Posted on 12/31/2014 7:28:09 PM PST by US Navy Vet
“I think that our country should have Military Funeral Duty for our citizens. It would be like jury duty. Thirty American citizens are selected to attend every military funeral. Let them look into the eyes of a Mother who has lost a child to war. They can tell her that the Defense Budget is too big.”
This
That is the kind of government you enlisted to fight for?
By ousting Saddam we turned a country that had been the biggest enemy of Iran into Iran’s closest ally
Under Saddam Iraq was secular/nominally Sunni. The government we put in is Shiite, and the new constitution starts by saying Islam is the source of all law
“Thanks, George Bush, for destroying our enemy and replacing him with our Shiite allies” - Iran
“We” as in the USA and NATO were not “posturing”, nor were our self-proclaimed enemies, the USSR.
There was very little room for political posturing in those days, for those of us involved with the operational aspect of the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)/political detente aspects that defined the Cold War.
Would we, the only people who could do so, have really implemented the horrific nuclear MAD plans that ultimately kept the USSR from attacking the USA, Europe and the rest of the world?
Yes.
That's both how and why, we won the Cold War.
It was not a bluff. It had nothing to do with diplomacy. And the putrid State Department and CIA were not players, at all, in it.
There were never any scenarios or plans for any USA/NATO led first strikes or offensive attacks.
God bless Reagan for making that absolutely clear to the leaders of our self-declared enemies!
We get it. You never served.
Bite me.
Alberta's Child, thinks that it was all a fake, and that the Soviets and NATO were just spending their billions on massive conventional forces for a bit of play acting, because there was really no chance of such a war.
All this was just expensive window dressing according to Alberta.
It may yet come to that. But I believe we have fulfilled our moral obligation to try another way.
We don’t know what the future will bring, and I can forsee scenarios where that may yet happen. But if it does, we can say we tried every other alternative, and gave them every chance to succeed.
And I think that is worth it. You may not agree, but that is how I see it.
The heartless, ruthlessly efficient leaders like Charles Martel and Count Vlad the Impaler were able to deal effectively with metastasizing Islam.
We should have made a point of building a 50-megaton “Tsar Bomb” (perhaps “salted” with nickel, cobalt and strontium) and then threaten to use it on the Taliban if they didn’t surrender Osama after 9/11 and then used it if they refused. Then deliver the same message to Iran about abandoning their nuclear program. Its all about credibility.
Didn’t Osama say that Clinton running away after Blackhawk down made him certain he could hit us hard and that would make us back down.
And don’t forget Bosnia/Kosovo. We still have troops there 20yrs later....oh, silly me, I forgot, that engagement was started by a democrat so it can’t be bad.
Just as he did 20 or 30 years ago when he predicted Japan was about to eat our lunch.
Whenever I discuss these kinds of issues with my co-worker, all she can say is, “I’d rather spend money on healthcare for people than war.” It’s like a recurring theme.
Yeah, that’s true.
That’s one rat who richly deserved to be taken alive and “debriefed” for a long time. I don’t mourn that he became crab food, but wish it had taken him a little longer to get to their dinner plate after we found him.
“The main problem I see is that we failed to consider Iran’s actions, by facilitating IED attacks on our troops, an act of war and go straight to Tehran. I guess I am too stupid to understand geopolitics.”
The main problem is this country elected a Marxist, Muslim, illegal alien, usurper President that supports an Islamic radical caliphate. This is all orchestrated.
Thank GOD we have finally realized that we can never be the “WORLD’S POLICEMEN”. Sorry folks, this just didn’t happen in the last generation. It started right after WW2, when we became the ONLY “SUPER POWER” left in the world. The thinking at that time, was “WE HAD TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY”. Oh, we had the power to stop every tin pot dictator from conquering the world, but we didn’t have the “GUTS” to use that power. Hence, every tin pot dictator knew that all they had to do was “BLEED” us to extinction, which we did. We bled ourselves dry. Now, maybe, we can stop being the “WORLD’S POLICEMAN”, and go back to doing what we do best. Making this country so strong that no one will ever think of attacking us. If if they did, they would become extinct, as a country and as a people. We have finally realized that we cannot people from themselves. If they are unwilling to fight for their freedom, why should we fight for them.
It is not about advances in medical care, or technology, or bankrupting the country. Its about the all out determination to win at any cost, the unquestioned committment of the government at the top to win, and the total unity of the country to save it from totalitarianism. All of which are absent today.
Comparisons for these reasons are absolutely not pointless.
Apologies to all who served or who lost loved ones.
There is a thread that runs through US military policy, beginning, oh, lets say on June 13, 1950 and running up to, say, January 1, 2015, and the distinctive feature of that thread is NOT WINNING.
I am wholeheartedly opposed to not winning, not least because of the irreplaceable losses and the ongoing personal tragedies. But also because each time (and there are many now) our standing in the world and our safety in our own land (compared with, say, September 2, 1945) declines.
Saying “we really won the war in Vietnam” is crazy. That “victory” seated the second-worst President and the most radical Congress in history in 1974-76. The analogy with 2006 and 2008-12 are clear.
Anyway, my language was harsh and intemperate, and I apologize to each of you and anyone else who took offense.
Yep. Central planning just doesn’t work. We don’t just have the Soviets, Red Chinese, Norks, et al to compare. Look at Japan, a centrally planned economy. It’s a mess.
According to the goals set out In Iraq we lost,what we’re the goals? Was one of the goals to win a war and decimate jihadists and countries that harbor them,or to send men and women to die trying to make friends?
We call these actions wars,they are compared to World War 2,that was a war,we had an objective,to get to Germany and Japan by any means necessary,civilians were displaced and slaughtered by the millions.
What we see now is game playing by politicians,shoot and kill in only the situation we tell you or you will be prosecuted,we are there to make friends.
The way the military people are treated is with an attitude of better you than me,you volunteered.
The situation the country is in now I can see how when the crap hits the fan here at home the military will not have any problem shooting their own countrymen,either that or the corrupt elites who handcuffed in them in these conflicts.If fought as a real war,demolishing anyone and anything in our way and getting it over with and coming home after having left a message mess with us and this is what you get,not going,leaving,going back,telegraphing our strategy and handcuffing our side
"...the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."
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