posted October 31, 2009
The U.S. military, since the 1980's, adopted a policy that the next series of wars would be "urban." While our troops were trained in the strategy of urban warfare, they were not equipped for urban warfare where the enemy is committed to a war of attrition (meaning we kill ten of their troops....they kill one of ours).
Our troops had no armored personnel carriers designed for urban warfare. They lacked good body armour. The lessons learned by Great Britain in Ireland were largely ignored by our military policy makers.
Arguably, our military was neglected during the Clinton administration. In all probability, the Bosnian conflict was used by Al Queda to develope weakness assessments of our military. Thus, the rash of suicide bombers and remote bombs.
While the Bush administration ran their first campaign on a strong military, they did no better at preparing our military for urban warfare than the Clinton administration did. The Bush administration rushed us to war against Afghanistan and Iraq. Their haste was irresponsible. In fact, Vice President Cheney once remarked to reporters who questioned him about taking our military to war when they didn't even have proper body armour, "you go to war with what you've got."
This attitude by the very top levels of the Bush administration is remarkable given the very outspoken criticism Dick Cheney has been handing out.
The ability of Bernie Matoff to fool investors is equal only to how a person like Dick Cheney can attain the position of vice president. Dick Cheney took five deferments to avoid serving his country during the Vietnam War. Avoiding conflict is not the mark of a patriot, but lack of intestinal fortitude.
Dick Cheney has been fighting his deferment "demons" since Vietnam, and that is why he insisted on planning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; much to the detriment of our military (none of his children have ever served in the military either).
Dick Cheney has repeatedly admonished the present administration concerning the requests of the military on the ground.
Dick is throwing rocks from a glass house. It was Dick and Donald Rumsfeld who insisted on over-riding the military in the invasion of Iraq. The military estimated it would take 400,000 troops to overthrow Saddam and establish a strong government that could keep its citizens safe. The Army had developed a plan for over-throwing Saddam. Dick or Donald knew nothing about it. They ignored the Army plan and developed their own plan. Their plan left the Iraqi citizen to the mercy of insurgents, and by conservative estimates over 350,000 innocent Iraqis have died since that time due to insurgent violence.
Dick and Don imagined themselves to be Francis Marion and Nathan Bedford Forrest. They more closely resembled Braxton Bragg and George Custer.
The fact is that the Republican Party, since George Herbert Walker Bush, has not been committed to a strong military. If the United States is committed to the destruction of the Taliban in Afghanistan we should commit at least 200,000 troops to that country. It will also require participation from all the major players on the world stage. What is being called the Taliban is nothing more than a loose association of outlaw groups.
From our lessons in the American West we should have learned that the best way to beat outlaws is a strong police presence.
We live in a Constitutional Republic where a civilian is the commander in chief of the military. War policy is set by civilian leaders, and it shouldn't be any other way. But, when civilian leaders call upon our military they should account for all possibilities, and not be acting like a bunch of drugstore cowboys in rhinestone suits and fake guns.
War is a nasty business. If you are a politician you better not send our boys anywhere you wouldn't go, or anywhere you wouldn't send your sons or daughters. The Bush administration had six years to get it right in Afghanistan. They didn't. No person from the Bush administration has a right to criticize present policy in Iraq and Afghanistan given their dismal record there.
Stephen Durham
freethinker1963@yahoo.com
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Cheney is defending the good work they did in Afghanistan. I seem to remember they went in, beat the Taliban, secured the country, had free elections with purple fingers and every settled down. Then the last two years of the Bush Administration the Democrats took control of Congress, and now we have a mess.
It does not seem to be Bush’s fault. It may be hard to find, but just maybe there is a man among the Democrats out there who will own up to your party’s failures. You have owned Congress the last three years now. So when does all of this become your problem. You are at fault for the failures. Just look at the Commander and Chief; he can’t make a decision. He has all the information he needs from what the experts tell him, and he is too busy campaigning and trying to raise money to decide.
Yeah, this is change I can believe in. It is more like change I can be ashamed of.
Cheney is not throwing rocks from a glass house. He is throwing rocks at juvenile delinquents who are trying to cover their tracks. Democrats are like toddlers. You catch one of them doing something wrong, and everyone in the back of the van points their finger at someone else and cries.
Johnny Franks
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