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 Failing To Identify The Enemy!Sept. 11, 2001, was a dark day in American history, with nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a sizable chunk of lower Manhattan reduced to smoking rubble. Within weeks, the United States rallied, drove the Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan from power, and sent Osama bin Laden and his warriors scattering for safety across the globe, there to meet death at the hands of U.S. special forces wherever and whenever they’ve been found. By December, the Afghan War was effectively over. And yet … here we are, in February 2020, and the “war” is still dragging on, and still claiming young American lives. Case in point: The deaths on Feb. 8 by “friendly fire” in provincial Nangarhar of two men from the southwest: Staff Sgt. Javier Gutierrez, of San Antonio, Texas, and Staff Sgt. Antonio Rodriguez, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, each 28 years old, and both murdered by an Afghan sergeant—armed and trained by U.S. forces—with the single name of Jawed. They are just two of some 150 brave U.S. soldiers killed in “green on blue” violence by our erstwhile Afghan “allies.” Gutierrez, a Green Beret, was newly in the country; Rodriguez, an Army Ranger, was on his 10th tour of duty. Both were members of the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group. Their needless deaths came as President Donald Trump once again gave the green light for “peace” talks with the Taliban—peace talks that come nearly 19 years after the start of what is now, shamefully, the longest war in American history, as well as one of our greatest military disgraces. HUMILIATION Under the simple-minded President George W. Bush and the feckless President Barack Obama, as well as the peacetime generals whose conduct of the war will live in infamy, the U.S. military has been subjected to the greatest humiliation in its long and storied history. It should have been asked to finish—decisively, quickly, and definitively, just as British Gen. Herbert Kitchener crushed the Mahdist forces at Omdurman in 1898—the conflict that began on 9/11; instead it has been turned into an instrument of “social justice,” a meals-on-wheels, three-cups-of-tea aggregation of sitting ducks, one held in open, murderous contempt by an armed rabble of primitive, superstitious, dog-hating goatherds. Great powers can survive many things—there is a great deal of ruin in a nation, as the 18th-century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith once observed—but they cannot survive derision or a lack of respect from their existential enemies. In military conflicts, the will to win is dispositive. In 216 B.C., the army of the Roman Republic suffered the worst beating in its history at the hands of Hannibal, with upwards of 50,000 men or more slaughtered. And yet, with their legions in ruins, one-fifth of their male population over 17 killed, and Rome itself threatened with annihilation, the Romans rallied under Scipio Africanus and, just 12 years later, defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama, ending the Romans rallied under Scipio Africanus and, just 12 years later, defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama, ending the Second Punic War. By 146 B.C., when the Third Punic War ended, Carthage was razed, and vanished into history. End of problem. Militarily, it’s hard to think of a comparable situation to America’s at the moment. Perhaps our own Revolutionary War is one—a fight in which the Americans lost most of the battles against a much-distracted and geographically remote opponent with far more pressing issues of statecraft on its mind to bother crushing the upstart colonials, whose capacity and will to fight they had seriously underestimated. Yet no one would seriously argue the Afghans under the Taliban have any desire to become a representative democracy, no matter how many times Bush told us (as he did in his naïve Second Inaugural Address in 2005, written by Michael Gerson), that “freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul” and that “history has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul” and that “history has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.” As neutral, non-ebbing history amply illustrates, Islam’s definition of “peace” and “freedom” is far different from that of the Scottish Enlightenment, and only someone historically illiterate could possibly think otherwise. And yet, under Bush, and then under Obama, young men like Gutierrez and Rodriguez have continued to die for the fiction that the Afghans, along with most of the rest of the Islamic “ummah,” really wants “freedom,” when in fact the religion has always been quite open about its theological and geopolitical goals: universal submission to the will of its god, Allah. FAILED GENERALS Our soldiers have died because there was not a single general—not David Petraeus, not Stanley McChrystal, not James Mattis—who demanded of the president, on pain of instant resignation, that we win. None of them was a general worthy of the name; instead they were small-minded, tactical obsessives concerned with hitting their metrics rather than winning. As Thomas Ricks pointed out in a 2012 piece in The Atlantic excoriating the U.S. generalship of the period: “A private who loses his rifle is now punished more than a general who loses his part of a war. In the wars of the past decade, hundreds of Army generals were deployed to the field, and the available evidence indicates that not one was relieved by the military brass for combat ineffectiveness.” This is simply unacceptable. During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln churned through general after general (including the parade-ground popinjay, George McClellan, who would run against him as a Democrat in the election of 1864) until he finally found Ulysses S. Grant: “He fights,” explained Lincoln. In World War II, generals were routinely cashiered, often after just a few months of futility or failure of nerve. This weeded out the civilian-era desk jockeys and rapidly replaced them with warfighters who had cut their teeth in combat at Normandy and were eager to go all the way to Berlin to finish the job. Since Korea, and certainly since Vietnam, the United States hasn’t wanted to finish the job. Vietnam may have been a war of choice, but the war that began on Sept. 11 was not. It was and remains a war for cultural survival, with a clear, largely nongovernmental enemy that has been dedicated to the destruction of the Judeo-Christian West since the seventh century. That this particular battle should have been finished by Christmas 2001 will forever redound to America’s discredit. A defeat in the larger conflict will mean America, and the West’s, demise. Michael Walsh is the author of “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace” and “The Fiery Angel,” both published by Encounter Books. His latest book, “Last Stands,” a cultural study of military history, will be published later this year by St. Martin’s Press. Follow him on Twitter @dkahanerules m.theepochtimes.com |
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@ Inhis Your world is a hard one ! No wonder that you need the Bible to help you through ! |
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@ptitreoque The writer succinctly described our recent failings in military leadership, and the RESULTING waste of lives and money. The supposed perpetrators to the attacks on 9/11 have been dealt with. There isn't any good reason for America's presence in Afghanistan. What don't you understand? |
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@ Inhis I just point that your vision of the word is harsh and dark : evil and ennemies everywhere ! In front of such a world, the bible is indeed a hope and maybe the only one. |
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@ptitreoque I just point that your vision of the word (world?) is harsh and dark : evil and ennemies everywhere ! In front of such a world, the bible is indeed a hope and maybe the only one.>> Before addressing your estimation of my faith-based world view ("harsh and dark : evil and ennemies everywhere !") Let us, please, return to the succinct estimation of how much the American Army has been misused and BETRAYED, okay? The perceived leaders in the 9/11 attacks against America have been dealt with long ago. That being said, answer the question about WHY ARE WE STILL IN AFGHANISTAN? The answer to that points directly to the harsh and dark enemies everywhere in the American Government, does it not? These harsh and dark enemies are more commonly known as the Deep State. Though there are not as many people who are aware of this Deep State that point only substantiates the reality and the effectiveness of the American Mainstream Media. These are not real journalists or else they would conduct real and in-depth analysis and investigative reporting! You have also reported on the fact of state controlled journalism in France, haven't you? |
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Not state control, but the oligarchy (who actually control the state as well...) Yet, my analysis of the overall situation in different than yours. There is no plot, no evil. Most people want to live peacefully and decently. We could (and should) prevent the big predators to conserve the might and abuse of it. I believe in the general goodwill of human being. We just have to build a system where the big predators do not use the power for their own profit. |
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Agreed. While you appear to be at peace with the situation in France - is this true? If not true, what are the citizens of France doing about it? See that is the BIG problem with the situation in America - hence the unending war in Afghanistan. However, with the Deep State's control of the Mainstream Media getting America aware of the situation is almost impossible. They control the narrative and they control the money! |
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@Inhis People have made a 2 months start against a law about the pension. 75% of the people do not approve this law but the government doesn't care. etc. That's what I advocate to change the political system. We need more control from the citizens, we need a tax system which doesn't enable 20 people to own as much as half of the humanity, etc. |
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Almost started to laugh, but I know you are sincere. We Americans are so $&#(& independent we'll NEVER BE ABLE to get together IMO. WHAT is plan B? |
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@ Inhis I'm afraid is chaos, revolution, wars... |
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@ptitreoque This is God's Plan C IMO. First off, I pray that you and yours are well. This Pandemic is knocking heads all around the World. Incredibly, the Left in America is still trying to get political points from it. Take care. Ephesians 6:12 "12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." |
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Hitting the American Deep State Where It Hurts "Navy, Coast Guard to Surge Drug-Interdiction Support to SOUTHCOM" seapowermagazine.org "Deep State Democratic Party Leaders Serve the Cartels and Their Terrorist Allies (Part One)" thecommonsenseshow.com |
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Last week Kevin Clinesmith was indicted for lying. Actually, he's not going to be changed because Durham and Barr want bigger fish, I've heard from another source. But I digress. "Graham shares newly declassified FBI docs show . . ." The FBI used two sets of standards, one which WARNED Hillary Clinton of possible foreign interference in her campaign allowing her to "fix" it. With Donald Trump, when the FBI suspected foreign interference THEY NOT ONLY NOT WARN HIM or his campaign, the FBI actually tried to entrap Trump! And they (the FBI) never relayed to the Trump campaign their suspecions. Graham says that the FBI will have to answer for this! youtu.be Piece by piece the truth about what happened and WHY it (Russian Collusion hoax) happened will be revealed. |
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The BLM Insurrectionists Threat To America youtu.be This video has the latest updates on the ongoing BLM movement. Watch live video of BLM members mobbing restaurant patrons and forcing them out into the streets. Listen to NBA sports castor speak to the obvious identify politics of BLM. ALL assets of the American Left are being deployed in this Insurrection. Local law enforcement (especially in cities like Portland and New York) are not prepared to deal with this. |
