“Escalate - More boots to the zone - counter insurgency - special force incursion - surge” — are irrelevant terms for the current Iraqi scenario. Rather, the linguistics of reality is “redeploy - troop withdrawal - cut and run - timetable.” A surge not unlike a tsunami overwhelms but then recedes for victims to resurge havoc.
Not since the last Great War has there existed the merciless but realistic integrity of military strategy. From Korea onward skirmishes consist of eggs under boots and in the end but impasse and/or negotiations.
The occupation of Iraq has become an interminable holding action, consisting of pointless Humvee and Boot patrols moving toward inevitable skirmishes of no real consequence other than continual casualties. Kerry was thought to be indiscreet, not to mention unpatriotic, when he offered, “How do you ask the last man to die for a mistake?” Today’s troops are asking themselves, “Am I to die for no consequence, no purpose?”
Copyright © 2006 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: January 6, 2007.
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