Very true, but in the end war is what it is. If you read Patton’s writings you’ll see that he full grasps the understanding that the tactics and strategies of war will change, but the need for intelligent, bold, and effective leadership never ever changes. He always preached that war should be fought aggressively. Recall in his famous speech how Patton exorted his troops to make the “other poor bastard die for his country.” I firmly believe that today we can say the same thing, except with the terroists is much less dying for their country than dying for their cause.The ultimate nature of war has not changed. In order to defat this enemy we must do some very unpleaseant but very necessary things...
“There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.” - General George Patton Jr
The challege today is the HOW of doing the above, not the need to do it. We must find ways to cut off their line of supply, we ARE slowly eroding their morale though (Pelosi and Reid are doing their very best to buck our enemies up), we are working very hard to do the necessary things to get Iraq back on it’s feet. The issue is leadership, both from the civilian leadership and in the higher levels of command within the Department of Defense and the respective service branches.
I really do believe that we are, to some degree, a victim of our own success and power. We became arrogant to a degree that did not allow our senior command and civilian leadership to understand that we need a killer instinct thatexceeds that of our enemy. Our troops on the ground have demonstrated that they get this simple concept, their senior leadership is less aware of how savage we must get to beat these guys.
This is a fight that was never going to be quick, easy, and painless, but then war is never really any of those things is it? Let’s honestly look at our civilan and military leadership and demand that they fight to win, not fight to win publicity points. Let’s look at presidential candidates that know what it’s going to take to win, Duncan Hunter clearly does, Fred Thompson seems to, the rest of the republicans - I’m still not convinced that they do, the Democrats have absolutely no idea.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Frankly, I don’t know if the American people have what it takes anymore. It’s hard to know I suppose.