Fred: A True Son of Tzu (The American Way of War)

fredoneverything.net ^ | 1/23/07 | Fred Reed

[frogjerk]

Some military philosophers favor actually removing from military libraries books on what happened to the French in Viet Nam, the Americans in Viet Nam, the Russians in Afghanistan, the Americans in Afghanistan (a work in progress)

Sounds like someone has bought into the NY Times propaganda...

[Steel Wolf]

Ouch! Harsh, but fair.

This is just a guess on my part, but I have a funny feeling that the many excellent points raised by this article will be overlooked for a few of the more 'ideologically impure' ones.

Which is probably part of our problem, too.

[gcruse]

Fred Reed, I believe, voted with his feet and now lives in Mexico, where genetic stupidity generally drives people north, not south.

[GoDuke]

"Pay no attention to tactics, which are boring. It should never enter your mind that in this sort of war, if you don’t win, you lose; if the enemy doesn’t lose, he wins."

Am I missing something or are these two sentences discussing two different things, i.e., the first being tactics, the second being strategy? Some good points and some not so good points in this article though.

[LS]

Kind of silly. On the one hand, "Fred" urges us to learn about the culture and society of the enemy, and on the other instructs us to keep our distance. You cannot do both.

And by the way, a combination of carrot and stick worked VERY well in the Filipino Insurrection, where we killed our enemies AND built schools and roads for our friends. Let me suggest my book as a counter, "America's Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror."

[Publius6961]

Pay no attention to tactics, which are boring. It should never enter your mind that in this sort of war, if you don’t win, you lose; if the enemy doesn’t lose, he wins. Think about something else. Above all, do not understand that the enemy’s target is not you, but public opinion at home. You don't need to remember this, as the enemy will remember it for you.

Even blind pigs occasionally find truffles...

[Steel Wolf]

Fred Reed, I believe, voted with his feet and now lives in Mexico, where genetic stupidity generally drives people north, not south.

I don't know about Reed, other than his article here is pretty good.

As far as your other comment, I'd have to say that you've got it backwards. You'd have to be genetically stupid to stay in corrupt, backwards Mexico when you're a little bit of virutually unopposed travel time from a great economy and political freedom.

[Egon]

Fred's strategy with this article appears to be: throw enough sh!t at the wall, and something is bound to stick.

And sure, enough, some of it does.

Some of it, however, should have remained un-flung. That portion, he should feel free to cram back up his fifth-point-of-contact.

[gcruse]

I used 'genetically stupid' the way Fred does, satirically.

[gcruse]

,,, as opposed to Fred himself, who is so genetically stupid as to have moved to Mexico.

[denydenydeny]

Explain the invasion to the American public in simple moral terms suitable for middle-school children at an evangelical summer camp: We are bombing cities to bring the gift of democracy and American values, or to defeat some vague but frightening evil, perhaps lurking under the bed,

Stopped reading here because I found myself wishing that the author could change places with someone on the 105th floor of WTC 1 on 9/11.

What an absolute lower anatomical feature this person is.

[edsheppa]

Some good points but some bullshit also.

[jonascord]

I have perused this screed most carefully, and have come to the conclusion that the author should, with great care, print this out on 200 grit sandpaper, fold it until it is all corners, and ram it up his a$$, with a half twist to the right.

Like all these half-wits at DU, Ol' Freddy left out one minor but telling point. The concept of an RoE. If you trash the latest in a long line of RoEs, and turn the troops loose, to kill everything that COULD be a threat, flatten and burn everything that might be of any value, and only start "nation building" when your foe crawls to lick your footprints, you will find victory. Anything else is canal water.

If you make war with the US too horrible to even consider, and a shortcut to national, social and economic catastrophe, peace follows.

[Steel Wolf]

I used 'genetically stupid' the way Fred does, satirically.

I don't know if that's entirely satirical. Find me someone who's spent any amount of time in Iraq, and I'll show you someone with a disdain for Arabic culture and Arabs in general. (Disdain being a very polite euphamism.)

It's hard to avoid underestimating people who smoke next to gushing oil pipelines, or blow themselves up setting IEDs. I'll readily admit that I often needed to remind myself that they're just ignorant, not stupid.

[nothingnew]

...they're just ignorant, not stupid.

A good thing to remember. One of my few rules is "Never underestimate anyone".

FMCDH(BITS)

[ASOC]

Humm

Son was with Marines in Iraq, twice. Spoke enough of the lingo to be an interpreter. He said the average Iraqi has little education and is about as smart as a 11 YO US school kid. After all, these people *do* shoot automatic weapons into the air to celebrate.



But he never made the mistake of confusing ignorant with stupid.

He did note that a smart GI will never, ever turn his back to an Iraqi, 'friendly' or not.

[SlowBoat407]

Let loose the dogs of war!! (Fred Tzu style)

[AngryJawa]

Must be a real bitch being infallable, eh Fred?

[jokar]

Bump fred has some of it right.