Mustang Rambles

Having watched our war in Afghanistan with a military eye, and having supported military action against the Taliban (I still support military action) I have come to the conclusion that our leadership and our people are determined to lose another war. By another, I mean every war we’ve fought in the last 100 years. Follow me on a quick tour through history.

1. World War I: conclusion, a momentary lapse while Germany rebuilt and rearmed. Result: World War II.
2. World War II: conclusion, a total defeat of Germany, Japan, and Italy, but we failed to even fight the final threat, the Soviet Union. Result 44 years of Cold War and surrogate wars.
3. Korea: Three years of fighting resulting in an Armistice that still threatens and kills people in Korea. Result: A nuclear North Korea and huge army posed to invade South Korea.
4. Viet Nam: Ten years of warfare killing millions of people before we cut and run. While not declared, we all know it was a defeat for the US. If the military had been let loose, we could have won and the country could have been free. For how long, I don’t know. Result: Viet Nam lives now just like it would have when the French left if left to its own devices. We interfered and several million people died needlessly.
5. Desert Storm: 100 hours of a cakewalk, an easy victory that could have been, but conflict was cut short of victory for political reasons. Result: We had to go back in and do it again.
6. The Irag War: Once again, we went in and did not finish the job. Result: Region is unstable and once we pull out it probably to revert back to pre-Desert Storm political conditions.
7. Afghan War: Without looking at history, we went in to pacify and “liberate” the Afghan people from the oppressive Taliban, and to close out any Al Qaeda training and safe havens. Result: We are still there debating a winning strategy and the Taliban seems to be getting stronger.

So, why have we screwed up all these wars? Because the American people have forgotten how to fight. The American people worry about collateral damage. A couple of civilians get killed by a bomb and we go all weepy and “let’s investigate how this happened!” We have forgotten that war is a mean, nasty, blow-em all to hell, slugfest where the first guy who pauses to sort out civilians from foe loses.

We didn’t worry about that in WWII where we did totally defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy. Italy was spared the aerial bombardment that we gave the other two, but Germany and Japan were subjected to massive bombing raids on their cities, raids that burned entire cities to the ground. We didn’t worry about civilians then. We shouldn’t worry about it now, not if we want to win.

When I was in Viet Nam, I had to sign a three page document call “Rules of Engagement”. This document detailed when I could shoot and when I couldn’t. Pure political stupidity. Your soldier has to be free to shoot back when shot at without worry of court martial. It is war, after all.

Politically, too many of our leaders put the military in a no-win situation because they don’t understand that the military is not a police force. It is a war machine. It is trained to destroy. That’s its job. Politicians should understand, that war is a last resort; it is not a tool of diplomacy. War should only be engaged in when there is no alternative, and it is fought to win.

My personal feelings for the defeat of Al Qaeda? Pull our troops out, bring them home. Give the money to the CIA, let them kill people, let them do what they can do so well, and in a few years there will be no problem. You fight a clandestine organization with another clandestine organization.

Sorry if it seems I rambled a bit here, but hell, it’s early morning and that’s what I do. If you really want to know how to win against an insurgency, study the Philippine War, 1899-1903.