Jun
30
More Warmongering, from Stefan Jovanovich
June 30, 2010 |
General Petraeus' testimony before Congress included this comment:
What impresses the Taliban is not the rules of engagement. It's the precise targeted operations that are designed to give them no rest. The idea is if you can get your teeth into the jugular of the enemy, you don't let go. This word "relentless" is an important word to describe the campaign against the Taliban.
These are the only tactics that win a war, and they are, inevitably, costly. Grant's campaign against Lee from the Wilderness to Appomatox was relentless and bloody and successful; so were the final assaults by the Allied Forces against Germany in both World Wars. Okinawa, which did more than the 2 atomic bombs to end the war against Japan, was by far the bloodiest single battle of the Second World War for the United States. More U.S. Navy sailors died in that battle (sailors!) than all the American KIA so far in the two Iraq Wars and Afghanistan.
It remains a crime against American history that our politicians repeatedly honor the veterans of D-Day but no public acknowledgement is ever made of the even greater sacrifice in the Pacific. (No doubt the explanation is that it is far more pleasant for members of Congress and the Executive to visit Normandy than to fly all the way across the Pacific to the one large island that has never developed a profitable tourist trade.)
Scott Brooks agrees:
Stefan is right. It's almost like those men who fought in the Pacific have been largely forgotten compared to their counterparts in Europe. The war in the Pacific was a horrific expedition in both blood and treasure.
And I'm quite confident that today's politicians and press completely lack the ability to wage that kind of war, which is why (IMHO), the war in the Pacific is largely ignored. We can demonize the Nazis for what they did (and rightly so), but we must ignore the atrocities of war that occured in the Pacific. If we shined the light on them, it would cause too many people to become uncomfortable.
Comments
1 Comment so far
Archives
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- Older Archives
Resources & Links
- The Letters Prize
- Pre-2007 Victor Niederhoffer Posts
- Vic’s NYC Junto
- Reading List
- Programming in 60 Seconds
- The Objectivist Center
- Foundation for Economic Education
- Tigerchess
- Dick Sears' G.T. Index
- Pre-2007 Daily Speculations
- Laurel & Vics' Worldly Investor Articles
I solute all past and present american heroes of the armed forces.