Part II: The war on terror by the halves

If only half of America thinks we are war, only half of those who do have any idea of what will be required to win the war. During WWII, metrics for victory were easy to identify, if at the same time presenting monumental hurdles to overcome. Allied leadership agreed that the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers was the only acceptable outcome. Every American knew that to achieve the surrender we needed to destroy the Axis armies in order to gain territory to pursue Axis leadership in their homelands. That’s pretty straight forward. Allies island hopped across the Pacific in order to get close enough to bomb the Japanese mainland while maintaining fighter cover. Success in the war was easy to gage if difficult to achieve. Americans could see our forces advancing across the Pacific and across Europe toward a victory. The end was so certain we know the exact day it occurred first with VE day May 8, 1945 followed by VJ day on Aug 15, 1945.

Our current war against Islamo-terror-fascists (ITF) and the states that support them is a little less straight forward. We can easily deal with state sponsors of terrorism like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam in Iraq. (Look here if you don’t think Saddam was in bed with the terrorists.) The harder task is breaking up the terrorists organizations themselves. This is a task akin to trying to picking up mercury. The metrics for this hidden war are nearly invisible to the public. There are no armies maneuvering across a map. The terrorists have no assets that make for an easy conventional bombing campaign that we’ve come accustomed to watching on cable TV - no capitals, no economy, no industrial base. This is another factor leading a great many Americans to doubt we’re even in a real war.

Another problem that we have is our idea that all of our conflicts will end quickly. Dating back to Granada followed by Gulf War I, Panama, Bosnia and Kosovo, America has been fortunate to achieve our military goals quickly and at an almost miraculously low cost in casualties. We watch it all on TV as our troops storm an enemy under pin point bombing. It has resembled a video game more than war. It also conforms to the new American idea of conflict resolution. Conflicts are resolved in an hour or even half an hour. Shows like 24, the CSI series and others give unrealistic portrayals of our technological capabilities. We don’t and can’t know everything that is happening with our enemies in real time. In Iraq Americans are beginning to think, “Come on the hour’s up or we have spent our last quarter on this game.”

What is required by Americans to win the war on terror?

Accept a long term approach. This war is likely to go on for 15-20 years. Americans must be willing to stay the course for the long term. Pulling out of Iraq today would be a disaster. Iraq is the central front in the war on terror today. We need to stay the course there and kill as many ITFs there as possible. Our enemy knows that our strategic center of gravity is the will of the American people. Everything they do is geared toward wearing down that will. We need to take a rather stoic approach to this struggle. We can’t ride the highs and lows of the conflict sensationalizing either the capture of Saddam or the latest car bombing.

Accept the fact that there will be setbacks. Two posts below Lex notes a couple of military and political blunders. War is like trying to read a Chinese newspaper while tied up in a sack with a bobcat. It is the most difficult of human endeavors. We have to trust our leadership is doing everything in their power to ensure a positive outcome. Mistakes are going to happen. We should expect due diligence not perfection. When mistakes occur steps should be taken immediately to correct them. Only when a pattern or gross negligence is determined should we ask for heads to roll. Once action is taken we shouldn’t continue to engage in self-flagellation.

Accept the fact that there will be casualties. This point ties in with the long term approach and setbacks. We need to stop wringing our hands every time a soldier is killed. Yes every soldier’s death is a tragedy. These are adults that have chosen to defend their country. They are well aware that there are risks involved in what they doing. They enlist and reenlist to serve us. We should honor how they lived, their service and commitment, not wring our hands about how they died. We don’t keep score of how many enemy we have killed but we obsess endlessly with our own losses.

Report both sides of the story from the MSM. Michael Barone, co-editor of the bi-annual Almanac of American Politics, notes how in “World War II, the press almost unanimously wanted us to win the war,” but “today we have many in the press -- not most I think, but some at least -- who do not want us to win this war and think that we don't deserve to win this war." I’d argue that there are far more in the MSM that actually want America to lose than Barone might believe. There is nothing wrong with reporting both sides of the war and actually rooting for the survival of your own country. The MSM to date has acted as useful idiots for the enemy and it’s beginning to have effect.

Hold Damascus and Tehran at risk. There is no doubt that ITF in Iraq are being supported from Syria and Iran. These two governments should be told by John Bolton, arms akimbo in that manner that Libs on the Foreign Relations Committee found so threatening, to secure their borders…or else. While we are at it, we should send the same message to Mexico.

Understand what is at stake. This will be part three tomorrow.