God I feel Cynical

War is an Extension of Policy by Other Means
Carl Philip Gottlieb von Clausewitz, (1780-1831)

I'm an old soldier. Done my time. Seen the elephant.

For the most part, I will support anything for the vets and active duty.

But I think that we have got to sit down as a civil society and come to the conclusion that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan just ain't working. Just like we did in the 1970's when we finally admitted to ourselves that Vietnam didn't work.

You see, I spent my four years cleaning up after the Vietnam mess. We had gutted the military in the mid seventies and the VOLAR was just a train wreck. Trying to field a fully functional ARTEP certified battalion was almost impossible. There was only enough Cat-1 troops around to field a soccer team. The military was thoroughly broke and those who actually came to play were spread thin and hidden well. When we tried to accomplish something overseas you had to hide it from the folks who spit on troops and called them baby-killers.

But I think that gives me a unique perspective about what has happened now. You see, I saw what happens when you try to use an Army with strange ROE and limited political goals. It is just about as bad as when you "slam the wall" against an opponent and break your Army. I think that we might be looking at something similar now. If we don't sit down and think things through, regardless of the plan we come up with, we might be looking at a period of time where we will have to spend years rebuilding our Army.

So, lets start thinking about what we want out of the theater.

I for one have no problem with kicking their ass and taking their oil. Good simple goal. It's got my vote. Hell for that matter, with weapons free, it is well within our capabilities. But that ain't gonna wash with around 50% of the country (fucking blue states). So if we did it, there would be no end of bitching and whining for the next decade. So sorry folks, that dog won't hunt.

So what about the idea of turning Iraq into a secular democracy with interests aligned with those of the United States. OK....when you are finished laughing, wave your hands around, I'll be out in the kitchen getting a beer.

Just so you know, I think that cutting and running from something like this is the worst possible outcome. The actions of a moral and physical coward.

So what is left? Here is my idea. OK...Saddam was a bastard, but we proved in the 70's and 80's that he could be bought and he could be made to do our bidding. You just had to pay him enough. He only went crazy when a fucking puke named Bush managed to run the first of the incompetent Bush administrations and let him get off his leash. We had to spank him (damn if that wasn't a pretty little war) and bring him back to heel.

So then Clinton kept up the no-fly zones and let good old Saddam oppress everyone in sight inside that shithole. Got everyone thoroughly pissed off at everyone in that rats nest. But the lid was on the pressure cooker and we pretended to ignore the "food for oil" mess and everyone was cool.

Then the fuckhead in chief got elected. If there was something that he and Dick "the penguin" didn't fuck up, I can't think of it. So he removed the bastard (Saddam) who kept everyone in line and then everyone in that pissant country started killing each other.

So instead of sitting back with a bag of popcorn and a half-rack of Papst Blue Ribbon and enjoying a good killing. Fuckhead and the penguin figured they would "stabilize" the country and sell the oil rights to their Yale MBA buddies. Shit ain't been right since.

So lets find another Saddam and give him Carte Blanche. Set our folks up to train him and his army up good. Start rotating our troops out and even let him have the banged up military equipment that we have over there to hold up his end of the bargain. He gets to oppress the folks there and turn a tidy profit, bring the oil back on line and send us our cut of the stuff.

You see, it is my honest feeling that it is better to let someone else do our killing for us.