thedrifter
06-29-05, 11:15 AM
The Land Of Wannabe Quitters
June 28, 2005
by Bob Newman
Times and people change.
In 1776, a new people, the Americans, were a feisty lot who, because they had so unquenchable a thirst for freedom, had the audacity to fight the world’s most powerful nation to gain their freedom. It took these brash, visionary upstarts until 1783 before victory was achieved and a stunned British army and Royal Navy threw in the towel, and many thousands of Americans lay dead, but a new country was born. The British came back in 1812 for a second helping, with the same results.
Many wars followed for the Americans. The Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, World War I, the Banana Wars, World War II and the Korean War were just some of the fights we got into and won at terrible but necessary cost. To win these wars, America relied upon three primary weapons: the world’s more effective military, a vision of a future (made possible in part because of national patience) with more freedom and democracy for people other than us, and a national will to win.
By the time the Vietnam War came our way, the only remaining weapon of the aforementioned three weapons was the world’s most effective military. We had lost our vision and lost our national will to win. For victory to be realized, all three weapons must be at hand.
Beirut was a disaster for America because the Marines were given no viable mission and the descendants of the Peking Legation, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal and the Chosin Reservoir were not allowed to defeat the enemy, this despite their tactical and operational ability to do so. Deadly rules of engagement supported by the worst commandant in the history of the Corps administered the coup de grace. The horror of 23 October 1983 stunned America and made many Americans believe wars in the Middle East are unwinnable by America.
Grenada was a brief fight that deceived America into thinking that maybe all wars could be quick and relatively painless, perhaps lasting only days.
Panama was fast and furious with very light casualties and America didn’t like ‘ol pineapple face anyway.
This dangerous and false assumption was reinforced with the Gulf War, at the end of which far too many naive and ignorant Americans had their belief in combat brevity and light casualties reinforced. This set us up for the next disaster.
We lost Somalia because the Marines and Army were given a foolish mission by foolish politicians. We had no vision and no national will to win, hence mission failure.
Our limited operations in the Balkans were successful only because US casualties were kept very light and Americans believed the war could spread to Europe if we didn’t help out. There were also comparatively few US troops deployed thereabouts.
Now we are in a type of war never seen before in the history of mankind: global asymmetric warfare. The enemy is in our homeland, in the Middle East, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in Central America, in South America; in nearly 100 countries, we know. He is extraordinarily patient, cunning, totally committed to winning and willing to kill any America anywhere, including civilians, which are his primary target, even if it kills him too. His mission is to kill as many Americans as possible and to destroy the American way of life if he can.
And he can, if we let him.
America is wandering through a moral abyss at the moment. It is an abyss made all the more dangerous because we lack vision and a national will to survive and win, but not only survive and win. We have lost the will to help others survive and be free because we fear casualties and failure, and because we have become a nation that demands instant gratification.
Most Americans, because the war in Iraq has turned out to be bloodier than we expected, now feel the removal from power of one of the most brutal genocidal maniacs in the history of mankind was a mistake. A mistake! America does not care that he used WMDs to intentionally kill thousands of civilians, that he killed one million people while on his gory throne, that he invaded a peaceful, almost defenseless nation that is our ally, that he had long supported various terrorist groups, or that he attempted to kill a former president of the United States. America no longer cares about such things because gas prices, our golf handicap and a new Barko lounger are more important to us.
And besides, those Muslims aren’t really interested in democracy and freedom in the first place, right? Plus they have brown skin and smell bad because of those robes they wear even when it is hot outside.
Our millions of enemy are counting upon our lack of a national will to win, lack of a vision for a better world, and arrogant, immature impatience. They are also counting upon American liberals like Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, Pelosi, Durbin, Feinstein, Boxer and Dean to continue chipping away at the fabric of our society that was once a golden cloak of tightly woven chain mail now little more than see-through cotton.
But no American screeching how we should quit killing terrorists in Iraq has given an iota of thought to the consequences of so cowardly and deadly an action.
Quit now and every terrorist on the planet will realize they can win and will redouble their efforts to massacre us wherever they find us. Stop killing terrorists in Iraq now and they will be free to come to America and pay us another little visit.
There’s another word for quitting: surrender. Has surrender ever sounded like a good idea to you?
Stay the course and we might just survive.
Your choices are victory or surrender.
Pick one.
Ellie
June 28, 2005
by Bob Newman
Times and people change.
In 1776, a new people, the Americans, were a feisty lot who, because they had so unquenchable a thirst for freedom, had the audacity to fight the world’s most powerful nation to gain their freedom. It took these brash, visionary upstarts until 1783 before victory was achieved and a stunned British army and Royal Navy threw in the towel, and many thousands of Americans lay dead, but a new country was born. The British came back in 1812 for a second helping, with the same results.
Many wars followed for the Americans. The Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, World War I, the Banana Wars, World War II and the Korean War were just some of the fights we got into and won at terrible but necessary cost. To win these wars, America relied upon three primary weapons: the world’s more effective military, a vision of a future (made possible in part because of national patience) with more freedom and democracy for people other than us, and a national will to win.
By the time the Vietnam War came our way, the only remaining weapon of the aforementioned three weapons was the world’s most effective military. We had lost our vision and lost our national will to win. For victory to be realized, all three weapons must be at hand.
Beirut was a disaster for America because the Marines were given no viable mission and the descendants of the Peking Legation, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal and the Chosin Reservoir were not allowed to defeat the enemy, this despite their tactical and operational ability to do so. Deadly rules of engagement supported by the worst commandant in the history of the Corps administered the coup de grace. The horror of 23 October 1983 stunned America and made many Americans believe wars in the Middle East are unwinnable by America.
Grenada was a brief fight that deceived America into thinking that maybe all wars could be quick and relatively painless, perhaps lasting only days.
Panama was fast and furious with very light casualties and America didn’t like ‘ol pineapple face anyway.
This dangerous and false assumption was reinforced with the Gulf War, at the end of which far too many naive and ignorant Americans had their belief in combat brevity and light casualties reinforced. This set us up for the next disaster.
We lost Somalia because the Marines and Army were given a foolish mission by foolish politicians. We had no vision and no national will to win, hence mission failure.
Our limited operations in the Balkans were successful only because US casualties were kept very light and Americans believed the war could spread to Europe if we didn’t help out. There were also comparatively few US troops deployed thereabouts.
Now we are in a type of war never seen before in the history of mankind: global asymmetric warfare. The enemy is in our homeland, in the Middle East, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in Central America, in South America; in nearly 100 countries, we know. He is extraordinarily patient, cunning, totally committed to winning and willing to kill any America anywhere, including civilians, which are his primary target, even if it kills him too. His mission is to kill as many Americans as possible and to destroy the American way of life if he can.
And he can, if we let him.
America is wandering through a moral abyss at the moment. It is an abyss made all the more dangerous because we lack vision and a national will to survive and win, but not only survive and win. We have lost the will to help others survive and be free because we fear casualties and failure, and because we have become a nation that demands instant gratification.
Most Americans, because the war in Iraq has turned out to be bloodier than we expected, now feel the removal from power of one of the most brutal genocidal maniacs in the history of mankind was a mistake. A mistake! America does not care that he used WMDs to intentionally kill thousands of civilians, that he killed one million people while on his gory throne, that he invaded a peaceful, almost defenseless nation that is our ally, that he had long supported various terrorist groups, or that he attempted to kill a former president of the United States. America no longer cares about such things because gas prices, our golf handicap and a new Barko lounger are more important to us.
And besides, those Muslims aren’t really interested in democracy and freedom in the first place, right? Plus they have brown skin and smell bad because of those robes they wear even when it is hot outside.
Our millions of enemy are counting upon our lack of a national will to win, lack of a vision for a better world, and arrogant, immature impatience. They are also counting upon American liberals like Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, Pelosi, Durbin, Feinstein, Boxer and Dean to continue chipping away at the fabric of our society that was once a golden cloak of tightly woven chain mail now little more than see-through cotton.
But no American screeching how we should quit killing terrorists in Iraq has given an iota of thought to the consequences of so cowardly and deadly an action.
Quit now and every terrorist on the planet will realize they can win and will redouble their efforts to massacre us wherever they find us. Stop killing terrorists in Iraq now and they will be free to come to America and pay us another little visit.
There’s another word for quitting: surrender. Has surrender ever sounded like a good idea to you?
Stay the course and we might just survive.
Your choices are victory or surrender.
Pick one.
Ellie