Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Just win, baby!
Victor Davis Hanson:
At some point all these retired generals need to simply quiet down and think. In World War II, Nimitz or Eisenhower never blamed the Secretary of War or FDR for the mistakes on Iwo Jima or the Kasserine Pass. Instead, they called in their top brass, drew up a plan, followed it, and then presented a successful fait accompli to their civilian overseers. In other words, our four-stars need to summon their colonels and majors in the field, draw up a military strategy that ensures our political aims of seeing a stable consensual Iraq, and then win. Blaming Bush, or faulting Rumsfeld is a waste of time; figuring out as military officers how to achieve victory over a canny enemy is all that matters.
At some point all these retired generals need to simply quiet down and think. In World War II, Nimitz or Eisenhower never blamed the Secretary of War or FDR for the mistakes on Iwo Jima or the Kasserine Pass. Instead, they called in their top brass, drew up a plan, followed it, and then presented a successful fait accompli to their civilian overseers. In other words, our four-stars need to summon their colonels and majors in the field, draw up a military strategy that ensures our political aims of seeing a stable consensual Iraq, and then win. Blaming Bush, or faulting Rumsfeld is a waste of time; figuring out as military officers how to achieve victory over a canny enemy is all that matters.
Comments:
I think that this assumes that the civilian leadership is willing to listen to the recommendations, I think that's assuming a lot.
If I had been born to Bill and Melinda Gates, many of the challenges that I faced in life would not have occurred.
It would be nice to have a 1.5 Million Man Army, plus a 24 carrier Navy and an expanded AirForce. Only one country has a larger Military than the US...China.
It would be nice to have a magical police academy that could train 100,000 top notch policeman in a year.
Unfortunately, our own FBI Academy struggles with training 2,000 "National Policeman" a year.
It would be nice to have a 1.5 Million Man Army, plus a 24 carrier Navy and an expanded AirForce. Only one country has a larger Military than the US...China.
It would be nice to have a magical police academy that could train 100,000 top notch policeman in a year.
Unfortunately, our own FBI Academy struggles with training 2,000 "National Policeman" a year.
Did the generals and admirals during WWII have a blank check on numbers of men, weapons, and equipment? Yes - there was a constraint on how fast they could get pumped out, but there was a total mobilization.
That doesn't exist with OIF. Heck, the Army is late submitting its budget this year because it is pushing back on the initial caps placed on it - it can't even properly equip some units that are stateside and are starting the collective training portions of their deployment training. It's hard to properly execute the strategy asked of it when it's not being funded to sustain that strategy.
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That doesn't exist with OIF. Heck, the Army is late submitting its budget this year because it is pushing back on the initial caps placed on it - it can't even properly equip some units that are stateside and are starting the collective training portions of their deployment training. It's hard to properly execute the strategy asked of it when it's not being funded to sustain that strategy.
# posted by 
: 9:22 PM
: 9:22 PM
