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

Skip to comments.

No Way to Win a War
GreatMindsThinkRight ^ | 5/30/07 | JB Williams

Posted on 05/30/2007 8:09:19 AM PDT by captjanaway

1 - There is only one reason to go to war - Whenever and wherever evil rises up to threaten peace and prosperity for decent people, good men must do something or evil will prevail.

#2 - There is only one time to go to war – Once convinced that evil can not be put down without going to war and before war comes to your own doorstep.

#3 – and there is only one way to go to war - United in the single purpose of winning that war, no matter the expense.

In the world-wide war against terrorism, Washington DC has failed in all three basic rules of war and continues to fail today.

(Excerpt) Read more at greatmindsthinkright.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; military; terrorism; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last

1 posted on 05/30/2007 8:09:20 AM PDT by captjanaway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: captjanaway

Unfortunately, George Bush will not fight this war to win it.


2 posted on 05/30/2007 8:13:13 AM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

No - sometimes I think he’s going to, then he wimps out. I shudder to think what’s going to happen to this country if we don’t fight to win and stay to fight.


3 posted on 05/30/2007 8:19:26 AM PDT by captjanaway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: captjanaway
EXCELLANT ARTICLE!!!

I saved it to my favorites.

Americans of today are not like Americans of yesterday. Americans of yesterday, facing an obstacle, rolled up their sleeves and solved the problem, regardless of the cost or time or lives involved. Defeat in achieving a goal was unacceptable, and a lifetime of hard work inured them to the belief that only hard work accomplishes goals.

Americans of today are part of the instant gratification generation. They want what they want now and don;t want to have to wait for it or work for it. It isn’t coincidental that many of our technological people are immigrants.

Their attitude towards war is similar.

Our opponents, the Muslims, are willing to wait as long as it takes, work as hard as they can, and sacrifice whatever is necessary to achieve their goal. After all, they have been waiting since the 600’s.

When you compare attitudes, we loose. Regardless of how many smart-bomds, sophisticated missiles and planes, and well-trained well-motivated and dedicated military personnel we have, we cannot win this unless the mass of Americans emulates our forefathers and adopts some of the dedication, hardheadness and willingness to sacrifice exhibited by our opponents in this war.

4 posted on 05/30/2007 8:25:43 AM PDT by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

No.

Bush has been a total disappointment, an empty shirt and a man of little imagination or judgement of character.


5 posted on 05/30/2007 8:26:41 AM PDT by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: captjanaway

Unfortunately the author of this article doesn’t know how to win a war either.

These are the sort of gibbering platitudes we hear all the time.

What is needed is a clear understanding of the three major phases of war, the principle of offense, and the nature of submission.

We are now in the last stage of this war where the US must continue to apply military pressure to the states opposed to the victory in Iraq.

Syria must be attacked and defeated. Leave the remains to the French to sort out.

After Syria is crushed, Iran is next, and the Sauds after that.

Victory requires relentless offensive military action against the enemies discussed above.

Playing defense - as the US is now doing - is a losing tactic. It allows the enemy to choose the time and place of battle. In this fight the US can only chase after them in an endless war of attrition.

Submission means making the choice of surrender easy for the enemy.

The US must put enough pressure on its enemies that they choose to leave Iraq alone. If they don’t the US must continue to punish its enemies.


6 posted on 05/30/2007 8:29:51 AM PDT by Santiago de la Vega (El hijo del Zorro)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: captjanaway

Have to agree we are blowing this one - once it got a little tough, we all starting pointing fingers.


7 posted on 05/30/2007 8:30:38 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onedoug
Dubya has generally done well considering the depth of the problem. The exceptions are IRAQ (poor post-war planning), Abu Gareb, a few excesses regarding GITMO and poor PR.
Iraq may not turn out to be the disaster that some predict. It now appears that Iran is likely to politically dominate most, if not all of Iraq. If that doesn’t happen a real civil war will take place.
We are constrained by international law in terms of responding to terrorism, since terrorists are almost always civilians, and terrorist frequently use innocent civilians as shields. Amazing that the Israels are facing the wrath of the international community for responding with pinpoint attacks on terrorists, when Palestinian terrorists fire rockets indiscriminately, or intentionally suicide bomb innocents.
8 posted on 05/30/2007 8:32:33 AM PDT by GeorgefromGeorgia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: captjanaway

Right this war is not like the Revolutionary war, War of 1812, War Between The Sates. WWI, WWII, Korean War, Cold War, Viet-Nam....where every American supported the war, where the entire world was on our side, where no mistakes were made. It might do some people some good to read a little history, before they make fools of themselves.


9 posted on 05/30/2007 8:34:21 AM PDT by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valin

Most people (both rats and righties) now don’t realize what a disaster WWII and its aftermath was for us.


10 posted on 05/30/2007 8:36:54 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: captjanaway
As a dirt road scholar with a degree in BS from the school of hard knocks, formal education
And evidently lacking in the ability to read...anything other than comic books that is.
11 posted on 05/30/2007 8:38:47 AM PDT by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Chi-townChief
Most people don’t THINK...and yes I include many Freepers. Way to many people only react emotionally. Now emotions are good, but they have to be kept on a very short leash.
12 posted on 05/30/2007 8:47:06 AM PDT by Valin (History takes time. It is not an instant thing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: GeorgefromGeorgia
We are constrained by international law in terms of responding to terrorism....

Then we've lost.

13 posted on 05/30/2007 8:49:59 AM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ZULU

‘When you compare attitudes, we loose. ‘
Unfortunately, there are many leftists in this country that don’t think American Society is worth saving. The Islamofacists are their ‘friends’ merely by being the ‘enemy of my enemy’. Evidence by the many statements that our ‘foreign policies’ create terrorists. When in fact the ideology existed centuries before the United States was created.
2003-’Indeed, the anti-Bush campaign threatens to undermine our war effort, give encouragement to our enemies, and cost American lives during the long year of campaigning that lies ahead of us. Osama bin Laden’s military strategy is:

If you make a war cost enough, Americans will give up and go home. Now, bin Laden isn’t actually all that bright; his campaign to make us go home is in fact what brought us into Afghanistan and Iraq. But he’s still telling his followers: Keep killing Americans and eventually, antigovernment factions within the United States will choose to give up the struggle.’ - Orson Scott Card
‘Know thyself’ Rule #1 (Bush’s number one ‘mistake’ was to believe in American’s would unite long enough for Islamofacists to ‘get the message’: Don’t F*ck with US!!


14 posted on 05/30/2007 8:52:21 AM PDT by griswold3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Santiago de la Vega

You are right - Platitudes don’t win a war, but a ruthless and correct strategy pursued until victory does.
If this was an easy thing, we’d be done by now.
It isn’t.

I’ll say what I’ve said before: There are plenty of critics of this war, but few who step forward and outline the set of steps needed to win victory.

I don’t know if your steps are the right ones, but we should at least be asking the question “How to win?” rather than assuming it is lost and asking “How do we get out?”

One good thing about Bush - he is still asking question #1 while most of the DC establishment is in question #2.


15 posted on 05/30/2007 9:00:53 AM PDT by WOSG (Stop Illegal Immigration. Call your Senator today. Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: onedoug; jazusamo; EagleUSA

>Unfortunately, George Bush will not fight this war to win it.<

Well, Jorge Boosh is just doing exactly what he’s told to do. We haven’t been allowed to win a war since 1945, or have you noticed? Why do you suppose that is? Americans can easily win a war in very short order, if left free to fight one.

On “Morning in America” one morning, I heard Bill Bennett say, “We must be ‘civilized’ in this war, and not stoop to being barbarians”.

The way I see it, when you are fighting barbarians, you must fight fire with fire, or you lose! As in Korea and Nam, wars cannot be micro-managed from Washington. In order to win, it takes a command of generals like George Patton or Douglas MacArthur. Do they even make generals like them any more?


16 posted on 05/30/2007 9:03:29 AM PDT by Paperdoll ( Duncan Hunter '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: onedoug
Unfortunately, George Bush will not fight this war to win it.

I don't think it's that simple, because the definition of "win" isn't that simple here.

We "won" the war years ago, the one we started, the one to remove Saddam and the threat of WMD.

But now the "war" we fight is to leave a stable, democratic, pro-american Iraq. If we pull out, it will collapse into a theocracy that hates us. If we kill too many people, we could end up with an autocratic dictatorship that hates us, or a democracy that hates us.

So part of the equation HAS to be how to fight the enemy without making the rest of the country mad enough to hate us. That's not an easy task, because it's hard to know how people will react. It could be that we could kill thousands more and the average Iraqi would be HAPPY, or it could be that if we kill just a few more of the "wrong" people the average Iraqi will turn against us.

This makes it a difficult war, and the opponents are right about that part -- where they are wrong is to think that pulling out makes it all better by removing us from the equation. In fact, a pullout seals our fate, and that fate would be a bad one.

If Iraq was our enemy, we would have won this war long ago. We had the power to destroy the country and take it over as a puppet state. But that's not what we wanted, and now we are stuck between a military battle and a political one.

17 posted on 05/30/2007 9:04:40 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ZULU

There are American soldiers still, in spite of opinion to the contrary. My cousin on the ground in Iraq again, carbine and all. He is in a place he identifies as $h**hole, which could be almost anyplace in the region.


18 posted on 05/30/2007 9:06:22 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Treaty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT

Excellent post.


19 posted on 05/30/2007 9:07:23 AM PDT by Badeye (You know its a kook site when they ban the word 'kook')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: griswold3

This is just more demagogic opportunism of the doom and gloom variety. The GWOT represents cooperation of nations on things like terrorist watch lists, cargo security, tracking and denial of funding to terrorists as well as military operations in the Phillipines, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. India, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also involved. So is NATO and the UN. Edwards can be excused for being out of the loop[. He’s been building his mansion in peace bought by the courageous fight of many round the world. It is no accident that America has not been attacked again, and there have been no devestating airline terrorist incidents since 911. Unfortunately, if people would honestly reckon the improvements in tracking those going and coming, they might not be as adamant against government reform plans of illegal immigration.


20 posted on 05/30/2007 9:09:10 AM PDT by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 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