Well, OK, that's scary. At least a couple of these women seem to know to keep their eye on such shifty characters.
Well, Stanley, what do you have you to say for yourself?
Sunday, October 03, 2004
The two articles immediately below remind me of how much Johnson and Kerry seem to approach warfare alike. Vietnam was the first conflict that offered near real-time communication with the field. Johnson could obtain very fresh information, and with it, issue orders that never would have been possible in Roosevelt's or Truman's day. Johnson thought by starting and halting bombing operations the North Vietnamese understood that he was sending messages. It is apparent today that the North Vietnamese saw his moves as signs of weakness to be exploited, and opportunities to rearm, to propagandize the population of North and South Vietnam alike to hearten the former and demoralize the latter.
When Kerry talks about how he would have managed Tora Bora, he sounds Johnsonian. He sounds like a man who, based on his vast experience as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade), he would make tactical decisions on the conduct of war on the ground. General Franks, meet General Kerry.
I believe that our Afghanistan campaign was successful precisely because we learned from the mistakes that the British and the Soviets made. We did not commit hundreds of thousands of troops and aircraft to the theater. We did not have to support a huge supply line across thousands of miles of terrain to reach the unforgiving land-locked terrain of eastern Afghanistan. We followed successful Special Forces doctrine and trained the indigenous population to fight for themselves. We used our technological advantages in conjunction with air power to provide close air support, often using B-52 and B-1B bombers as effective as massed artillery.
I believe that these things were possible because President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld demanded unconventional thinking, but left the execution of the war plan to the officers and men on the ground. I worry that Kerry would try to over manage Iraq--as well as the next challenge--and make manners worse as Johnson did.
When Kerry talks about how he would have managed Tora Bora, he sounds Johnsonian. He sounds like a man who, based on his vast experience as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade), he would make tactical decisions on the conduct of war on the ground. General Franks, meet General Kerry.
I believe that our Afghanistan campaign was successful precisely because we learned from the mistakes that the British and the Soviets made. We did not commit hundreds of thousands of troops and aircraft to the theater. We did not have to support a huge supply line across thousands of miles of terrain to reach the unforgiving land-locked terrain of eastern Afghanistan. We followed successful Special Forces doctrine and trained the indigenous population to fight for themselves. We used our technological advantages in conjunction with air power to provide close air support, often using B-52 and B-1B bombers as effective as massed artillery.
I believe that these things were possible because President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld demanded unconventional thinking, but left the execution of the war plan to the officers and men on the ground. I worry that Kerry would try to over manage Iraq--as well as the next challenge--and make manners worse as Johnson did.
Here's another article on the Vietnam War that takes the US government to task for many mistakes before, during and after the war. The Lessons of Vietnam: "The Christmas bombings of 1972 should have taken place in 1965, before we had filled the Hanoi Hilton with aviators shot down while carrying out the absurd strategy of giving signals..."
This article on the USAF's operation Linebacker II, written in 1997, is as true today as it was then. Here's a quote from the article: "In December 1972, 25 years ago next month, the intransigence of the tough and resilient North Vietnamese foe finally exposed the total failure of gradualist war policies set in motion years before by President Lyndon B. Johnson."
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