Thursday, September 2, 2010

A Commander-in-Chief Not Worthy Of His Troops


A Commander-in-Chief Not Worthy Of His Troops
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet


America did not win the war in Iraq. That’s a fact. America did not win the first Iraq war. That, too, is a fact. Iraq is set up, as we write these few comments, for its next dictator -- with at least a couple of Iraqis preening themselves in the shadows just waiting for the moment, which will not be long in coming.

Look, the plain truth is – you cannot win a war while attempting to win the hearts and minds of those you are warring against! Until America understands this we will NEVER win another war!

To be successful in war you have to beat the snot out of your opponent through attrition and any other means at your disposal until he either has no troops left to put into the field against your forces, or he is so beaten that he loses the will to fight. The victor must make the price of going to war against him so costly any would-be enemy will think long and hard before firing that first shot. America doesn’t do that anymore. It is common knowledge that if you desire the rebuilding of your country -- simply attack America!

Another important aspect of wining a war is to never take the civilian population off the list of targets. That may shock you. It should. But war is hell. People die – innocent people die, too. I repeat: war is hell!

It is nice to make an effort to avoid civilian causalities, but one must understand that it will prolong the war and make it imminently more costly in lives and treasure to win a conflict. A civilian population that is being decimated will put pressure on its government to end the war, even if that means surrender on any terms.

We did nearly everything wrong in Iraq. Rest assured, we will be forced to return combat troops to Iraq in the future. No matter what our national leaders try to tell us – the war in Iraq is not over, not nearly over. If this withdrawal is anything it is a time-out, a breather for our troops, nothing more. I hope the military brass has the good sense to leave a goodly portion of those troops in Kuwait, because they will be needed again -- and soon.

We are making even worse mistakes in Afghanistan. We cannot win a war in Afghanistan without the use of nuclear weapons. I mean, of course, a decisive victory. The best we can hope for is some sort of agreement with the Afghans/Taliban. I expect that very thing is being worked on at this writing.

Just LOOK at Afghanistan. To begin with, the Afghans have very little to lose, period. The terrain in Afghanistan is unsuitable for a conventional war. We have had very limited success smashing those solid rock caves with even those powerful bunker buster bombs and missiles. Those Afghan mountain redoubts can be taken out using tactical nukes. If the US were set on victory in Afghanistan, we’d use those nukes. We would also wipe out their poppy fields and decimate the Taliban population, both the civilian and warrior class Taliban. We would take their lives, wholesale.

Unfortunately, our President sees himself as a citizen of the world FIRST and a citizen of the United States second. It is the first time in history that the President of the United States views himself as being a citizen of the country with which the military he commands is at war!
That can’t be good for any kind of REAL victory in Afghanistan. All this President wants out of Afghanistan -- is the troops he commands. And – as soon as he can come to some sort of arrangement with the Taliban, He will pull the US Military out of Afghanistan, too.

You know, I doubt President Obama ever played organized football or baseball. He probably played that game the liberals love so much – soccer. I still contend that soccer is no game for Americans. American games don’t end in “ties.” That’s because Americans play to win.

Just like American football players and baseball players and basketball players are trained to win, the American military is trained to win… not tie with the enemy.

I don’t think Obama has any clue how humiliating it is to our troops to have them fight a war with one hand tied behind their backs and then, after spilling their blood at his command, order them to withdraw short off a victory. Oh, they will salute and comply with his commands, but he will have lost their respect and their trust for the remainder of his term as their Commander-in-Chief. (No wonder the democrats fear the military vote this November!)

America’s days in Afghanistan are numbered. Everybody knows it: Obama, the Taliban, the US troops in Afghanistan, and the American people. We all know it because we know this President has no taste for real conflict of any kind -- political or military. Just look at all the “czars” he appointed so as to avoid conflict with the Senate. Look at his recess appointments made, we believe, for the same reason. If he can give a command and have his wishes fulfilled -- fine. But – if he has to fight for it – forget about it. That is what we see in Iraq and what we will see soon in Afghanistan.

It is disgusting to see the one government organization, which really understands what honor is, the US Military, have their own honor tarnished by a Commander-in-Chief not worthy of the troops he commands.

J. D. Longstreet

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