Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

No Way to Win a War
Wall Street Journal ^ | 12-7-06 | ELIOT COHEN

Posted on 12/07/2006 5:45:08 AM PST by SJackson

theory of the thing is very peculiar indeed. You are in the middle of a war -- a hard war, a war that is going badly. If the government has bogged down, if the people inside have gone stale, you would say that the sound thing, the Churchillian or Lincolnian or Rooseveltian thing, would be, first, to fire a bunch of officials (generals as well as top civilians), promote or bring in fresh talent, and put together a small group of people to take a new and unillusioned look. Those people would report back in secrecy to the president and his most senior advisers and aides.

They would consist of experienced soldiers and civilians in whom the president (who, after all, has to make the strategic decisions, and is the accountable executive) has trust. There would not be many of them, a half dozen or so, and they would have to be hardy enough to visit the war zone for several weeks, talking not just to politicians and generals but to captains and sergeants. They would go see things for themselves. They would visit a forward operating base near Tikrit; they would spend some time with Iraqi soldiers in Taji; they would take their chances in a convoy to al Asad, or even a patrol in Tal Afar.

They -- not their staff of a few soldiers and secretaries -- would do the probing, digging, thinking, discussing and, above all, the writing. The chairman of the group would insist that they air their disagreements candidly and thoroughly in front of the president, engaging in a debate that might last a day, perhaps longer. The rest of us would not find out about the panel until months, or even years, after it reported back; maybe not until the war was over.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: gwot; iraq; iraqifreedom; terrorism; waronterror; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last

1 posted on 12/07/2006 5:45:12 AM PST by SJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

This is on the WSJ subscription site.

"A fatuous process yields, necessarily, fatuous results."

2 posted on 12/07/2006 5:47:39 AM PST by SJackson (had to move the national debate from whether to stay the course to how do we start down the path out)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
"Winning a war" was not the intent or desire of those on that panel.

(Actually, we won the war quite some time ago... right now we're merely in the mop-up phase, and the mess is continually made worse by outsiders... and the nattering nabobs of negativity here continually point out what isn't clean yet, rather than noting the overall progress.)

3 posted on 12/07/2006 5:49:12 AM PST by Teacher317
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Yeah, that would be the way. But Bush has collapsed. Once a strong leader, he's now bringing in every defeatist (you may have heard them called "realists") to justify negotiating with the countries involved in the proxy war and otherwise retreating.

Whatever happened to "we will not distinguish between terrorists and those countries that harbor them" ?


4 posted on 12/07/2006 5:49:15 AM PST by Barney Gumble (A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel - Robert Frost)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
James Baker was bought and paid for by the Saudi government.

That he would do their bidding should suprise no one.

L

5 posted on 12/07/2006 5:50:39 AM PST by Lurker (Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
When you run down the list of members of the Baker committee you wonder if it was put together by Phyllis Diller.

In the leaderless Twilight Zone we're living in right now we don't have Churchillians, we only have vaudevillians.

Leni

6 posted on 12/07/2006 5:56:29 AM PST by MinuteGal (The Left takes power only through deception.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal
...we only have vaudevillians.

And they are not funny. Get the hook.

7 posted on 12/07/2006 6:01:03 AM PST by Lion Den Dan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Teacher317
The U.S. "lost" this war a long time ago when it made the decision to engage in a half-@ssed nation-building effort in which the best military force in the history of mankind was reduced to nothing more than a well-armed Peace Corps.

I don't understand why anyone is surprised over the recommendations of this panel. This panel simply recommended a bunch of things that this administration would have been forced to do anyway due to political realities.

8 posted on 12/07/2006 6:05:19 AM PST by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Teacher317
That is the actual truth...we DID win and continue to win. The present violence is just a futile and gratuitous demonstration of their remaining power in the area by the punks who will be making trouble there or anywhere else they are permitted, no matter who takes charge of that country or when. They were there before and will be there when we leave. It was always Dodge City and it was only under control because Saddam the butcher had bigger and badder punks of his own to keep the lid on. These guys are just filling the power vacuum which was opened up when we removed Saddam from power. However, getting the flathead media types to admit it is not going to happen.

The orientals say that 'calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom'.
9 posted on 12/07/2006 6:05:29 AM PST by SMARTY ("Stay together, pay the soldiers and forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal

I fear that you are right. The nation of the greatest people the world has ever known, and we are lead by clowns.


10 posted on 12/07/2006 6:08:00 AM PST by newcthem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal
"When you run down the list of members of the Baker committee you wonder if it was put together by Phyllis Diller."

You don't trust Vernon Jordan to provide an honest, objective assessment? If you can't trust him, who can you trust? Bubba put his complete faith in old Vern, and look how that turned out for him.....

11 posted on 12/07/2006 6:10:31 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Voted Free Republic's Most Eligible Bachelor: 2006. Love them Diebold machines.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Lurker

Fundamentalist muslim Saudis in silk suits are funding every bit of islamic terrorism throughout the world. We should have covert operatives in Saudi Arabia killing these pricks off. Instead, we have them funding the 21st Century's Neville Chamberlain "study group".


12 posted on 12/07/2006 6:11:37 AM PST by Emmett McCarthy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal

If you have a site link this WSJ story. Has anyone read the history of our civil war ? The problems Lincoln had not only with Democrats but with the Republicans as well.Deaths by the thousands. Riots in New York, Copperheads in Illinois, shoddy shoes, cannons that blew up, (he actually set up a separate political party) and ran as a kind of fusion candidate for his 2nd term. What he did have what Bush doesn't was much of MSM was behind him. But thats when Americans were Americans and understood what our country was about.
http://www.theusmat.com/


13 posted on 12/07/2006 6:20:19 AM PST by mosesdapoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

The president of Iran's insistence that Israel would cease to exist "soon" is apparently from the talks the Baker bunch engaged in these past few months.


14 posted on 12/07/2006 6:37:55 AM PST by OpusatFR ( ALEA IACTA EST. We have just crossed the Rubicon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

One way to ward off crocodiles is to feed them someone else, a bite at a time.


15 posted on 12/07/2006 7:30:01 AM PST by wildbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

They should be renamed the "Chamberlain Committee" and all be issued umbrellas and bowler hats. I expect Jim Baker to be holding up the report claiming peace in our time.


16 posted on 12/07/2006 8:33:55 AM PST by The Great RJ ("Mir we bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Barney Gumble; Tommyjo; dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; ...
"...Yeah, that would be the way. But Bush has collapsed. Once a strong leader, he's now bringing in every defeatist (you may have heard them called "realists") to justify negotiating with the countries involved in the proxy war and otherwise retreating.
Whatever happened to "we will not distinguish between terrorists and those countries that harbor them" ?..."

Why would you think Bush has collapsed? We've won the war, and we're winning the Peace in Iraq big-time, in spite of what the MSM or the dimocRATS say! We've got a huge Complement of Hard Men and Materials inside Iraq now, and have split Iran from Syria and Hizbollah. We're moving Marine Components from Al Anbar in the West in Iraq to the Baghdad area.

We have Allies training and just itching for a fight, we're bringing in Reserve Engineering Battalions to Eastern Iraq, and we've got Four Battle Groups, Two Carrier and two Amphibious, in the Arabian Sea!

If you'd like to peruse some Maps of some areas, they start about #9-#11. Help yourself.

Everything I posted was gathered over the past year, and is verified. We're ready to Rock-and-Roll, and after todays' announcement by the White House that the President would give a major policy speech next week, I'm real curious as to what it's gonna be about.

It would be prudent to count the number of mosques in your neighbourhoods, note their locations, then stay well armed and safe........................FRegards

17 posted on 12/07/2006 10:45:04 PM PST by gonzo (I'm not confused anymore. Now I'm sure we have to completely destroy Islam, and FAST!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: gonzo

TANKS,gonzo,,,Some Folks don't see the A$$Whuppin'
Moozzi "GETS" everytime he wants to FITE' ,,,LOL;0)


18 posted on 12/07/2006 11:08:29 PM PST by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: mosesdapoet; lentulusgracchus; Pelham; stainlessbanner; rustbucket; ml/nj
But thats when Americans were Americans and understood what our country was about.

The Americans of the South might have, but Northern Americans allowed Mr. Lincoln to trash our Constitution and plunge a dagger into the Republic and Federalism.

Although the article is right in that Lincoln would have sacked those who didn't serve effectively, you give too much credit to the 1860s understanding of the Republic, IMHO.

19 posted on 12/07/2006 11:15:50 PM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Barney Gumble
Whatever happened to "we will not distinguish between terrorists and those countries that harbor them" ?

The masses made that inoperative on Nov 7.
20 posted on 12/07/2006 11:23:14 PM PST by Kozak (Anti Shahada: " There is no God named Allah, and Muhammed is his False Prophet")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson