As the bombing over Syria finally got underway last evening, I was looking forward to waking up and reading scores of news in the international news feeds I like to read talking about the massive damage to this cancerous mob with much footage of bombed out headquarters buildings, American tanks burning in place, etc. What I have awakened to are headlines that bombs fell, Egypt apparently has thrown in with the coalition, finally, but not proof positive of what damage was, in fact, delivered to these much deserving jihadists; maybe later today but we will see. The most troubling comment I read in the NY Times was by a Brit that indicated the war against ISIL "will be another Vietnam."
That term still carries a sense of doom and wrong and "quagmire" will be floated sometime today no doubt, another pearl of Vietnam era dialog and critique. The whole Vietnam experience and the nearly 60,000 Americans that died there, some friends of mine, still echoes through the minds and the hearts of many when comparisons and parallels of this war on ISIL is already being compared to Vietnam; it sickens me, frankly. Let me explain why from my perspective if I may.
Never lose sight of the fact that the American military won the Vietnam War tactically, on the ground in the two way firing range. America had far superior weaponry, air assets and leadership. That was the tactical component. That is very true today in this fight against ISIL. Strategically, meaning the national leadership and the population, lost the war in Vietnam through micro-management, political sway, and the conflict simply went on too long for those very reasons because POTUS and his key advisers were calling tactical moves and bomb targets from Washington and not military commanders on the ground. Already we see the exact same actions by Obama.
There is already open crevices between POTUS and his Joint Chiefs and the Chairman, GEN Dempsey had the unction to speak before a Senate committee just last week about and was chastised by the media immediately. So some of the root structure of allegiances, politics, misinformation, etc already abounds and last night was Day 1 of the attack on ISIL at their Motel 6 in Syria so I must be assume this will get louder. I have intentionally not turned on the news this morning on TV for two reasons; Most importantly to not wake up my wife and secondly, I wanted my thoughts on this blog to not be tainted yet.
What was allowed to happen in Vietnam now historically was an abomination in my humble opinion. Do I feel Vietnam a "just cause" at that time in history for America to be fighting? Given the times, the space and the rise of Communism in the Far East coming off Korea and the French debacle at Dien Bien Phu, I certainly do believe it. But I will state here that the Colin Powell Doctrine of going to war with OVERWHELMING force stands as the clearest way to win a war I have witnessed in my lifetime. This is all made clearer to me in watching the Ken Burns THE ROOSEVELTS episodes this week. Do you know how we, America, defeated the forces of evil in Germany, Italy and Japan? Simply, the whole of AMERICA went to war with them; not a relatively small handful of soldiers but the entire industrial / military / population complex went into the fight fully and wholly. We have, in this nation, not seen that corporate joining of forces with strategic intent since nor will we now I am convinced even with the evidence of 9/11 still clear in the minds of so many including mine.
See, we do not fight wars since WWII. We send others to do it for us like hiring mercenaries. Remember this old television program, "Have Gun, Will Travel" and old Paladin, for enough money wearing his black outfit and black horse would slowly ride into the sun set to the next destination willing to pay his fee and thirty minutes later he would ride out to the next paying gig. Sadly, I find that a solid analogy for America's "war machine" logic since WWII and we can see the impact clearly. In Persian Gulf 1, we put hundreds of fully equipped soldiers and machines in the desert to attack Hussein and literally scared the Iraqi Army into or out of existence. OVERWHELMING is the operative word I believe. That word is powerful.
It reminds me of the first time I as a skinny 6 foot 4 basketball player that loved the heavy contact of the game came across this kid I had to defend that was 6 feet 11; talk about paradigm shift for me. I remember the night we played that team my assistant coach stopped me after the head coach had given us the normal "let's beat 'em boys" speech before the game. The assistant grabbed me by the arm, got in my face pushing me against a lock and with finger almost in my nose, not too nicely said the following ..."boy (that would be me), the only way we can win this game is you (that would be me again" have got one responsibility which is to get that big kid out of the game. I don't care what you have to do but you have to get him out of the game, got it?" Yep, I got it for me, Paladin, took that floor with a vengeance against this tall kid and it was a battle royal from the tip off not to mention a blood letting, elbow burying experience. I had the opportunity four minutes into the third quarter to be on offense and the tall guy was behind me reaching over me so I chose that moment to put my skinny elbow somewhere through his chest stopping close to his spine no doubt. He went down, fists began to fly, we were both ejected, we won. "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" my assistant coach told me when I took my place on the bench. I will never forget that night.
Why do I share that pearl from my life? I do for it portrays exactly where America has evolved to I believe. You win by winning and win by using every single asset you have like the tip ofa spear. We lack that and have since 1945 with one exception, sort of, which was Persian Gulf 1. So you can know, I do not agree with the all volunteer military for if you are going to live and enjoy the fruits of this nation, you should be mandated to serve this nation in some capacity with military being a valid option for two or three years. I have floated this concept to thousands of college students in the last decade only to find that my position is totally out of the realm of reason for this young people. They want nothing to do with the military, feel they are above such duty to the nation and that I have lost my mind, basically.
You want to defeat ISIL and whatever come next and next? The ENTIRE resources of the sane nations must bring to bear the full assets of the nation in war materiel, people, alliances ... ALL focused squarely every day on that end. But we will not for are too smart, too savvy, too well off, too .... but we will pay our youth to go do it for us won't we? Israel, to me, is the perfect example of how to staff a military which means every man and women is militarily trained and weaponed with small contingent on active duty but the entire population up to a certain age on call for return to duty quickly. As a consultant to businesses, I learned one thing which is that until the client has "skin in the game," your consulting will never get off the ground meanign listening and acting in accordance with your idea and recommendations. So how much skin in this ISIL game do you have, really?
ISIL is not the NVA nor Viet Cong; it is ideologically worse for the fanaticism "holy wars" elicit is at play. I know many Islamists that are all great people that want peace and to enjoy living with each other. What we see is that infamous 20% that thwarts the goodness of the 80%. But never lose sight of the fact that if you do not evaporate the existence of the 20%, it will have a cancerous impact on the 80% which is what we are witnessing. If we do not eradicate this cancer now, the ranks of ISIL will grow exponentially. America need so lead the way in absoluteness of destiny in this fight and not micro managing every missile strike or bomb target from POTUS office which is exactly how this is starting out apparently.
This is a just war but to win a just war, you must fight the war justly meaning fully, completely as Sun Tzu taught us in 500 BC. If the enemy embeds itsel in civilian population areas, then civilians will be killed; sad but true but that is the cost of war. Take the fight to the enemy where he eats and sleeps. Out gun him, out fight him, annihilate him; that is winning a war and a war worth winning. None of us want to live through another "Vietnam" nor its horrific decades of scars that we still see and get compared to. We are better than that but it begins with a Commander-in-Chief committed fully to defeating this whole enemy. I am looking for that is in CNC but have yet to witness the proof, frankly.
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