Has no one inside the Beltway learned anything about war in the last seventy years? The answer is a resounding NO. That includes the Pentagon who, in addition to politically and militarily emasculating our troops, continues to kowtow to the political-military-industrial complex by eagerly sending more of our children to die in countries that hate us.
How many examples does one need to convince egotistical presidents from Georgie, Jr. or dangerously demented Biden you can’t win a military contest at any level inside a country where you don’t have the perceived legitimacy of the population much less their rulers. This is especially true in countries who are dominated by radical clerics.
Shall I go from most recent back or back to most recent? Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia, and Vietnam. Career-climbing officers kept singing Bush, et al mantra that Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t Vietnam – they were (read The Pentagon Papers and The Afghanistan Papers). Commanders in Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq (with the exception of a few) sincerely thought we could win with technology. We can’t. The same false agenda for invading, the same lies to the public for staying culminating in disastrous defeats because everything built on lies is doomed to failure no matter how you clothe the emperor nor how much money, material, and men you pour into the shredder.
Does the word Dien Bien Phu ring anyone’s bell? Just as one example depicting the miasma Biden is getting us into, French General Navarre chose grossly disadvantageous terrain to draw Giap’s forces into a confrontation resulting in more troops being fed into the siege and ending in thousands of dead and the French being kicked out of Indochina. Biden and all his predecessors colluded to send or keep token U.S. troops in Iraq. And what the hell are our troops doing in Syria? It doesn’t matter what their mission is. Both are on a very long, logistical tether that is going to take another monumental investment of troops, equipment and casualties to keep them from being swept off the face of the earth like gnats on an elephant’s ass once the clerics declare a worldwide Intifadah! PULL THEM OUT! NOW! It’s called a tactical withdrawal.
Live to fight another day – not waste them at an Alamo in the middle of a Muslim country!
Navarre and the U.S. Air Force have one thing in common: they both think air power can save troops on the ground. Both are wrong. All air power will do is escalate a situation that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place. It is like stepping on an ant hill keeping token troops inside a Muslim country. Do one thing and the swarm swallows the invader. Think Vietnam and the Hanoi Hilton – only the North Vietnamese are rookies when compared to Arab captors who have retained some hellish torture techniques from the seventh century.
Biden is doing the same thing all previous war making presidents have done. He picked 900 troops because it’s below 1,000 – a number they don’t think will arouse public protests as an unnecessary, provocative escalation. Well, 900 troops won’t be able to protect the few troops already in harm’s way. It will only provide more targets for our enemies and a larger match to light the Intifadah Inferno once Tehran declares it. Tehran will probably use that feckless gesture by Biden to justify an Intifadah – just as bin Laden used our invasion of Afghanistan to coalesce resistance by the very people Bush said we were there to turn into Americans. Bin Laden knew and Tehran knows all they have to do is put a small burr under the saddle of America and the U.S.’ political-military-industrial complex will come running foaming at the mouth to justify ballooning budgets and decorate their chests.
The best policy Biden can follow is to maintain the fleet and let the Israelis know we have their backs – and then stay the fuck out of their way. The Israelis have been doing this for a long time and are still there. They know who, what, when, where and how to defeat their enemies. They speak the language, know the culture and the threat’s TTPs. We do not.
Biden needs to pull the rest of our troops out of Iraq, Syria and whatever other Middle Eastern “shithole” country they are in and guarantee Israel we have their back with as much war making equipment and protective political and military cover they need while they grind Hamas into dust. I wish them God speed and good luck. If he doesn’t, he’s only lighting the match to Armageddon. Our mission there is to assist in Israel’s survival and to keep the Chinese and Russians out.
Moshe Dayan once told a U.S. diplomat who had asked if the Israeli government had nuclear weapons “We have the capability to determine the outcome of WW III.” I can’t think of a better government I would rather do so. Knowing our government has it as well doesn’t provide the same reassurance.
I’m DAMN SICK AND TIRED OF OUR GOVERNMENT KEEPING US ON A WAR ECONOMY. I believe the American people are as well. If you are I’m begging you to contact your elected officials and demand we get our troops off the ground in the Middle East.
