Another Interesting Military Item
Dr. X posts this from somewhere in the Delta:
"I don't know why, but just the other day I started thinking about the Tet Offensive. How an insurgent force characterized as crippled and in decline rose up and delivered a shocking attack against a powerful occupying Army. How it was a military disaster for the attackers, but a political victory, right in front of a major election. How it annihilated local insurgent elites and allowed outsiders to step in and take their place.
"Yup, it sure is an interesting, totally academic thought."
posted by Latouche at Large at 11:43 PM
1 Comments:
By '69, the U.S. had lost it's credibility with the world over Vietnam, and our insistence that we won, which was true in a limited military sense, fell on ears deafened by 5 years of spin and prevarication.
All war, all war, is political in nature. Our obsession with technical prowess and tactical dominance - to the exclusion of political intelligence, fully planned strategy and nimble diplomacy, gives us overwhelming force, wins us all the battles, and gets us our ass kicked.
The last war we really won, the Gulf War, only happened because, in a memorable phrase, Hussein was "the only guy stupid enough to fight WWII with us."
Post a Comment
<< Home