Posted on 07/09/2005 11:31:20 AM PDT by T-Bird45
War forces us, or should force us, to ask hard questions of ourselves. As a military historian, a commentator on current events and the father of a young Army officer, these are mine.
You supported the Iraq war when it was launched in 2003. If you had known then what you know now, would you still have been in favor of it?
As I watched President Bush give his speech at Fort Bragg to rally support for the war the other week, I contemplated this question from a different vantage than my usual professorial perch. Our oldest son now dresses like the impassive soldiers who served as stage props for that event; he too wears crossed rifles, jump wings and a Ranger tab. Before long he will fight in the war that I advocated, and that the president was defending.
So it is not an academic matter when I say that what I took to be the basic rationale for the war still strikes me as sound. Iraq was a policy problem that we could evade in words but not escape in reality. But what I did not know then that I do know now is just how incompetent we would be at carrying out that task. And that's what prevents me from answering this question with an unhesitating yes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I find that statement difficult to understand as well. My hubby has been to Iraq twice, so maybe this gentleman will allow me to repeat the reality that it is impossible to expect zero casualties in any war, that the soldiers understand and bravely accept this reallity, and that our casualties in the WOT have been quite low in comparison with previous wars. I find that it's usually the "highly educated fool" who wants to complain that we're losing inordinate amounts of soldiers.
The writer sounds to me to be one of those "highly educated fools" that he claims to despise. His conceit and selfishness give me the barely controlled desire to slap him.
My cousin is a tank commander with the 4ID. He loves the military, his country, and his leaders, but he finds that we are giving far more to Iraq in the way of support. While he supported and participated with the effort to drive out Saddam, he believes the Iraqis should be doing far more to help themselves already.
His brother is in the AF and doesn't want to go to Iraq because he feels it is to no end, no exit strategy. His wife is also in the AF and believes the same. She is in the reserves, but knows that she will probably do a year in the sandbox.
My nephew is AF an believes that while good is happening in Iraq, it is simply a cost we shouldn't pay. As he puts it, "There are lots of people we could be helping out, so do we help them, too? We can't afford it economically and at the high costs to our own families."
All four understand the need to educated and train the Iraqi people to understand freedom and democracy, but all four feel the costs are just getting way too high. All four believe we have our own problems at home we are not addressing. As my cousin put it last week , "They want me in Iraq for a year, but no one is doing squat about the issues we have right here at home. MY wife got felt up at the airport two years ago by a grinning nerdy TSA agent only to find an illegal had broken into our apartment while we were away on active duty." The police caught the illegal trying to pawn their wide screen TV.
The admin has told the truth - the fact that the WP or the NYT or CNN CBS ABC NBC refused to report it doesn't make it less truth.
When you're in the middle of a WAR you don't go around wringing your hands and lamenting about what you should have done differently - you just change what you're doing because you have learned a certain action didn't work. That doesn't make the action wrong or a mistake.
But .. if the admin explained that - the headline would read: BUSH ADMITS ERRORS. That's all the media was looking for - not the truth - but a headline with which to smear the Bush admin.
Changing tactics is the nature of war and people who don't understand that try to presume there's nothing but "happy talk" - but it seems that way because the lazy media will not leave the bar in the hotel long enough to report the other things that are going on besides the terrorist's bombings.
In the past week alone - 6-7 terrorists with IED's in their vehicles have EXPLODED THEMSELVES - where is the media story about those events ..?? According to the records, the bombs are so crudely assembled using old and rusty equipment - they are terribly unstable. Have we heard a word about this ..?? NOOOOOO!! And .. we won't either .. because it confirms what Cheney said - they are in their last gasps for relevance.
Red
Who has no hesitation to use his son for his own political purposes. What an embarassment this must be to his son.
There were other reasons for taking out Sadam ,he was aiding terrorists and was a butcher,the only problem I have is that the same reasoning applies to Syria and Iran where the fighters ,the money and support is coming from and we do nothing but give lip service to it and that is the only comparison to Vietnam I see.Our men nd women are being killed by fighters coming from these countries and others but we cant cross that line! Sound familiar?Now I understand we want to fight them over there instead of here so if that is your reasoning fine ,but you will never win unless you take out their source of support.
There were other reasons for taking out Sadam ,he was aiding terrorists and was a butcher,the only problem I have is that the same reasoning applies to Syria and Iran where the fighters ,the money and support is coming from and we do nothing but give lip service to it and that is the only comparison to Vietnam I see.Our men nd women are being killed by fighters coming from these countries and others but we cant cross that line! Sound familiar?Now I understand we want to fight them over there instead of here so if that is your reasoning fine ,but you will never win unless you take out their source of support.
Mr. Nobody aka shellshocked, nugnut, PatrioticAmerican, DeathAngel, cibersnot, et al, banned again.
Agree with you that the war has not received even-handed coverage from much of the press. However, I am just not seeing hand-wringing in the article and that may be just my perspective. I also agree that the headline you wrote would be the result of an attempt to explain certain actions and changed tactics.
Well, thank goodness none of those folks you created for the sake of this post were in the military during WWII, or else we'd be flying a flag with a swastika on it.
Outstanding article and analysis. The author is right, Iran is the spawning ground for militant Islamic terrorism. The WOT won't be finished until the mullahs are removed from power and the Iranian people liberated.
Here's a random question from someone who knows nothing about what it takes to run a large internet forum such as this. How do you know a troll's previous screen names? A computer's IP address can change, and they can't be giving the same email address every time they register a new name. I'm just curious.
It is an ignorance of war, historically speaking, that makes one think that there are no mistakes, at many levels, in war. In regards to publicizing your failures for your enemies, both foreign and domestic, to use against you, that is also contrary to history and common sense. Secrecy is extremely important, for many reasons, in wartime.
A fine citizen like that, with so many relatives in uniform! This has crushed my faith in humanity.
;-)
Our registration program has a built-in webcam feature. Slick.
The author tuned me off with these phrases:
As I watched President Bush give his speech at Fort Bragg to rally support for the war the other week, I contemplated this question from a different vantage than my usual professorial perch. Our oldest son now dresses like the impassive soldiers who served as stage props for that event.
I didn't like "rally support for the war," I didn't like "impassive soldiers," and I didn't like "served as stage props."
Maybe I'm too defensive.
lol!!
FOTFLOL!
In that case, I need to pony-up more money each month. Love that technology...lol.
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