Reply #22: Meeting strategic goals with our current tactical mindset [View All]

is difficult, if not impossible.

First, we have the freepers, who are not volunteering in record numbers.
Sure, they can do the rebel yell (or at least the rebel honk), but they drive right past the enlistment office.

Second, we have a lack of motivation -- we do not sufficiently believe our own goals are worthy and honest. We are not fighting for freedom, democracy, or any of the noble lies of the Bush administration. We are sending our kids to die for cheap gas and the money to make a two tiered society of the faithful 1 percent, and the peons.

Third, we are inferior to any enemy that understands us, because for certain we will not understand them. We listen to their glib liars make it all so simple for us. Then we do their bidding. We as a nation do that willingly because we have been listening to glib, reductionist crap since 1980. We think in simple patterns and primary colors. Most Americans could not point out Iraq on a map with the word Iraq on it in Arabic.


Fourth, the lack of an actual, statable objective. The current renewed pounding of Iraqi civilians is everything the resistance wants. Every bomb we drop creates a hundred resistance fighters. We are bombing our way to defeat. But since we cannot simply declare to the UN that we are there to rescue an oil grab that went sour in 91 and dominate the world's oil markets through superior firepower, we have to lie like a rug, and everyone, from a dog ass grunt to Colin Powell knows that to be true.

It is very hard for a large organization to pursure unstated, or contra stated goals. What works for the Friday night boys club called PNAC does not work when you invite the Pentagon and the CIA to the table. A simple "Screw the Iraqis, guard the oil." statement would have reduced the number and the rate of casualties dramatically. Saddam was left alive for the threat against instability and protest.
It did not work. Every time you hear about another chopper down, or convoy bombed, remember the words Shock and Awe.

The Germans used shock and awe against the Soviets. The Germans recieved it back at the hands of the Soviets for the next 40 years.