The Human Touch Revealing All that is Real
Why don't you and them go fight??
Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.
Our intrepid Secretary of State didn't want to call going after ISIS a war. If it was a war the DOD would seem to be the more sensible organization to be running it. As it is, it seems as though the intrepid Vietnam vet will handle the "ground" portion of the action against the terrorists. To that end he has selected a retired Marine General to handle the coordination required to mount and sustain action against ISIS. (There are a lot of people who believe that any time someone is charged with "coordination" they have a "do nothing" job.) The Defense Department is apparently relegated to doing the bombing. (What is to become of the CIA "army" in this scenario remains to be seen.)
After spending four or five months in Vietnam, Kerry was able to return home and tell congress how the war should be run. It's too bad that he didn't pay more attention to how the Vietnam "war" was being run and how that worked out - because it begins to look as though he (and his boss) are heading down a similar road. In the Vietnam era, LBJ was trying to run the war from the Oval Office. He was reportedly micro-managing the effort - even to the point of deciding on which targets our B-52 bombers would go after. Do you suppose LBJ's military prowess was the result of what he might have learned from his service in WW II. So just what was his military experience??
LBJ's military duty (WW II) was largely stateside as a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve. However, at one point in his career, he was appointed by FDR as part of a three man team survey team of the Southwest Pacific.
The following is a discussion of the "survey" quoted from Wikipedia:
"Johnson reported to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. Johnson and two Army officers went to the 22nd Bomb Group base, which was assigned the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at Lae in New Guinea. A colonel took Johnson's allocated seat on one bomber, and it was shot down with no survivors. Reports vary on what happened to the B 26 Marauder carrying Johnson. Lyndon Johnson said it was also attacked by Japanese fighters but survived, while others, including other members of the flight crew, claim it turned back because of generator trouble before reaching the objective and before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire, which is supported by official flight records. Other airplanes that continued to the target did come under fire near the target at about the same time that Johnson's plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase. MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star, the military's third highest medal." (foot note references removed.)
Perhaps it was all that war experience that made LBJ such a great military strategist. And suppose the same might be said of John Kerry.. Clearly Johnson was a faster learner than Kerry. It apparently took him that one trip to become a military strategist. It took Kerry four or five months to become a military strategist. Hmmm...
It would seem that no one in the current administration remembers (or has researched) how well the Vietnam War worked out for us. So, here we seem to go again...
At first we heard about a "coalition" of countries to support our air offensive and make it easy to smash ISIS. But it didn't take long for a lot of countries to start speaking up for themselves. Saudi Arabia says they will provide facilities and space where the US can train Syrian rebels. England says they will support us. (Wow!!) France seems to have taken a page out of the Anointed One's play book and is doing some bombing. It's surprising since they have so many Muslims in their country. (Is there anything to be learned there??) The Arab League seems eerily quiet... And so it goes.
But then we discover that our intrepid State Department warrior, presumably with the blessing of the Anointed One, has gone after Iran (Yes, IRAN!!) to "partner" with us (i.e. bail us out) in the effort to eliminate ISIS. Turkey "won't play" so we go after Iran?? Nothing about having gone, hat in hand, to China. Not only do we seem to be without a spine, we apparently don't have any shame either. Iran?? Give me a break.
And now the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is telling us that he will not allow US boots on the ground. They can take care of themselves. But they wouldn't mind US taking care of ISIS (he used the term ISIL) in Syria. He is quoted in the NY Post of 9/17/14 as saying, "The only contribution the American forces or the international coalition is going to help us with is from the sky," al Abadi said. "We are not giving any blank check to the international coalition to hit any target in Iraq. ... Al Abadi also urged the international community to expand its campaign against the extremists to neighboring Syria, noting that militants coming under pressure in Iraq are retreating back into Syria, which does not solve the problem." He said the Iraqi military will choose and approve targets, and that the US will not take action without consulting with Baghdad first....
It sounds as though he is prepared to rely on those American trained Iraqi troops who ran away from the ISIS warriors leaving all their American provided equipment and vehicles behind.
Or maybe the latest pronouncements are the result of some "back room" conversations with the administration's spear carriers?? Do you suppose he is "bailing out" the Anointed One with all that tough talk (similar to what Putin did when Syria was threatened with the "Red Line in the Sand)?? That tough talk would certainly provide plenty of cover for the Anointed One to order a "pull out" - which may not be such a bad idea after all....
It would be interesting to see the Iraqi reaction if we were to pick up our marbles (all of 'em) and head home. No US (or coalition) troops and no US money. Let Iraq defend Iraq...
Along the same lines, Bashar al Assad, Syria's Prresident, reportedly has told us that any raids into his country need to be pre-approved by his administration.
It is beginning to look like "Why don't you and them go fight??" is becoming the internationally accepted approach to warfare...
What do you suppose ever became of the United States of America, the greatest and most righteous power on earth?? Has the Anointed One and his largely invisible group of sycophants in the relatively short period of six years turned us from a world power into a (laughing stock) paper tiger?? It would seem so..
Speaking of "invisible", whom do you suppose is doing the thinking in and around the White House?? Surely it cannot be the Anointed One. Our first hint about that should be how frequently he puts his foot in his mouth when his Teleprompters aren' "prompting. Perhaps someday we will find out just which one of his confidants is really doing his thinking...
And by the way, if not "boots on the ground", how about outfitting our fighting troops with Nike Air Jordans.. That would allow the Anointed and his State Department spear carrier to claim they were clinging to their "no boots" pronouncements. As if after almost six years of pulling punches and feeding us outright lies, they any longer cared about veracity - perhaps because they don't seem to know (or care) what it is.
After looking to significantly reduce the size of our military, it would seem the Anointed One has figured out what they are good for. He is dispatching some 3000 of them to Western Africa to work on the Ebola situation. Clearly help is needed with the problem, but is it really something the American military should be doing?? I suspect there are a lot of folks who were taught, and still believe, that the U.S. Military was established to provide for the common defense of our country.
In the meantime, we search (apparently without much luck so far) for surrogates who are willing to do our fighting for us in Iraq and Syria. (Do you suppose that is a tactic we learned from the French or maybe the Saudis??). It isnt clear how we will handle al-Abadi and his restrictions. Let us hope that DOD's humanitarian activities do not undermine our capability to crush ISIS. And, BTW, do you suppose the lives of the 3000 troops being dispatched to Western Africa are being placed at greater risk than they would be if they had been sent to the battle fields of Iraq and Syria?? Let us hope that our troops are not so busy trying to help eradicate Ebola in Africa that there are not enough of the right kind of DOD resources left to be able to eradicate ISIS in Iraq and Syria (and anywhere else they may pop up). Boots on the ground for an African problem, but not for an American problem??
D'ya Think??
Go Back
Our intrepid Secretary of State didn't want to call going after ISIS a war. If it was a war the DOD would seem to be the more sensible organization to be running it. As it is, it seems as though the intrepid Vietnam vet will handle the "ground" portion of the action against the terrorists. To that end he has selected a retired Marine General to handle the coordination required to mount and sustain action against ISIS. (There are a lot of people who believe that any time someone is charged with "coordination" they have a "do nothing" job.) The Defense Department is apparently relegated to doing the bombing. (What is to become of the CIA "army" in this scenario remains to be seen.)
After spending four or five months in Vietnam, Kerry was able to return home and tell congress how the war should be run. It's too bad that he didn't pay more attention to how the Vietnam "war" was being run and how that worked out - because it begins to look as though he (and his boss) are heading down a similar road. In the Vietnam era, LBJ was trying to run the war from the Oval Office. He was reportedly micro-managing the effort - even to the point of deciding on which targets our B-52 bombers would go after. Do you suppose LBJ's military prowess was the result of what he might have learned from his service in WW II. So just what was his military experience??
LBJ's military duty (WW II) was largely stateside as a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve. However, at one point in his career, he was appointed by FDR as part of a three man team survey team of the Southwest Pacific.
The following is a discussion of the "survey" quoted from Wikipedia:
"Johnson reported to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. Johnson and two Army officers went to the 22nd Bomb Group base, which was assigned the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at Lae in New Guinea. A colonel took Johnson's allocated seat on one bomber, and it was shot down with no survivors. Reports vary on what happened to the B 26 Marauder carrying Johnson. Lyndon Johnson said it was also attacked by Japanese fighters but survived, while others, including other members of the flight crew, claim it turned back because of generator trouble before reaching the objective and before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire, which is supported by official flight records. Other airplanes that continued to the target did come under fire near the target at about the same time that Johnson's plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase. MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star, the military's third highest medal." (foot note references removed.)
Perhaps it was all that war experience that made LBJ such a great military strategist. And suppose the same might be said of John Kerry.. Clearly Johnson was a faster learner than Kerry. It apparently took him that one trip to become a military strategist. It took Kerry four or five months to become a military strategist. Hmmm...
It would seem that no one in the current administration remembers (or has researched) how well the Vietnam War worked out for us. So, here we seem to go again...
At first we heard about a "coalition" of countries to support our air offensive and make it easy to smash ISIS. But it didn't take long for a lot of countries to start speaking up for themselves. Saudi Arabia says they will provide facilities and space where the US can train Syrian rebels. England says they will support us. (Wow!!) France seems to have taken a page out of the Anointed One's play book and is doing some bombing. It's surprising since they have so many Muslims in their country. (Is there anything to be learned there??) The Arab League seems eerily quiet... And so it goes.
But then we discover that our intrepid State Department warrior, presumably with the blessing of the Anointed One, has gone after Iran (Yes, IRAN!!) to "partner" with us (i.e. bail us out) in the effort to eliminate ISIS. Turkey "won't play" so we go after Iran?? Nothing about having gone, hat in hand, to China. Not only do we seem to be without a spine, we apparently don't have any shame either. Iran?? Give me a break.
And now the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is telling us that he will not allow US boots on the ground. They can take care of themselves. But they wouldn't mind US taking care of ISIS (he used the term ISIL) in Syria. He is quoted in the NY Post of 9/17/14 as saying, "The only contribution the American forces or the international coalition is going to help us with is from the sky," al Abadi said. "We are not giving any blank check to the international coalition to hit any target in Iraq. ... Al Abadi also urged the international community to expand its campaign against the extremists to neighboring Syria, noting that militants coming under pressure in Iraq are retreating back into Syria, which does not solve the problem." He said the Iraqi military will choose and approve targets, and that the US will not take action without consulting with Baghdad first....
It sounds as though he is prepared to rely on those American trained Iraqi troops who ran away from the ISIS warriors leaving all their American provided equipment and vehicles behind.
Or maybe the latest pronouncements are the result of some "back room" conversations with the administration's spear carriers?? Do you suppose he is "bailing out" the Anointed One with all that tough talk (similar to what Putin did when Syria was threatened with the "Red Line in the Sand)?? That tough talk would certainly provide plenty of cover for the Anointed One to order a "pull out" - which may not be such a bad idea after all....
It would be interesting to see the Iraqi reaction if we were to pick up our marbles (all of 'em) and head home. No US (or coalition) troops and no US money. Let Iraq defend Iraq...
Along the same lines, Bashar al Assad, Syria's Prresident, reportedly has told us that any raids into his country need to be pre-approved by his administration.
It is beginning to look like "Why don't you and them go fight??" is becoming the internationally accepted approach to warfare...
What do you suppose ever became of the United States of America, the greatest and most righteous power on earth?? Has the Anointed One and his largely invisible group of sycophants in the relatively short period of six years turned us from a world power into a (laughing stock) paper tiger?? It would seem so..
Speaking of "invisible", whom do you suppose is doing the thinking in and around the White House?? Surely it cannot be the Anointed One. Our first hint about that should be how frequently he puts his foot in his mouth when his Teleprompters aren' "prompting. Perhaps someday we will find out just which one of his confidants is really doing his thinking...
And by the way, if not "boots on the ground", how about outfitting our fighting troops with Nike Air Jordans.. That would allow the Anointed and his State Department spear carrier to claim they were clinging to their "no boots" pronouncements. As if after almost six years of pulling punches and feeding us outright lies, they any longer cared about veracity - perhaps because they don't seem to know (or care) what it is.
After looking to significantly reduce the size of our military, it would seem the Anointed One has figured out what they are good for. He is dispatching some 3000 of them to Western Africa to work on the Ebola situation. Clearly help is needed with the problem, but is it really something the American military should be doing?? I suspect there are a lot of folks who were taught, and still believe, that the U.S. Military was established to provide for the common defense of our country.
In the meantime, we search (apparently without much luck so far) for surrogates who are willing to do our fighting for us in Iraq and Syria. (Do you suppose that is a tactic we learned from the French or maybe the Saudis??). It isnt clear how we will handle al-Abadi and his restrictions. Let us hope that DOD's humanitarian activities do not undermine our capability to crush ISIS. And, BTW, do you suppose the lives of the 3000 troops being dispatched to Western Africa are being placed at greater risk than they would be if they had been sent to the battle fields of Iraq and Syria?? Let us hope that our troops are not so busy trying to help eradicate Ebola in Africa that there are not enough of the right kind of DOD resources left to be able to eradicate ISIS in Iraq and Syria (and anywhere else they may pop up). Boots on the ground for an African problem, but not for an American problem??
D'ya Think??
Comment
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The major difference is that a good Monday Morning Quarterback would meet eye-to-eye with the coach and suggest to him what he might have done better next time. No coach responds well to people wanting to fire him from before he took the position---and never changing nor helping.
When I hear Conservatives making positive contributions over abject criticism, I will pay attention. Otherwise, it is a futile exercise in abject criticism!