Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Will we ever win another war?
Townhall ^ | Wednesday, December 6, 2006 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 12/06/2006 7:25:53 AM PST by presidio9

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-192 next last
To: ex-snook
When? Well the next time we are deeply affected by 15,000,000 in armed forces [in today's population, maybe 20,000,000], Rosie the Riveter leaves the office for war production (if she can manage to import the material], rationing, air raid drills, blackouts, and bond drives to raise war funds. In other words when everyone is involved in effort to win.

But is the American population sufficiently poplated with enough people to even get us to this point, or are they more likely to surrender and not even fight if such drastic sacrafices as needed during WWI and WWII are needed to win a war today? I have my doubts.

141 posted on 12/06/2006 9:59:49 AM PST by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

The United States MUST begin preparations for building up our military infrastructure and staffing to full wartime levels. It's time for our nation to be on a war footing and our great industrial and economic powers being focused upon the major task at hand. Iraq is not the war I speak of; merely, it is but a campaign in what looms ahead. We all know full-scale war is coming - it's only a matter of months or a couple of years.

We can only hope that tens upon hundreds of thousands of Americans don't have to be lost, first, before this great nation and our few true allies begin to finally fight back.


142 posted on 12/06/2006 10:02:52 AM PST by Skywarner (The U.S. Armed Forces... Producers of FREEDOM for over 200 years!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
I wonder if we can win a war in the WWII sense in an instant information culture of the 21st century. There is no way the fire bombing of German and Japanese cities would have been allowed if CNN and FOX were carrying live streaming video of the cities. The atomic bomb might never have happened, since the NY Times would have leaked the story a year in advance citing the public "right to know". When you just have the radio and your hometown newspaper to read, the casualty lists are more personal and yet incite a revenge factor that cold statistic of nationwide deaths do not.
143 posted on 12/06/2006 10:06:11 AM PST by brothers4thID (Being lectured by Ted Kennedy on ethics is not unlike being lectured on dating protocol by Ted Bundy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Our job in Iraq is to spark a regional civil war so the ME terrorists are all sucked into the Roach Motel and kill each other off.

More Jihadis dead in Iraq means less Jihadis in America


BUMP

144 posted on 12/06/2006 10:06:14 AM PST by capitalist229 (Get Democrats out of our pockets and Republicans out of our bedrooms.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: r9etb
Yes, that is why I ping that person to the post. He got it wrong, and thus your initial response was wrong.

Now, what is wrong with the correct quotation of Rush?

145 posted on 12/06/2006 10:07:47 AM PST by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: reagan_fanatic
What a different world it was 60 years ago - 2400 Americans die at Pearl Harbor and the entire country stands up to the challenge and defeats the combined forces of fascism and nazism.

Sixty years ago, Americans did not spend their evenings huddled in front of the television watching mind-numbing drivel and broadcasts in full sympathy with the enemy;s war effort...Today we have sacrificed thought for 'entertainment', and our values for a soft life.

Not until the war affects Americans on a broad basis as did WWI and WWII will we again have the resolve on the homefront to win the unconditional surrender of our enemies on the battlefield.

Would the same media 'sensitivity' toward the Nazis or the Japanese have been tolerated during WWII?

Nope.

Some people would have ended up in irons over that crap.

Until we again have the stones to bring charges of treason for providing aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war we are doomed to less than optimal outcomes, regardless of the competence of our military or the quality of their equipment.

Now, the majority of Americans just sit on their asses and bitch. It will take a calamity to change that.

Yep. But even then, if people don't start thinking, the blame for the calamity will be placed squarely on those who did not prevent it, and not the perpetrators thereof.

146 posted on 12/06/2006 10:08:13 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Phantom Lord
Now, what is wrong with the correct quotation of Rush?

You seem to be assuming that I would disagree with the "corrected" version because I disagreed with the version you said was incorrect.

Why would you assume that?

147 posted on 12/06/2006 10:11:24 AM PST by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: r9etb
Do you ever answer questions or just respond with questions?

If you agree with the corrected quote, wouldn't it have been better and more appropriate to say, "having now seen the correct quote, I agree 100%" if in fact you do?

148 posted on 12/06/2006 10:13:50 AM PST by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies]

To: Phantom Lord
Do you ever answer questions or just respond with questions?

Why should I respond to your assumptions?

As it happens, I do agree ... mostly ... with the statement. I don't agree completely, however. The purpose of the military is to be capable of killing people and breaking things, if necessary.

If the only purpose was literally to kill people and break things, we'd always be at war, n'est pas?

149 posted on 12/06/2006 10:23:17 AM PST by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 148 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
The US does not have the collective spine to prevent a war so I'm not sure we won't go back to our isolationist roots.
To the Democrats our biggest enemy is the President and the Republican party. They will gladly take up arms against those "enemies" but refuse to fight the war we've been involved with since the hostages were taken back during the glorious Carter years..back when everyone loved us..
150 posted on 12/06/2006 10:23:56 AM PST by newnhdad (They'll raise your taxes, grab your guns, look out wallet, here they come..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: r9etb

I think it is understood that they will kill people and break things when necessary and does not need to be explicitly spelled out.


151 posted on 12/06/2006 10:34:20 AM PST by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 149 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

"We filled factories with people building the machines and tools of war."

You are correct. When one examines the reasons that we were able to win WWII, our simple ability to out produce our enemies in terms of ships, planes, tanks, etc., was an important factor.

With our manufacturing and engineering expertise going overseas, I wonder if we could pull it off again, even if we had the will to do so.


152 posted on 12/06/2006 10:36:02 AM PST by EEDUDE
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Brilliant

Correct. The appeasement will destroy us unless the voters finally realize that we are already in WWIII and that their 'children' will be in danger.


153 posted on 12/06/2006 10:37:13 AM PST by phillyfanatic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: arthurus
We are more apt to win it with the Dems, in fact, in charge.

Your assessment is harsh and depressing. However, they way things look today, it seems possible that it will play out just as you describe. Watching the coverage of this Iraq study group today has me ready for a straight jacket. It looks like the entire country has gone senile.

154 posted on 12/06/2006 10:38:43 AM PST by outofstyle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Will we ever win another war?

Only when we stop being politically correct and just take the gloves off.

155 posted on 12/06/2006 10:39:52 AM PST by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Phantom Lord
When? Well the next time we are deeply affected by 15,000,000 in armed forces [in today's population, maybe 20,000,000], Rosie the Riveter leaves the office for war production (if she can manage to import the material], rationing, air raid drills, blackouts, and bond drives to raise war funds. In other words when everyone is involved in effort to win.

But is the American population sufficiently populated with enough people to even get us to this point, or are they more likely to surrender and not even fight if such drastic sacrafices as needed during WWI and WWII are needed to win a war today? I have my doubts.

Seems a missing ingredient in our actions in the recent past [and currently] is the absence of the kind of level threat as from WW II enemies. Actions in Korea or Vietnam were never perceived as a threat here. Their being 'communist' was their problem. Likewise some are calling today WW III or the like. But enemies using suicide car bombs and stolen planes do not evidence the power to make citizens feel threatened. Hence, the current theme is assigning a projected a future capability to fear. Uncertainty becomes certainty without even the calculus of China and a resurrected Russia. We would do well to re-examine President Bush's policy of strike first to make sure we pick the right target to strike.

156 posted on 12/06/2006 10:40:43 AM PST by ex-snook ("But above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 141 | View Replies]

To: pissant

"Isn't Ben Shapiro about 17 years old. A topic a little out of his league."

No more so than the rest of this website's posters.


157 posted on 12/06/2006 10:46:56 AM PST by Firefigher NC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Phantom Lord
I think it is understood that they will kill people and break things when necessary and does not need to be explicitly spelled out.

It does need to be explicitly spelled out. The tiresome antics of the Keyboard Kommando brigade show that it's very necessary: they seem to think that "killing people and breaking things" is really all you need to do to win a war.

Knowing the difference between military methodology, and the purposes of war -- including when and how to use the military, and when not to do so -- is essential to actually winning.

158 posted on 12/06/2006 10:47:52 AM PST by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 151 | View Replies]

To: presidio9

We'll never win another war if our present political climate remains. The only war we might win is against an enemy who mounts a catostophic attack on us and I don't mean a the destruction of a few high rise buildings. Even then it will be difficult to get everyone reading the same page and there will be substantial claims that we brought it on ourselves. In my 66 years of life I've never seen so many Americans willingly playing in the hands of those who wish to destroy us. We can and we WILL be destroyed if this thinking continues. They'll need high voltage shock treatment and then many of them will still be active in opposing any U.S. response other than appeasement and accommodation. It's a sad time for the United States of America. We are witnessing the fall of the west and we are doing the pushing. Sad, sad indeed. I'm glad I won't be around to witness the end results.


159 posted on 12/06/2006 10:48:51 AM PST by Joan Kerrey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-snook

Evidence of rational thought, sir. Well stated.


160 posted on 12/06/2006 10:48:57 AM PST by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 156 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-192 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson