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Posted to alt.home.repair
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2008 Pres
"Dave Bugg" wrote in
:
Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
We should have declared victory in 1991 when we had it and come
HOME.
I really don't want to use the "I" word but that is really why we
stayed. It sure wasn't "to protect the Kurds" and if we just wanted
cheap oil, Saddam would have sold it to us, even if he had Kuwait.
Heck, we had enough military on site in Kuwait to just amble up to
the honchoes, say "we be taking over", and that pretty much would
have given us the 51st state or at least another protectorate.
Yup. That's what's got me so ****ed off with the Bush war doctrine.
Rummy insisted that a skeleton force was all that was needed, and then
Bush put generals in charge who played into what Dumsfield and Bush
wanted to hear "yes, boss, you don't need an overwhelming force". They
didn't want a Schwarzkopf, a Grant, or a Sherman; they wanted toadies.
Here's just part of a letter I sent to the White House, taken from the
middle portion of my letter:
"The GOP, and that includes you, has failed to do what was promised.
I am disgusted by the failure of our Commander-In-Chief. A soldier's
best chance of survival during war has always been the unremitting and
merciless use of our entire arsenal to smash the enemy in so ferocious
a manner that it breaks his desire to continue the fight. I want
America to win the battle in Iraq; but I don't see any evidence that
George W. Bush has the will or the competence to do so.
My 19 year old son is in his sophomore year at Seattle Pacific
University as a 4 year ROTC scholarship recipient. He follows each
generation of men in our family back as far as the American
Revolution, who have gratefully served our Nation. My father left
school when he was sixteen and a half years old to join the Marines in
WWII. He fought and distinguished himself on Iwo Jima, and then later,
after leaving the Marines and finishing High School, he joined the
Army and fought in Korea. He served 26 years in the Army, and I grew
up on military bases immersed in our military's culture and heritage.
After graduation from high school, I served during Vietnam.
There has never been the number of troops needed to take ground
once-and-for-all, and to then hold it. I see reluctance to project the
might of our power in which we take the fight to the enemy and wipe
him off the face of the earth. If the enemy is hiding in a mosque, the
mosque is not obliterated. If the enemy is hiding within a section of
a town or village, that section of town or village is not obliterated.
If this is a war THAN FIGHT IT LIKE IT REALLY IS A WAR. Don't you dare
tell me that my precious son's safety is being traded in exchange for
a sensitive police action designed to spare people or property in a
piecemeal attempt to root out the enemy.
You have failed to fight hard enough to make the President understand
this issue.
This President has failed to appoint Generals who have the proper
mindset to effectively wage a war. Worse still is the appearance that
Generals are appointed because they will cow-tow to the wishes of
George Bush to only use a minimal force in Iraq and Afghanistan. If
George Bush lacks the foresight and wisdom and competence needed to
order our generals to win this conflict by unleashing the dogs of war,
then bring our sons and daughters home. If war will be waged as a war,
then I will be in continued support. But as of now, I am fulminating
with anger and bitterness toward this Republican President and
Republican Congress. Our military commanders must take a page from the
Sherman Doctrine: make war so horrible, so very hideous, that the
support for the enemy crumples and then grind that enemy to dust and
vanquish him with all due prejudice.
Again, you have failed to fight hard enough to make the President
understand this issue."
Armchair Monday morning quarterbacking.
you know,after Pearl Harbor and the beginning of WW2 in Europe,things went
bad for a few years,then generals were changed,and things turned around.
And that is what has happened here in Iraq.
--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net
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