I posted this on the "Is there any way out of this" thread, but it bears repeating: Unmitigated disaster?? We've advanced the equivalent of Normandy to Belgium in a week with what, 30 combat deaths (total number is 45--25 US, 20 UK--I think about 30 of these were in combat, but I'm not sure)? Maybe it's slightly more difficult than those on here who have no idea what they're talking about thought it was going to be, but if that's an unmitigated disaster, what the hell constitutes a success in your book? Look, we're right on schedule. Just because many in the general public thought our troops would be parading down newly-renamed Tommy Franks Ave. in Baghdad knocking up newly-liberated Iraqi women 15 minutes after the first bomb dropped, does NOT mean that our military and civilian leaders ever thought this would be the case. Our troops are being welcomed with open arms by most Iraqis. We're making superb progress, despite being slowed down by vicious sandstorms (alledgedly the worst in the region in 50+ years). We've suffered very, very few casualties, despite cowardly Iraqi tactics. We've inflicted very, very few civilian casualties, despite said cowardly Iraqi tactics and the likelihood that Saddam is killing his own people to try to blame it on us. Is everything going perfectly according to plan? No. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Is it anything remotely resembling an "unmitigated disaster"? Hell no. Alex
It's true most people here have no idea what a campaign like this is like. I was in the Reserves, Combat Engineer and Medic, for 10 years. I have only a very small sliver of an idea of what this march to Bahgdad must be like. Yet, everyone here is an absolute expert as to how things are or are not going, or should be going. I've been on convoys, I've done lights out convoys in the dark. I know the controlled chaos such movement can be in tranquil training situations. It's not easy, and the fact that our forces have advanced so far so quickly, under combat situations, bodes very well for us . Undoubtedly once they get to Bahgdad is when the real war is going to start.
I hope the guys in charge don't feel that way, that the "real war" starts when we get to Baghdad. I hope they think the "real war" started last week.
Can't we create a special kamikazee unit for him or something? But seriously, Lil Alex just doesn't understand the criticisms of the "They'll Rise Up to Greet Us With Kisses and Honey" strategy or the fears regarding the political handling of the war and how that might affect our ability to win the peace. Given the entire corpus of his previous post, I'm not sure it's worth the effort trying to get him to at least understand the arguments.
I think we need to distinguish which war we are winning and losing.... We are winning the "military, on the ground, blood and guts war". No doubt about that. We are getting our asses kicked in the "perception war" or the "war of public opinion". In politics and media ...perception IS reality and right now the perception is that this war is not going according to plan. Like it or not the neo-cons in the Administration sold the American public on a "flowers on the tank" scenario that clearly has not come to pass. Bush went along with this by not dis-abusing anyone of thinking this way. He can state emphatically as he wants right now that he never said the war was going to be quick and easy. But he is missing the point that he never DIDN'T say it would be and he let his minions so the talking.
ANother perception too is the following: Iraq , a military machine destroyed 12 years ago, no navy, no air presence, no huge military upgrades since the 80's is capable of giving us fits. I wonder what Iran is thinking now... Maybe, 'hell, we can give them a run for their money if they want to talk though to us'.
[alex]That's part of Bush's genius plan, dude. We're just lulling them into a false sense of security. And then we take Beijing![/alex]
> We are getting our asses kicked in the > "perception war" or the "war of public opinion". It isn't just foreign opinion either. A lot of American support (even among soldiers themselves) is predicated on the idea of solving the Iraq situation and then going home. How do you think people will feel when, a year from now, there are more US troops in Iraq than now and no sign of them ever going home? We were supposed to be in Bosnia for 6 months. We were supposed to be in Kosovo for a year. Bush was elected on the platform of getting them out.
By the way, did anyone predict that a week into this conflict people would be creating posts with the title "We aren't losing this war!!!"?