Posted on 09/24/2014 4:43:11 AM PDT by markomalley
It's great that President Obama "put together this miniature coalition of Sunni Arab States" to fight terrorists in Syria, but the analysts are missing something important: The measure of success should be "acres and acres of dead terrorists," not "knocking out windows," Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters told Fox News's Sean Hannity Tuesday night:
"These strikes (Monday) night were designed to limit terrorist casualties. These were not serious, meaningful strikes!
"And I'll give you the evidence. Why did we go in at night? There was no air defense threat...If you wanted to kill terrorists, you would have hit those headquarters and compounds and logistics sites at 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning, when they were crowded with leaders, staff officers, flunkies, et cetera.
"Instead, we hit empty buildings at night! We knocked down antennas, we blew out windows!
"That is not the way to defeat terrorists who behead Americans! We should have gone in in the morning, gone in heavy, and killed -- let me give you the measure of success in air strikes against ISIS. It is not knocking out windows. It is acres and acres of dead terrorists! That is tactical success!"
A Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby said the U.S. is still assessing the effects of Monday night's air strikes, but "we know we hit what we were aiming at." Kirby said the goal was to hit "hard targets" that affect the terrorists' capabilities "to command and control, to sustain themselves, to train themselves, to recruit."
Peters told Hannity he's always glad when President Obama does anything to stop terrorism.
"But he wants to wage war by measuring it out in teaspoons. And the cardinal advantage of a superpower, for God's sakes, is super power! If you're going to go to war, you go to war to win! Small war, big war, doesn't matter.
"But all this, you know, modulated responses and graduated buildups -- no! If the United States goes to war, we should fight to win! And I'm sick of hearing pundits in Washington who never served in uniform saying, Oh, victory is impossible in the 21st century.
"Victory is always possible if you're willing to pay the price, if you're willing to be ruthless and ferocious and do what's right for our security and win!
Peters, now a military analyst for Fox News, said the United States faces "truly evil opponents" and will have to fight them "for a long time." He also said civilian casualties cannot be avoided if the job is going to be done right:
"And by the way, another thing we got to get over, this nonsense about there can't be any civilian casualties! War is ugly, sloppy and messy, and sometimes there are civilian casualties, especially when your enemy uses human shields. If you're going to go after ISIS, you got to suck it up and do what's right. And by the way, civilian casualties -- look what ISIS is doing, and it's actually gaining them recruits as they slaughter civilians."
This is the guy I saw on FNC. Pretty devastating. Makes this whole thing sound like another Aspirin factory bombing.
“We want bloodless, push-button victories with cruise missiles, drones and no collateral damage.”......
Would be better to just stay home then. ANYONE who has ever been in combat knows that destroying buildings does NOT kill the enemy. Yes, there are times when it works to your advantage to remove a building, particularly if it is occupied by the enemy at the time. It is NOT the building that is going to shoot back at you when the SHTF.
You are right
Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters has never been shy about expressing his opinions. I love it!
There were no images of the ISIL night shift pouring out of those buildings being hit with smart bombs. All that was accomplished was damage to some real estate. The inhabitants were tipped off to save themselves and important property from the buildings beforehand.
The “5 regional nations involved” are basically there by name only...
Your first strike should’ve been at the busiest time of day for the terrorists...
You destroy the terrorists and there is no one to use the “resources and facilities”
Your plan only allows the terrorists to regroup at sites that have to be AGAIN found and investigated, then attacked...
My gosh. What a perfect observation!
I’d leave the goat alone. Just an innocent pawn
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As a lot of young men (and a couple of older men) that I know would say, “Oohrah!”
He is absolutely correct. Now that the executive branch has made their agenda blatantly apparent, I’m going to have some fun studying my Bible. One thing I remember about God speaking to nations after the crud was over is that Jordan survives pretty much intact. Damascus is obliterated like Babylon, never to exist again. Maranatha!
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