they can play on the misconceptions in the general public and certainly the media about the nature of strategy and war.
I suppose there might be a few that do.....but they all seem to be counting on dissing the prez/R's long enough and loud enough to confuse the masses.
Kennedy needs to tell the USA what his failed exit strategy was for Mary Jo,,
rat calls an "exit strategy" show us yet another area that they have no knowledge of. Poor dears, they're so ignorant of so many things.
This is so easy - even a child can understand it:
EXIT STRATEGERY = V I C T O R Y
You don't give the Rats enough credit. They understand all too well. Bush has them over a barrel and they are desperately trying to find a way off of it.
Those bastards want GWB to screw it up so they can stop getting clobbered by who they see as a first class moron. Fortunately, that first class moron outsmarts them and kicks their butts every day of the week.
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