The War: Not Enough Might

[BRush]

Check out this column by Charles Krauthammer in today's Washington Post:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9033-2001Oct29.html


He hits the nail on the head in describing how the State Department's preoccupation over our coalition partners' "feelings" is ham-stringing the military's ability to do what they need to do.
My favorite quote:

Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post

"...you don't defeat the Taliban with antiseptic attacks on fixed installations and pinpoint raids on front-line positions. You do it by scaring the living hell out of the enemy, producing in him the rational calculation that you're going to win and he'd better change sides."

 

[KWJams]

B'

There some --( a few ) points that he makes in that article that may stray into the range of accuracy.
Everything that I have read reports that the Tali's are not encamped in mass. They are scattered from Helsinki to Breakfast, and after all the target is Osamma's thugs.
Right now we have them pinned down, crippled and impotent--controlled.
The situation is much like Vietnam in that the enemy is blended into the population so much that we have no way to differentiate between the good guys and the bad ones.
The stage is being set around the World in different theatres.
I am confident that our leaders are proceeding in the right direction in a timely manner. :)

 

[oldguy]

I also agree with KW that the government at this time knows what they are doing and have planned accordingly. Terrorists are hard to fight first because they by nature are cowardly in their attacks. They wont fight as conventional forces but prefer to strike you in the back then run back to their cave and hide. We are in a position that we need the locals to realize they will be better off siding with us and then providing the info as to where the cave is that the enemy is hiding in. If we go in and level the country (hard to damage infrastructure that doesn't exist) we only kill the potential friendlies and leave the terrorists safe and sound in their caves.
Right now we are stuck in the position of doing enough show off damage to convince the locals.
Also remember the Northern Alliance is made up of men who view warfare as a 9 to 5 monday thru friday job and at the end of the day they pick up and go home. Hard to fight a sustained battle with them helping.
The one place we must not give in to is to cease hostilities in observance of the up coming Ramadan. This pressure will be overwhelming but we can not afford to lose the edge we are gaining by having a 30 day ceasefire and then going straight into winter- the Muslims have never stopped their wars for this holy time in fact Egypt attacked Israel during the holy season.

 

[Chevalier]

I think your government is doing the right thing at the moment, the ordinary people have enough problems as it is, also bombing the whole country could create more suicide bombers.:think

 

[BRush]

I'm generally happy with the way the Bush team has been handling things, but I have detected what I regard as the beginning of an unhealthy obsession with "The Coalition" and I worry that preoccupation with it will unduly shackle our military. Use it for what it can get you, but don't make the center of gravity. It is a weak reed. While there is a large middle class in Pakistan that recognizes that their interests lie with civilization, not fanaticism; the reality is that their intelligence services are riddled with Bin Laden supporters and will leak like a sieve. The Pakistani Madrassas (financed by Saudi money) continue spew hate and churn out Isalmic fanatics. The Saudis are allies in name only. Most of the Al Qaeda funding is from Saudi "Islamic Charities", they have not cooperated with info on the Saudi-born hijackers, and they are starting to more publicly distance themselves from the US - see today's WSJ. The Egyptians don't want to be seen with us in public and their popular press is backing the theory that the WTC attack was an Israeli-CIA plot.

Easing up during Ramadan would be a big mistake. Continuing the fight during Ramadan will no doubt anger the Arab "street", but the Arab street does not seem to need much of an excuse for that these days. One of the goals of the holy month is the "strengthening of willpower and acquiring of patience". Why would we want allow our enemies to do that? Aslo, Islam has all sorts of exceptions to the strictures imposed during Ramadan. "Jihad" is one of them and so you can expect Bin Laden and his band of merry men to make the most of it to regroup if we are foolish enough to let out guard down.

 

[kingriz1]

I am a Muslim and an American.

I say we can not stop during Ramadaan. These guys are not true Muslims anyway in my opinion. I believe in honor amongst warriors and the old Bushido codes of combat.

If I for even one second thought that these guys would just freeze for a month and not do anything I would say you know what we should too.
However these assholes are obviously withouth honor. Of course they would use the ceasefire as a chance to rebuild and they might attack us during ramadaan.

My hopes are that all of the people who agree with Osama and his bull*&^T interpretatioj of the Quran will go to Afghanistan to fight. All of the idiots in Pakistan especially. Then lets kill them all. We will be doing Islam and the world a favor.

I would like to point out in the history of the world. Whether is was a Jew vs. Muslim, christian vs Muslim or Mulsim VS MUSLIM war. No one has ever stopped for Ramadaan so why should we. I swear if they would take me I would go fight myself( I have Lupus) but I speak the languages of Pakistan (I am a Pakistani American) and would gladly help out.

My sister is in the Reserves along with two first cousins who serve in the US armed forces. My roomate is a former Marine so I hear about this constantly.

And just for the record, what is and has happened to the Palestinians is wrong, but Osama does not care. He just uses it as an excuse to recruit support and soldiers. That being said can anyone name one Israeli suicide bomber? These dumbasses that say that the Jews did it. I have chatted with them online and in person. Their argument is that the Pentagon has special computers that could have taken the plane over and guided it away from the Pentagon. Now the idiots that say this have never flown an aircraft of any kind. Nor are they engineers or have any experience in the field.

They are just brainwashed idiots who think we are brainwashed idiots.

Sincerely,

Riz

 

[bbbom]

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK

STATEMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld released today the following statement:

Good afternoon. I have reflected on some of the questions posed at the last briefing: questions about the 'speed of progress' in the campaign-questions about the "patience" of the American people-if something does not happen immediately.

I have a sense that the public understands the following facts:

On September 11th terrorists attacked New York and Washington, DC, murdering thousands of innocent people -- Americans and people from dozens of countries and all races and religions -- in cold blood.

On October 7th, less than a month later, we had positioned coalition forces in the region, and we began military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets throughout Afghanistan. Since that time -- roughly three weeks ago -- coalition forces have flown over 2,000 sorties, broadcast 300-plus hours of radio transmissions, delivered an amazing 1,030,000 humanitarian rations to starving Afghan people.

Today is November 1, and smoke -- at this very moment -- is still rising from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

With the ruins still smoldering and the smoke not yet cleared, it seems to me that Americans understand well that -- despite the urgency in the press questions -- we are still in the very, very early stages of this war. The ruins are still smoking!

Consider some historical perspective:

After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, it took four months before the United States responded to that attack with the Doolittle raid of April 1942.
It took eight months after Pearl Harbor before the U.S. began a land campaign against the Japanese -- with the invasion of Guadalcanal in August of 1942.
The U.S. bombed Japan for three-and-a-half years -- until August 1945 -- before we accomplished our objectives in the Pacific.
On the European front, the allies bombed Germany continually for nearly five years -- from September of 1940 until May of 1945.
It took 11 months to start the land campaign against the Germans -- with the invasion of North Africa in November of 1942.
It took the United States two years and six months after Hitler declared war on us before we landed in France on June 6, 1944.
We are now fighting a new kind of war. It is unlike any America has ever fought before. Many things about this war are different from wars past-but, as I have said, one of those differences is not the possibility of instant victory.

At my briefing when I announced the start of the air campaign on October 7th, I stated that our initial goals were:

To make clear to the Taliban that harboring terrorists carries a price;
To acquire intelligence to facilitate future operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban;
To develop useful relationships with groups in Afghanistan that oppose the Taliban and al-Qaeda;
To make it increasingly difficult for the terrorists to use Afghanistan freely as a base of operation;
To alter the military balance over time by denying to the Taliban the offensive systems that hamper the progress of the various opposition forces; and
To provide humanitarian relief to Afghans suffering oppressive living conditions under the Taliban regime.
That was 24 days ago -- three weeks and three days -- not three months or three years, but three weeks and three days. We have made measurable progress on each of these goals.

The attacks of September 11 were not days or weeks but years in the making. The terrorists were painstaking and deliberate, and it appears they may have spent years planning their activities.

There is no doubt in my mind but that the American people know that it's going to take more than 24 days.

I also stated that our task is much broader than simply defeating the Taliban or al-Qaeda -- it is to root out global terrorist networks, not just in Afghanistan, but wherever they are, to ensure that they cannot threaten the American people or our way of life.

This is a task that will take time to accomplish. Victory will require that every element of American influence and power be engaged.

Americans have seen tougher adversaries than this before-and they have had the staying power to defeat them. Underestimating the American people is a bad bet.

In the end, war is not about statistics, deadlines, short attention spans, or 24-hour news cycles. It is about will -- the projection of will, the clear, unambiguous determination of the President and the American people to see this through to certain victory.

In other American wars, enemy commanders have come to doubt the wisdom of taking on the strength and power of this nation and the resolve of her people. I expect that somewhere, in a cave in Afghanistan, there is a terrorist leader who is, at this moment, considering precisely the same thing.

 

[XRpredator]

These media jerks can chirp all they want about what the Bush administration is or isn't doing. Personally, I don't think we need to know what's going on every minute of every day in this war. This ain't Desert Storm. As KW said:

"They are scattered from Helsinki to Breakfast"

What does the media want? They want to be waiting for the attack just like when our troops landed at Somalia! They want to know every move and when we make it!

Well, I for one don't want to know, because if they're telling me, they're telling everybody, and that includes the "enemy!"

This war will wage for some time, and the only thing I hope is that we DO take our time and make sure the job gets done.