[Sockdologer]

Thanks for the article. It is spot on.

[Ditter]

bump for later

[rellimpank]

—good post—

[Sherman Logan]

our self-limiting definitions of allowable targets and acceptable casualties—hostile, civilian and our own—continue to narrow fatefully.

In the new Terminator movie, the hero breaks chain of command to plead with the resistance to disobey their commanders and not launch a supposedly war-winning attack on the genocidal enemy.

The reason? The enemy has thousands of hostages at the attack site.

If we launch an attack that kills hostages, we are not really human.

Under this bizarre theory of warfare, no attack can ever be launched if the enemy has a few hostages or civilians around.

What was most interesting is that after all the hollering, the heroes apparently rescued perhaps a half dozen of the hostages, then blow the rest up with nuclear energy.

[Sans-Culotte]

Bump.

[PaleoBob]

I don’t agree with some of this. The idea that the WOT can be fought on a more symmetrical battlefield with an army conscripted from a population that will be invested in the outcome is just regurgitated Rangel (Charlie, D-NY) and WWII nostalgia of the sort you’d get from Brokenjaw. And I have no idea what he is talking about when he trashes the defense industry. I doubt he does, either.

On the other hand, I agree with him that our unwillingness as a culture to confront the realities of religion, Islam and our own, contributes to our problem at war. And I completely agree with his well-noted indictment of the media: that it only trusts the nobility of savages while finding all civilization evil. That’s the predominant agitprop of this period, no doubt.

[jazusamo]

An excellent essay by Ralph Peters.

[marron]

long article, worth the read

[geologist]

excerpt from more of the article
“We have cheapened the idea of war. We have had wars on poverty, wars on drugs, wars on crime, economic warfare, ratings wars, campaign war chests, bride wars, and price wars in the retail sector. The problem, of course, is that none of these “wars” has anything to do with warfare as soldiers know it. Careless of language and anxious to dramatize our lives and careers, we have elevated policy initiatives, commercial spats and social rivalries to the level of humanity’s most complex, decisive and vital endeavor.

One of the many disheartening results of our willful ignorance has been well-intentioned, inane claims to the effect that “war doesn’t change anything” and that “war isn’t the answer,” that we all need to “give peace a chance.” Who among us would not love to live in such a splendid world? Unfortunately, the world in which we do live remains one in which war is the primary means of resolving humanity’s grandest disagreements, as well as supplying the answer to plenty of questions. As for giving peace a chance, the sentiment is nice, but it does not work when your self-appointed enemy wants to kill you. Gandhi’s campaign of non-violence (often quite violent in its reality) only worked because his opponent was willing to play along. Gandhi would not have survived very long in Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s (or today’s) China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Effective non-violence is contractual. Where the contract does not exist, Gandhi dies.” ...
___________________ _______________________________________

and so on ...
This is an excellent article. Food for serious thought.

[spodefly]

Many of us as individuals have lost our survival instincts, and this translates into a lack of will in our national defense approach.

[aquila48]

Very wise words!! Will the powers that be heed them?

Thanks for the post.

[ketchikan]

Thank you for posting the link for this important article. I have read it if full and am sharing with others. Needs to be widely disseminated.

Freerepublic is a communtiy with all kinds posting, linking and commenting. I remain a freeper partly because this site provides some excellent links such as this one and some intelligent commentary.

[BnBlFlag]

Great Post!..........Now if I had a little Seafood Gumbo to go along with this beer, all would be right with world.
But, DIL is cookin’ some up right now and we’ll be goin’ over there shortly. But, it’s too late for this beer. And the next one! :( ......LOL!

[BnBlFlag]

Great Post!..........Now if I had a little Seafood Gumbo to go along with this beer, all would be right with world.
But, DIL is cookin’ some up right now and we’ll be goin’ over there shortly. But, it’s too late for this beer. And the next one! :( LOL!

[Tolik]

Long and good. Must read!

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 are welcome to browse the list of truly exceptional articles I pinged to lately. Updated on April 1, 2009.  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.  

[Tolik]

Ping to a great article

[kalee]

for later reading

[mick]

"The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win."

Here is the essence of the article and the expression of the Moral Code needed for this civilization to endure and prevail.

An example from WWII of what I think he means. Relevant today with the torture issue:

Prof. Paul Fussell, a cultural and literary historian, and professor emeritus of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania wrote a book some time ago about his experiences as a US Army private in WWII. No conservative Fussell, but he describes an incident in the Battle of the Bulge when a small unit of GI's captured a few Germans. Being cut off from their unit and in desperate shape they needed to know exactly where the German tanks were to avoid being killed. The Germans prisoners refused to talk. Their Sergent lined them up and said that if they didn't talk he would begin killing them one by one. They still refused to talk. He immediately shot the first one in line in the head. The rest of them talked. The Americans were able to save themselves.

As Peters points out in this excellent article. We didn't win the war against the Germans and Japanese by playing fair. We played to win.

[litehaus]

"a child’s bloody nose is no longer a routine part of growing up, but grounds for a lawsuit; the privileged among us have lost the sense of grit in daily life."

.

Ol'Will was right---First, kill all the lawyers....

[Congressman Billybob]

Excellent, excellent. A long read, but worth every minute to read it slowly with clear understanding.

Congressman Billybob

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