RBnDFW wrote:
John R. Carroll wrote:
Ed Huntress wrote:
"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
news Ed Huntress wrote:
"Mark Rand" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:57:44 -0400, "Ed Huntress"

wrote:



George Will Calls for Afghan Pullout:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26628.html

Saigon 2009. Interesting parallels:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...20/saigon_2009

At least one important difference: The Taliban is not as powerful or
unified a foe as the Viet Cong

Unfortunately this isn't the case.
That was how our conversation got started. That and my young friend
mentioned that he'd had his MOS changed.
He's going over as a convoy scout. I thought at first he meant he's been
assigned duty as a Recon Marine but that wasn't it.
His squad will be out in front of transport convoy's in Hummers to check the
roads for IED's and the reason he wanted to look me up and have a word was
the duty I pulled first, at the Forward Observer Infantry Training School,
and then at the Jungle Warfare Training Center as an instructor. One, in
Ahn Khe and the other, Bon Song. Unknown to me, his Officer had recommended
the visit. We'd met at a party when the unit was notified of their change
from reserve status to active duty.

I ended up describing TET, and the results, to him as well as how that
situation mirrored today's dilemma in Afghanistan.
In all of America's history in RVN, we never really lost a battle. America's
armed forces unleashed hell on Earth, year after year on a country the size
of a large postage stamp. We defoliated a third of the country and I've seen
track mounted artillery manned by Marines fire until the barrels of their
guns made the air around them shimmer while filling an area the size of a
football field or more with spent brass. Those units were receiving ammo as
fast as it could be brought up and they just busted open the packing with
iron bars and fired the stuff. I've seen an ARCLIGHT from as near as 2 KM
and that's way too close, even for an observer.

During TET, the North Vietnamese Regular Army was wiped out, very nearly to
the last man. So were the irregular's. We killed thousands of them. Tens of
thousands. I ordered concentrated artillery fire on a wooded area where we
thought, just thought mind you, a short battalion of enemy were laying low.
Three Bn's worth, TOT for fifteen minutes of AP quick. Then we brought in
rockets, napalm, and because they were lingering, Spooky. In the end, an
area about one Km wide to our front and two deep just ceased to exist
except as a brush fire. You couldn't even tell the area had been inhabited -
even by snakes, bugs or roaches. The Navy came in the following morning and
lit the area up all over again.

I'll bet that, or something like it, happened a thousand or more times in
the course of the six month's following TET.
But here is the point. None of that mattered, and that was what we all came
to understand, because in spite of all of that ****, they didn't give up.

We just couldn't "persuade" them to quit.

Will is right. I read his piece this afternoon as well as Bill Kristol's
mewling response to it.

What I'd do if it were my call is put two hundred air conditioned trailers
out on the range at Edwards and have the guys there drive UAV's over
Afghanistan 24/7/365. Everybody would get three squares, dinner and a movie
with the family every day. Everyone, that is, except the enemy, several
thousand miles away.

That is the answer to the question Bill Kristol poses.


--
John R. Carroll