A Terrible Business

Submitted by Right-of-Center Filipino (Philippines), Oct 25, 2006 at 02:24

I could go on another rant about how evil muslims are ... and that they are the reason why iraq is in such a pitiful state. Of course that argument would be idiotic and totally wrong. Ultimately the fault lies with the West in general and the US in particular.

War is a terrible business but its impact can be blunted if you have a clear objective, professionals who can achieve this objective and the will to see the conflict through.Unfortunately, these are the very things that the US War on Terror is lacking.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, war should be conducted by soldiers and generals. Potentates, ministers and viziers have no place on the battlefield save that the objectives of the war should come them. And that's all. Let the warriors decide on how to achieve those objectives. But as evidenced by the ongoing debacle in mesopotamia, not only are they letting politicians run battles, op ed articles, poll numbers, special interest groups, and "concerned parties" are dictating how armies should fight.

Its like telling Gen. Eisenhower that he can defeat the Nazis at all costs ... as long as he doesn't offend any of the Germans living in the United States, or the Germans living in Germany for that matter, give up Bastogne if the fighting would be environmentally harmful to the area, be polite to Nazi prisoners and not to interrogate them if they feel uncomfortable, acknowledge the Nazi right to use a conquered nation's resources and not bomb the aforementioned resources, be available for numerous congressional meetings at anytime, condemn European partisans fighting for independence from Germany, use weapons and material that are substandard because they come from a congressman close to the President, and allow the occasional leak to the minority party in the US so that they have a chance to win in the next election. And while he's at it, help the Nazi's kill off more Jews. German would be the lingua franca today if World War II were fought that way.

I'm not going to debate the rightness and wrongness of the invasion. It probably was seen as a good idea at the time, I don't know. But it could have been fought better and victory would have been assured if they put their foot down. But all the world saw was a wishy-washy response from a US administration obsessed about keeping all people happy all the time. It didn't help that they placed more importance on juicy business contracts for Presidential friends rather than establishing security for all iraqis. Defeating muslim terror should trump any other selfish interest or unattainable "multicultural" ideal.

The moral relativism and lack of will to fight for common democratic principles is what is hampering the firght against this new evil. These traits are frighteningly rampant in Europe and America and If nothing is done to counter this, there won't be a need for foreign terrorists to bomb our cities. You can find the saboteurs of Western Freedom and Democracy by looking into a mirror.

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