The reason we lost the war is because the politicians dictated policy and strategy from DC. They basically ran the war from DC. The generals in the Pentagon and Nam had their hand tied and it showed in the way we fought the war.
In the Gulf War I thought W let the generals pretty much run the campaign. Any significant examples of where that wasn't the case?
If you’re talking about Gulf War I lead by HW Bush, you’re right. As to Gulf War II not so much. First Rumsfeld forced the Army to use only about a third of the troops they asked. This was fine for the battles but we didn’t have enough to guard the Iraqi ammo dumps. That provided arms for the insurgents. There was political meddling from the git go, especially during the occupation. If they had just paid the Iraqi army and had them trade money for arms the insurgency wouldn’t have had a cadre to fight with. They also gave too much leeway to the Shia and cut the Sunni out. This set up the civil war. If you focus on the battle then we did well. But to paraphrase Clausewitz, the occupation was just another form of war and the political class fucked it up royally.
True but I’m not sure it would have mattered if the people we were “saving “ didn’t care about being saved.
Admiral James Stockdale. MoH recipient and multiple Silver Stars. Was a jet pilot shot down over Vietnam. Then Commander Stockdale was held as a prisoner of war in the Hỏa Lò Prison (the infamous "Hanoi Hilton") for the next seven-and-a-half years. As the senior Naval officer, he was one of the primary organizers of prisoner resistance. Tortured routinely and denied medical attention for the severely damaged leg he suffered during capture, Stockdale created and enforced a code of conduct for all prisoners which governed torture, secret communications, and behavior. In the summer of 1969, he was locked in leg irons in a bath stall and routinely tortured and beaten. When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. When they covered his head with a hat, he beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition. When Stockdale was discovered with information that could implicate his friends' "black activities", he slit his wrists so they could not torture him into confession.[12] During the course of his captivity, due to torture, his leg was broken twice.[13] There are TONS of American heroes, but with what this guy endured, it doesn't get much more badass then that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale
Thanks for posting that. The medals and recognition he received paled in comparison to what he did to earn them. A TRUE American hero.
