That's a fact. You don't trade punches. If you are attacked you use violence of action. Speed, strength, surprise, and aggression to achieve total dominance. Once that dominance is achieved and the adversary capitulates, then and only then, can you open a dialog that will lead to peace. Placating a determined and vocal enemy with half measures leads you to having to absorb damage whenever that adversary finds an opening. And you're at war for decades.Originally Posted by 0ddl0t
-All views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect those of the author's employer-
Let’s talk about 9/11. Mark Bowdens research into the events in Somalia circa 1992 turned up some interesting and unwelcome facts. As it happened the group we’d know later as Al Qaeda was there, advising the warlords like M. Farrah Aidids militia on using RPGs against Blackhawks and so forth. It was expected the US would level Mogadishu in retaliation for 18 dead soldiers, many of them elite special operations. It never happened, because Clinton pulled the US forces out.
Osama Bin Laden took that and decided the US lost political will to win a war anymore. Successive responses to incidents after that reinforced his conclusion. Running away from a fight cost thousands of people their lives that Tuesday.
No terrorism attack on the scale of 9/11 has happened on US soil since. Largely because of nameless people working in the dark to keep us collectively safe from such things. Part of those nameless peoples’ jobs is fighting these threats on the spot as needed, whether that be covert feet on the ground or other means. It just so happens this week in Iraq the fighting got some media traction.
The fact we haven’t had another 9/11 proves we won’t be stung again- provided we use decisive and immediate force when necessary. Had we acted in 1992 with the same resolve we did this week, maybe 9/11 would be just another boring Tuesday in the year 2001.
The Minority Marksman.
"When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet."
-a Ch'an Buddhist axiom.
And why did OBL dislike the US again?
But putting that aside, what makes you think today is any different from 1992? We're still not willing to level a city or perpetuate widespread genocide to win, so all we're doing is delaying the date of our inevitable loss and, in the process, making America less secure for our children & grandchildren.
Last edited by 0ddl0t; 01-04-2020 at 04:55 AM.
I hope your right, in that after we kill enough shit heads there is some “peace” at the end of the tunnel. We have “decapitated” so many groups in Iraq in the last 17 years I’ve lost count. The deck of cards with Saddam’s “dead enders” all the way to the current crop of Shia militia leaders getting smoked today. Dozens of groups maybe? Shia and Sunni. AQAP, AQIM, ISIS, Jais Al Madi, Badr Brigades, and on and on. We night raided, bombed them, droned them, snatched their leaders, imprisoned tens of thousands, fucked up whole cities with tanks and infantry a few times. Hell, we even walled off every individual neighborhood in Baghdad with 25 foot walls during the surge. Yet, here we are.
Our boys are the BEST at doling out the pain when needed. The military does what we ask them with aplomb. It’s the total failure of the leadership within our diplomatic and political class that got us here. I count the General Officer class in this group of abject failure. Each new “Roman Consul” style governor we put in place kept telling us they got it covered and things were going great. Where is that Iraqi Army Petraeus spent 2 year’s briefing us on? Did the pool parties in the green zone ever stop or do they still go on?
All this talk about “they only understand force” or teaching the Iraqis who’s the strongest etc. etc. seems, well foolish. Is there another place on earth who better understands what our pointy end looks like?
The bottom line is the Iraqis themselves. They simply can’t govern. Even when one faction is getting some traction in the government they lie, cheat, and steal within their own groups blowing the whole thing down.
The Iranian problem may yet be solved by force, but the evidence seems in on Iraq. We can’t force them to evolve. I have to say that I find the Iraqi culture so lacking in some of the basic values we take for granted I don’t think they have a chance. So by all means mow the grass if it needs it, but it won’t change anything.
Maybe we can kill enough Iranians to change their behavior. But Iraq is done. Nuke the place from orbit or leave and let them rot. That’s pretty much where we are.
And Godwin strikes again.
If that happened in this instance, I'll be mildly astonished. My suspicion is that Trump saw some guy on Fox News talking about Soleimani, asked if we can kill this guy, was answered in the affirmative, and gave the order.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
Define "winning" in this situation.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
Because he was an evil person. It is no more complicated than that.
Ignore Alien Orders
That’s seriously how you think this stuff works? Do you figure at zero dark fifteen Obama said, ok, fuck it, let’s go get this guy?
Ignore Alien Orders
That may be your suspicion but that’s not how it works.
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