Philosophy 101

2014-07-03T17:51:10-04:00

At what point to do or should our leaders sit back and say enough? How many lives of our best and brightest young men and women need to be lost before we see that the wars we are currently involved in are ending the promising lives of our young? Did we learn nothing from the wars of the past? The first major war in my lifetime was Vietnam, this was a war that was unpopular and controversial to say the least. We as a nation lost some 58,000+ lives in a war that the soldiers on the ground were not allowed to win because of the politicians who thought they knew how to fight better than the warriors. We would take ground only to leave and have it return to the hands of our enemies. The idea of winning hearts and minds was a good one but it also was doomed to fail. Why? Because every time we would send humanitarian aid to a village the opposing forces would come in and annihilate the village elders and often times commit atrocities that would never be exposed in our news media of the time. Todays war in Afghanistan and soon in Iraq (again) are becoming mirror images of Vietnam. No clear exit strategy, taking ground only to give it back, and cutting short the lives of those who may never know the joys of watching their children grow. We may very well be the greatest nation on Earth, but that does not give us the right to step into other countries and say Caution, you are doing this wrong! I support our soldiers I do not on the other hand support our methods of fighting a war that can never have a clear cut victor. George Santayana said "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This what I see happening today.

I understand that this is not a very popular topic and I may receive many negative votes. Honestly, I just don't care. It is time for the people of this country and our brave men and women in uniform to open their eyes and see the truth of the wars we are involved in.

Response by LTC Paul Labrador made Jul 3 at 2014 6:12 PM

2014-07-03T18:12:31-04:00

The problems are many. Let me give you my $.02:

1) there needs to be a coherent strategy and reason as to WHY we are getting invovled in the first place. There were very valid reasons to be in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistans. And tactically and operationally we did very well in those conflicts. However, we are lacking in overall stratgey in how to connect tactical success to our desried end state.

2) .....AND they have to be coherently explained to people in a way that even a first-grader willl understand because people are stupid. They also don't think past their own 4 walls. Americans are a very sheltered people and simply don't understand what is happening outside of their immediate surroundings.

3) tactics that you use must support the strategy.

4) reverting back to isolationism and "turtling up" is not a viable stratgey in this day and age. The world is too interconnected and events afar will eventually affect us here, whether we want them to or not.

5) Unlike Tango, war does not need two willing partners. In war you really only need one belligerant party to ruin it for everyone else.