Posted on 12/10/2023 5:29:55 AM PST by skimbell
Once you understand the NK geography and doctrine of the enemy you realize two things: American tactics and capabilities could dominate in the South. We hadn't a hope in hell in the terrain in the North at least not unless we were willing to fight a massed up close and personal counterinsurgency in the mountains, a lesson we already learned in the South Pacific Island camapaign in WWII.
WWII was a total victory because the aim was to defeat the Nazi occupation. If our goal was democracy in Poland then we were ignominiously defeated.
There is little that is beneath the leftists, and we’re not going to defeat them by trying to spare their feelings.
Schwarzkof kicked some major ass but was reigned in politically because the media was howling about the "Hiway of Death" and rumors of civilian casualties by featuring Iraqi media fed images of bombed out baby milk factories and bomb shelters full of women and children.
The same media political tactics are now in play over the Israeli's kicking the palistinian's butts. Every live hummus fighter is a freedom fighter, Every dead hummus fighter is a civilian casualty.
What you saw as a stalemate was Operations Northern and Southern Watch which were managed under the Clinton Administration. The Iraq invasion by Bush II was not an extension of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The war in Iraq was if anything a huge mistake militarily. Profitable and great for R&D, but a mistake. I wonder if the real reason we went after Iraq was the military industrial complex thought Afghanistan was over too quickly with the removal of the Taliban from power. They got greedier.
When countries have nuclear arsenals, they are not invaded.
Military brute force, like burning the straw huts of grandmothers, didn’t work in Vietnam either... In fact, such atrocities only turned the public against the war.
There are 2 fronts: military and psychological (via propaganda) - both are waged in tandem, we did plenty of “hearts and minds” opps in WWII.
Exactly. That's what I said with point #2.
Jerry Pournelle talked about this on his blog.
The political understanding was the President could do what he wanted, more or less, with the Dept. of the Navy (Navy & Marines). If things got serious, and you needed the Army (Dept. of War), you needed a formal declaration of war from Congress.
This of course all went away with the unified DoD post-WWII.
They do not think the way we do. In their minds we will always be the evil ones to be exterminated.
In bookstores is a very expensive, beautifully bound in green leather Holy Koran. If one was going to give a gift to someone, like a president, or any other high "ranking" person in society, it is what you would buy.
Every page was in Arabic on the left side, and English on the right. The English side was just like the other modern ones, all the "bad" stuff left out.
I have a non Muslim friend who is fluent in spoken and read Arabic. I asked him to come to the bookstore with me, because I was too cheap to buy the book.
I pointed out the sura I mentioned, and a few others, plus there were some he was familiar with he wanted to check. (he had spent quite a few years in Saudi-Arabia as a civilian). I have never seen the expression that came on his face before. Absolute shock.
He had only seen true versions before too. He said, "My God, they are two different books". I remember those exact words. I don't remember the rest of his comments word for word, but he went on to say, that this explains why so many people in our government have the wrong idea about Islam.
Every non Muslim (infidel) needs to read a true translation of the Holy Koran. Then they might understand why this is happening and why it will never stop happening.
IMHO these are probably the most accurate translations, and they are FREE.
That's why you can never take a politician serious or policy, unless borders are shut down. Outside jihadist always resupplied into Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea aided by China, and of course Vietnam had constant supplies from China and USSR.
That's also why the US is in decline via constant migration and illegal invasions from outside peoples, and politician's don't wanna do anything about it.
The Socialist Marxist Dems don’t want the American people to win so the DNC can get control.
Yes, it was, because we removed the Iraqis from Kuwait but left Hussein in power. Stalemate.
What you saw as a stalemate was Operations Northern and Southern Watch which were managed under the Clinton Administration. The Iraq invasion by Bush II was not an extension of Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
Yes, Operation Iraqi Freedom was a direct extension of Desert Shield/Storm. We left Hussein in power, and enforced No-Fly zones in the North and South for a decade out of Saudi Arabia.
It was because of this prolonged U.S. presence in "the Holy Land" of Saudi Arabia that was the motivation by bin Laden for his attacks on 9/11. It was bin Laden hiding in Afghanistan that led to the invasion Afghanistan as Operation Enduring Freedom. Dubya then decided to invade Iraq after a perceived death threat to Daddy, and used the excuse of WMDs to justify it to Congress.
And the term "Gulf War II" was not coined by me, it is a common shorthand for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
I agree.
At one point, the thinking was that war was a little like chess -- if you capture the enemy's capitol (checkmate the king) then you win the war.
A little later, the thinking was that if you destroy the enemy army, you win the war.
In WWII, the idea was to completely destroy your enemy.
As this article indicates, the more recent idea is to make the enemy civilians love you more than they love their own government or their own religion. This just fails.
I believe that destroying the enemy and intentionally causing massive casualties is really the only viable strategy. Historically, this works very well.
A military member’s competence is inversely proportional to his/her (most definitely NOT its) political correctness. Take a look at our laughable military DEI “leaders”. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Oh really? Like the country called The United States of America? That one? 60 million illegals in-country at last count and rising? That one?
ping
To pick a few nits: The War Department concerned just the Army. The Navy had a separate department. With the creation of the Air Force as a separate branch all three were dumped into the new Department of Defense. But yes, the ‘Department of War’ does have the ring of meaning business about it.
Who was the sage who said, “Get ‘em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow” ?
Again you are deferring to pundits, one war was called “The Gulf War” as it included troops from every Gulf nation plus other Muslim countries and was actually fought from the Gulf to free a Gulf nation. Afghanistan is not a Gulf Nation. You Having participated in both there was no Gulf War II medal, there was the GWOT, OEF and OIF. Having served during the duration of OIF and until 2016 during OEF, I can state unequivocally outside of news pundits, it was never referred to as Gulf War II. The Gulf War had a specific goal and we achieved it. The Global War on Terror was declared after 2001.
The enemy’s will to fight must be destroyed. Not just their means to fight.
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