Time for something with a bit more depth to it on the Iraq war....
America has never lost an actual war. "War", in this case, is defined as a conflict in which our first and foremost goal is to kill the enemy and break their property, with all other goals being considered either secondary or inconsequential.
Everyone - from Americans to lawmakers - seems to want to talk about "a new way" for our Iraq "mess". Yet this mess has been made by our own hands - and not by invading Iraq, but by
how we invaded Iraq - or more to the point,
how we did NOT invade Iraq.Twice - not once, but twice - we had Sadr's "Mahdi Army" surrounded. They had taken refuge in a civilian city. We knew they were there, and we had cut them off. All of them.
We had the opportunity to send in the B52s and blow them all to Mars. Game over for Sadr and his "militia." Game over for the insurgency. And game over for any party that would have tried to hide among civilians in Iraq from that point forward - the people of that nation would have been told in the most graphic way possible that if they allowed insurgents to hide among them, they would share the enemy's fate in meeting Allah sooner rather than later.
But instead, our "weeping hearts" were allowed to rule the day. We refused to level that city,
even though we knew it would break the back of the insurgency and effectively end the war, because "innocent" men, women and children might get hurt.
Let us contrast that with WWII. December 7th, 1941. A date that will live in infamy. So said President Roosevelt. The President sought a way to strike back at Japan for that infamous attack - one that would prove that the American Military was capable of retaliation.
On April 18th, 1942, just a few months after Pearl Harbor, he made his point. James Doolittle led sixteen B25 bombers off the deck of a Navy carrier - something never before done - and bombed five major cities in Japan, including Tokyo. It was a surprise raid, and it was carried out not on Japan's military complex,
but on civilian targets - major CITIES - in Japan. It was an assault that would prove to be a one-way ticket, with all of the aviators involved receiving serious injuries; eight were captured by the Japanese and of them three were executed. All of the aircraft were lost.
Doolittle thought the attack a failure. He was wrong. The Japanese, totally shocked that the Americans not only could hit back
but would do so against their CIVILIAN POPULATION, were goaded into launching a huge assault on Midway just two months later. Rushed in planning and with luck on the Americans side, they were discovered before they reached the island and in the resulting battle 4 of their aircraft carriers were sunk, forcing them to withdraw.
America, of course, won WWII. We ultimately did so by dropping two
atomic weapons on Japanese
civilian targets - their cities. It was the decisive act of the war, and led to Japan's surrender just days later.
Likewise, in the European theatre, Allied troops did not confine their battles to military targets. They in fact bombed cities, just as Hitler bombed London - civilian targets.
Again, the Allies won the day.
But would they have done so if they had confined their bombing to "military" targets where no civilians were present? That is,
we would not have bombed a tank factory if civilians were in there building the tanks?Probably not.
What's wrong with America? Have we lost our nerve? It certainly appears so. We have lost our willingness to declare war
and then follow up by actually prosecuting it as a war.In short, we have to make up our minds as Americans. Our House and Senate approved the President going to
war, not going over there to execute a "police action." Having made that decision
we have the obligation to fight an actual WAR, putting first and foremost as our goal killing the enemy and breaking its "things", with all other goals or desires as secondary matters to be fulfilled only if we can meet them without compromising our prime directive.If we are unwilling to do that, we have no business engaging our military
at all. Having voted to go to war, our House and Senate are now
compelled to either support their original action and demand that we
fight this war as a war or to
withdraw all support for it by cutting off funding, forcing an end to the conflict.There is no middle ground here folks. We have the finest military in the world and our soldiers, all of whom are volunteers, deserve to either have their hands untied or to be brought home.
Make up your mind folks, then act. One way or the other.
Playing politics is unfair to our nation and unfair to the members of our military.
Labels: Iraq, war in iraq
