Sunday, October 24, 2004
Comment from a Reader
…the folks back home hate the war / disapprove of it, the local US supported government is corrupt and ineffectual, there is no clear exit point or strategy, etc. etc. - guess you get the idea.
I would really appreciate to hear what your think of this [quote]: "If you give a soldier too many verniers and gauges to read during a fight, someone armed much more simply, say, with a stone axe, can easily sneak up on him and bash his head in." - Robert Heinlein
Reply
I think things are going well. Fighting a guerilla war is very difficult. Why does that make it unpopular? I think it's because the goals are abstract. What combat arms calls "movement to contact" is something very easy for our military and something well understood by the American people. I tend to tilt at windmills, so maybe I'm in the minority.
(A bit tangential, but it’s an election year.)
It's funny that American liberals want to put intellectual elites in power to run our own country and make our decisions for us, but if we put them in power here, somehow that's bad. But, I have to take a lesson from the liberals in this area: all things being equal, the more educated someone is, the less likely one is to fight before considering alternatives. There's something to this well rounded business in the American secondary education system: understanding different ways of life and different ways of thinking. The problem is that it has gone too far, as the book, "The Closing of the American Mind", reveals. Understanding has given way to acceptance and if one can't accept certain ideas that are taught, then, obviously, one has not learned and merits a failing grade.
Good quote! That's why I don't use a red dot sight on our current mission. If anything happens, it's going to unfold very quickly and at a close proximity, so there's no time to fool around with one of those things.
…the folks back home hate the war / disapprove of it, the local US supported government is corrupt and ineffectual, there is no clear exit point or strategy, etc. etc. - guess you get the idea.
I would really appreciate to hear what your think of this [quote]: "If you give a soldier too many verniers and gauges to read during a fight, someone armed much more simply, say, with a stone axe, can easily sneak up on him and bash his head in." - Robert Heinlein
Reply
I think things are going well. Fighting a guerilla war is very difficult. Why does that make it unpopular? I think it's because the goals are abstract. What combat arms calls "movement to contact" is something very easy for our military and something well understood by the American people. I tend to tilt at windmills, so maybe I'm in the minority.
(A bit tangential, but it’s an election year.)
It's funny that American liberals want to put intellectual elites in power to run our own country and make our decisions for us, but if we put them in power here, somehow that's bad. But, I have to take a lesson from the liberals in this area: all things being equal, the more educated someone is, the less likely one is to fight before considering alternatives. There's something to this well rounded business in the American secondary education system: understanding different ways of life and different ways of thinking. The problem is that it has gone too far, as the book, "The Closing of the American Mind", reveals. Understanding has given way to acceptance and if one can't accept certain ideas that are taught, then, obviously, one has not learned and merits a failing grade.
Good quote! That's why I don't use a red dot sight on our current mission. If anything happens, it's going to unfold very quickly and at a close proximity, so there's no time to fool around with one of those things.
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