War in Iraq

“War at best is barbaric. Its glory is all moonshine.
It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the
shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry for blood,
more vengeance, more desolation, War is Hell.”
General William Tecumseh Sherman

The purpose of this blog is to attempt to share my thoughts on the fog of government spin that emanates from Washington in the current administration, particularly as it pertains to warfare.

I am a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, qualified Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces. In addition I am a qualified Nuclear Weapons Employment officer with extensive experience as an Inspector General at Corps and Army Level. My opinions are derived from many years of observation of the conduct of soldiers in uniform, on and off the field of battle.

We are now engaged in a non-directional war in which all the Principles of War have been defied, ignored or twisted. The policies for the U.S. Army have been developed, without exception, by neo-con ideologues with no combat experience. No General Officer, even those relieved for failure to accomplish their mission, have been disciplined. (With the exception of the hapless N.G. Brigadier who had administrative control at Abu Ghraib).

The classic definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. But how else do we describe five years of running inefficiently armored Humvees down miles of open highways planted with IEDs? The American soldier deserves better than that.

It is claimed that the current U. S. Army is the most proficient, best trained, and best equipped military force of all time. And they are all professionals. If we accept this statement, and on the face of it there is no reason why we should not, then it must follow logically, based on the results of the past five years, that it is also led by the most inept, inefficient, criminally negligent leaders in the history of American warfare. As an old soldier, I have always held that the individual American soldier is, by and large, a model for human behavior. The sacrifice of liberty, freedom of speech, obedience to authority, and determination to accomplish the mission have always set the American soldier apart, Regular or draftee. The gallantry and heroism of ordinary young soldiers in the heat of battle boggles the mind. The self-sacrifice of one person for the good of the unit is legendary. As Admiral Nimitz said of Iwo Jima, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”. The same is true, on a smaller scale, in nearly every combat engagement by U.S. troops, to a point that we come to expect it and take it for granted. This is neither the time nor place to relate individual instances, but they are myriad.

Every war is different. But in some sense, every war is the same. Opposing forces, bent on forcing their will on the enemy, attack and kill or wound each other. Sometimes the mission is geographic or political, “take the high ground”, in others, punitive - break the will of the enemy by killing as many as possible, and usually it is a combination of both. In former wars, men suffering body wounds were left to die on the battlefield. Amputees were sometimes saved if the evacuation time was short enough. Today, air-evac has revolutionized battlefield wounded recovery. The ratio of dead to recoverable wounded has changed exponentially. But many of these seriously wounded men, even if they are evacuate and survive, are severely disabled. Few are fit to return to combat duty.

Despite all the theoretical plans from neo-con thinkers, “boots on the ground” is still the most vital concept of all. We can destroy enemy strongholds with air, naval and artillery assaults. But troops, in sufficient numbers are required to complete the mission.

coming next: Principles of War