We’re Doomed
One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not sufficient to win
That sounds like something from the Huffington Post, or Democratic Underground, doesn’t it. But it’s not. Those are the words of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Yeah, the Secretary of Defense says military success is not sufficient to win. What the Hell?
I am at once astonished and yet, not surprised. The job of the Secretary of Defense is to ensure our military has what it needs to kick the hell out of our enemies. It is NOT his job to be a cheerleader for peace and diplomacy. His job starts when diplomacy ends.
Category: Foreign Policy, Politics
I think I understand his larger point. Specifically to Afghanistan and Iraq, you have to have a strategy for peace going in, or any military action will be undermined. He didn’t say it very well, I agree.
Clauswitz defined war as “a continuation of politics by other means”.
Kris, first of all, terrorists, by any sane definition are criminals and thus, untrustworthy. Diplomacy only works when both sides want it to. You can plan for peace all you want, and it won’t do a bit of good unless and until you kick the Hell out of the enemy. We haven’t hit them hard enough, yet.
Jonn, I knew the quote but, couldn’t remember if it was Clauswitz, Sun Tzu, or Patton…
Thanks
Don Carl – I don’t disagree with you, believe me. Personally I’d like to bomb them all back to the stone age, or perhaps even a littler earlier than that. But the reality is we do need a plan for some kind of peace, at some point in the future. It won’t ever be peaceful but there needs to be some kind of transition plan. And while there is one now, there wasn’t one in place at the start…
Actually there was one at the start, but it was based on erroneous information. Imagine that – a war that doesn’t go as planned….
Because the violence is down now the military is cautiously optimistic, but they don’t want to go whole hog and say stick a fork in it. At this point they are tempering the good news with caution, that is wisdom.
And bombing them back to the stone age? They’ve never advanced beyond the stone age. We’ve gone all soft in our thinking. When the muslims wanted to hurt the Jews they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. You can tell what hurts someone by what they do to others. Let’s out Mecca on the table…. If we are hit again by islamofascists we ought to make it so that they can pray in any direction… vaporize Mecca into the atmosphere. Have every world newspaper put cartoons of Islam on their front pages. Close all the mosques for they are nothing more than a shadow government.
Islam is not a religion. It is a form of government. When they choose to act like a religion and abandon their goals to implement a new government they can practice their ‘religion’. Until they separate the two, we have to acknowledge that islam is not a faith but an institution of theocracy. Take them at their own words.
Note to Gates: Military success is a vital first step for a victory in any war. We had to stabilize the political, industrial, and economic infrastructures of Germany, Italy and Japan following WWII; after we achieved military success. Gates is a bit dull on history.
Kathy: Excellent analysis. It’s right on the money, especially on the point of Islam being a form of government. Even after we officially declare victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war against Islamofascism ain’t over by a long shot. It won’t be, until they realize that messing with the “Great Satan” isn’t worth getting their asses kicked, or they’re all dead. It will probably come down to the latter.