The “might have beens” of twenty years ago
Fouad Ajami writes in the pages of the Wall Street Journal a recounting of the events after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and his threatened attack on Saudi Arabia two decades ago in a piece entitled “Guns of August, 1990” which serves as a warning to those who dally in the theories of limited warfare.
A whole history—speculative, the domain of judgment and preference and hindsight—could be written about the “might have beens” of American forces taking that open road to Baghdad the first time around.
COB6 and I were on that “open road to Baghdad” through April and May of 1991 while we provided a shield for retreating Shi’ites and i’m sure all of us knew that our return was inevitable – well, as it turned out it was our kids who had to clean up after us.
The lessons of that conflict have been lost on our policy makers. The hardest lesson, of course is that an enemy has to be beaten to death before victory can be declared. The same lesson we should have learned the first time in World War I – hell, as far back as the Napoleonic Wars.
And now, we’ve forgotten that lesson again. In a rush to declare false victories, we’re making plans to pull out of Afghanistan next year, no matter what the situation there will be next summer. As violence increases in Iraq, we pat ourselves on the back for simply withdrawing “combat” forces.
We left Afghanistan to their own devices in 1988 when the Soviets withdrew their forces and they became a terror kingdom.
We left the South Vietnamese flapping in the wind despite Congress’ promises to the contrary and they suffered three decades of torture in re-education camps and floating in the China Sea in make-shift rafts.
If we don’t continue our commitment to the region, we’ll find ourselves deploying our grandchildren.
Category: Terror War
Jonn, this is so right. There has to be a definitive end- and that comes with a decisive victory.
I remember watching over a column of Republican Guard T72’s withdrawing after the cease fire thinking “man, I hope we don’t have to come back here” and knowing in the back of my head we would…
Have none of our “War Planners” ever read Sun Tzu? Do they think that those writings are not absolutes on the field of battle? That they have not worn out with age? That old Chinaman has helped me numerous times, and could help this great nation to save face if only the powers that be knew what he had learned.
Did they not realize that no one on the planet had any deeper respect for the USSR when the Afghanis ran them out?
These “kinder, gentler” leaders of ours will make us the laughing stock of the planet.
I dunno. I was a Reservist at the time, and didn’t get activated for Gulf War I, but I always felt that stopping was, under normal rules, logical. I agree that an enemy needs to be crushed (Read “The causes of war” by Geoffrey Blainey, who explains it well), but Clausewitz would IMHO argue for the stop- destroying the entire Iraqi system in 1991 would have given Iran a free hand- Saddam was a true piece of crap, but he provided something of a buffer or balance of power against the mullahs.
Of course, the need to prove to an enemy that they’re defeated is great, but again, leaving them intact against another enemy is equally important.
The problem of course is that people in the Middle East are so crazy that even if they get defeated they often decide they won. And they have long, yet inaccurate memories. Which would seem to prove that Clausewitz only applies when dealing with states run by sane people.
Bob,
I think the cease fire was the right call at the time but our terms could have been WAY better. I realize it is Monday morning quarterbacking but the point of the post is to learn from the past. I watched the Republican Guard take back the best equipment and troops they had only to be unleashed on the Shi’ite and Kurds.
Our King-in-Chief is fighting to win. It amazes me how many people still haven’t figured out which side he is on.
how cute! as if your grandchildren will not belong to an impoverish 3rd world nation after the current economic and moral debacle, they’ll all be muslims by then if the US don’t GTFO of those islamic crapholes and leave them to their own devices focusing instead on cleaning American soil from muslims, traitorous marxists, “liberals”, socialists, arabists, muslims, mexicans that are poisoning the US government, media, schools and universities.
the trillions of dollars wasted on the muslim ingrates would have served better at home, leave the ungrateful pakis drown and starve to death, they will curse America and wish her death anyway.
#7/#8 fifiif:
Do you think we would have any better success “cleaning American soil” than any other country has had, that has tried ethnic/racial/political cleansing?
I have voted both as a Democrat and a Republican; my bloodlines are English, German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, Spanish and Cherokee. I have worked for the government and now work in the private sector. My point being: somewhere down the line, I’d probably be one of the ones who got “cleaned,” according to the list you provided.