War and Decision:
Inside the Pentagon
at the Dawn of
the War on Terrorism
by Douglas J. Feith
Posted on 06/12/2008 8:37:47 PM PDT by neverdem
A BTT for an interesting review. I have the book in hand and am about two chapters into it. It is certainly dispassionate. It may be one of the better books to come out of the war. More later as I learn it.
Georgetown rides its reputation but appears to have become the school of 'the liberal establishment' and those with sufficient monies to arouse the administration's greed (Islamic Center anyone?). I am certain that there are rigerous and worthwhile courses taught by engaged academics, but that can also be said of many other establishments costing orders of magnitude less. Liberal indoctrination, given the pervasiveness of the liberal media, should not come at a premium price in the education budget.
Left Was Wrong; Now Even More Angry About That
Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle: June 2008 Update
Return to Action Michael Yon
From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Thanks for the ping!
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Dunkirk was a disaster. D-day was a disaster (in terms of fatalities). The Battle of the Bulge was a disaster. Sure Iraq is a tough go, but a disaster? I think not.
I am so glad I am NOT a parent. If I were, I would DEMAND my hard earned after tax money back from the cesspool of left wing scum who claim to educate the young and inexperienced minds of America.
War and Decision:
Inside the Pentagon
at the Dawn of
the War on Terrorism
by Douglas J. Feith
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Thanks neverdem. A topic for the Pages sub-list. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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The Marxist Left tries mightily to discredit Douglas Feith with lies and distortions Because he is patriotic and brilliant and understands what the Left’s agenda. Heed the words of those the Marxists lie about and try to marginalize. Douglas Feith speaks the truth. The Marxists are afraid of what students learn from him.
Excellent article.
Excellent analysis.
I suspect the book is excellent, too. I will have to get it.
Thanks for posting this VDH essay.
I disagree with two of your three “disasters”.
D-Day was remarkably cheap. Battling for a foothold along so many miles of well defended coastline against a well-experienced enemy easily could have been far more costly.
The Battle of the Bulge, too, was cheap. The casualties sustained the Allies, almost exclusively US in this case, bought the complete emasculation and demoralization of the only strong elements that remained of the German war machine, and the subsequent total collapse of that machine.
Dunkirk was definitely a disaster with no redeeming qualities other to be able to say at least some soldiers escaped with their lives, instead of all captured and killed, which certainly could have occurred.
Whatever, though, this VDH article is definitely one of the best articles I’ve read in analysis of both a book, and as a side effect, the BASH* itself, that I’ve yet seen.
(* BASH = Battle Against Saddam Hussein, part of the WOT)
Good article.
It continues to annoy me to no end that so many conservatives and liberals take Rumsfeld and others as highly flawed Iraq operators.
The war in Iraq was at every level an astounding success.
Congressional critics such as Levin and Biden were way off the mark on dire predictions. Suggesting that at least 10,000 US troops would certainly die in the first six months of the invasion in Bagdad alone. The fact that five years later we are not near half that number for the entire country speaks volumes to the permissiveness that is given to critics of this war.
Where do they ever have to be vaguely correct in order to retain credibilty?
The answer seems to be never. So long as critics keep stepping up with the failure meme the public— including far too many conservatives are willing to concede ‘it has not gone well’ sigh.
That is total bull.
Iraq voted on and adopted a Constitution that the EU still cannot pass among their member states. The three elections in Iraq of 2005 were staffed by Iraqi security forces that Biden promised could not be created by our military— wrong again.
Critics have been wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong but still found so credible by the media.
AFPJus, my point was if Iraq is a disaster then so were D-day, the Bulge and the amazing Dunkirk evacuation (348,000 British, French and Belgian Soldiers evacuated using 900 civilian and military ships). My word, the US has managed to change the future of Iraq, eliminate tens of thousands of terrorists, take out the Libyan nuclear weapons program, slow down the Iranian nuclear program and yet all are calling Iraq a disaster.
Several months ago, just before the "surge" period started to show fruit, I got into a heated argument with a liberal friend of mine. Heated more perhaps by the several drinks we'd had by then. But he was giving the usual line about what a "disaster" the Iraq war was.
I challenged him to consider the speed and size of the operation, the number of casualties on ~both~ sides, military and civilian... and name for me just ONE campaign in the known history of warfare that has gone better.
I'm still waiting for the answer.
So true.
I often like to look at the centerpiece of anti Iraq war argumentation:
The Lancet study which suggests that upwards of 600,000 Iraqis have been killed.
Even if this is true— which I think the study is an absurd exaggeration— the studies own conclusions say that no more than 15-20% of those deaths were the result of Coalition military strikes.
This means that sadistic Jihadists were so annoyed by our success in Iraq that they were willing to suicide bomb tens of thousands of fellow muslims in the hopeless line of logic that they would join with them in resisting America.
We now know that this tactic has hopelessly backfired and it is little wonder thant more than 95% of the surveyed public in Iraq hates the jihadists— probably higher than here in the US!
It has been an incredible success.
I have read most of the book at my Barnes and Noble library.
Feith’s account is the most apolitical, un-nuanced, frank account I have read, on the run up to and running of the war; and he doesn’t take it or make it personal. Like Reagan, he is able to fault actions without trying to turn those involved into demons.
I would encourage all Freepers to read it.
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