Orson Scott Card: Iraq -- Quit or Stay? [a very comprehensive review]

The Ornery American ^ | January 15, 2006 | Orson Scott Card

[Tolik]

Orson Scott Card Nailed It !
Moral Clarity BUMP !

A combined ping to my two ping lists.

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately  on  my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.  

 Orson Scott Card - PING  [please freepmail me if you want or don't want to be pinged to Orson Scott Card political articles]

 

[kevkrom]

New tagline material (see below).

[MizSterious]

That is a good quote from this excellent article! It's a challenge not only with the Euros, but with the 'Rats in our own country.

[MNJohnnie]

Great post. Thanks!

[samtheman]

excellent

[samtheman]

Orson Scott Card

[cgk]

EXCELLENT article - thanks for the ping!

[eureka!]

marking

[Interesting Times]

Bookmarked. Thanks...

[KarlInOhio]

How can a man with that much uncommon sense remain a Democrat?

[robowombat]

Card is right on the moey as to the supposed 'disasters' of the Iraq war. One book to read to put this in perspective is Military Misfortunes : The Anatomy of Failure in War by Eliot A. Cohen, John Gooch

From Library Journal
Military failures have long been studied piecemeal, but there are few scholarly attempts to quantify and systematize them. Here, two professors of military history reduce the study of command blunders to a science. Several intellectual shortfalls, such as the failures to learn, to anticipate, to adapt, are analyzed. Each is then followed by the study of a pivotal battle or campaign which easily could have turned out differently, but for the "pathways to misfortune" which intervened. The work is painstaking, detailed, and thoughtful, marred only by a ponderous writing style. It is more mature and systematic than Charles M. Fair's From the Jaws of Victory (LJ 7/71). For informed laypersons and specialists.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles

Weighing in at 330 pages it gives an incisive look at some distressing events from recent military history. The chapters on Korea spell out in some detail the travail of the 8th Army both in the summer of 1950 and later when the Chinese entered the war and almost crushed US forces. I don't know how the US would bear up with the resolutely defeatist media populated by men and women that have an at best dismissively critical attitude towards thier country (which many don't even recognizer that they have)if we became involved in a protracted high intensity war in which US forces actually have to absorb battlefield defeats or near defeats. I can imagine the high decibel sky is falling screaming that would fill the airwaves and the print media if ever the US Army were to have a defeat such as Taejon inflicted on it. If battles are won on the ground against the enemy, increasingly our wars are won or lost in CONUS in the minds of the American people. The media will stab us in the back every time spreading their lies, smears and ignorant error filled accounts of military operations.

[TChris]

Another excellent piece by Card. He's definitely on my list of favorite columnists, along with Mark Steyn, Thomas Sowell, Ben Stein, Ann Coulter and Victor Davis Hanson.

[robowombat]

Card is right on the moey as to the supposed 'disasters' of the Iraq war. One book to read to put this in perspective is Military Misfortunes : The Anatomy of Failure in War by Eliot A. Cohen, John Gooch

From Library Journal
Military failures have long been studied piecemeal, but there are few scholarly attempts to quantify and systematize them. Here, two professors of military history reduce the study of command blunders to a science. Several intellectual shortfalls, such as the failures to learn, to anticipate, to adapt, are analyzed. Each is then followed by the study of a pivotal battle or campaign which easily could have turned out differently, but for the "pathways to misfortune" which intervened. The work is painstaking, detailed, and thoughtful, marred only by a ponderous writing style. It is more mature and systematic than Charles M. Fair's From the Jaws of Victory (LJ 7/71). For informed laypersons and specialists.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles

Weighing in at 330 pages it gives an incisive look at some distressing events from recent military history. The chapters on Korea spell out in some detail the travail of the 8th Army both in the summer of 1950 and later when the Chinese entered the war and almost crushed US forces. I don't know how the US would bear up with the resolutely defeatist media populated by men and women that have an at best dismissively critical attitude towards thier country (which many don't even recognizer that they have)if we became involved in a protracted high intensity war in which US forces actually have to absorb battlefield defeats or near defeats. I can imagine the high decibel sky is falling screaming that would fill the airwaves and the print media if ever the US Army were to have a defeat such as Taejon inflicted on it. If battles are won on the ground against the enemy, increasingly our wars are won or lost in CONUS in the minds of the American people. The media will stab us in the back every time spreading their lies, smears and ignorant error filled accounts of military operations.

[DustyMoment]

There's a lot of competition for the title of "Stupidest Decision in American History." But if we withdraw from Iraq now, or even announce a unilateral timetable for withdrawal, I think that we will have our all-time winner.

Neatly sums up the phrase "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory".

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[My2Cents]

Bush should make OSC the Administration's key spokesperson on the Iraq campaign; and Victor Davis Hanson the key spokesperson on the overall war on terror. (Ironic, is it not, that both are Democrats?)

[Sloth]

Good article. I was not altogether sold on the idea of invading Iraq before we did so, but I have been won over by our successes there, and one thing in particular. The idea of waging a 'War on Terror' seemed so broad and ambitious as to be unrealistic -- how could we hunt down terrorists hiding in populations all over the world? Yet, the Afghan/Iraq compaign has had the amazing side effect of drawing terrorists to a couple of foreign countries where our military is already entrenched. It's really quite brilliant.

[kevkrom]

Bush should make OSC the Administration's key spokesperson on the Iraq campaign; and Victor Davis Hanson the key spokesperson on the overall war on terror.

Then all he would need to do would be to name Mark Steyn as WH spokesman, and he'd be pretty much set in the communications department.

[My2Cents]

There you go. Mark Steyn or Dennis Miller.