From: "Dave Hughes" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2005 7:13:49 PM PDT
To: <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] re: Iraq Wireless
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dewayne Hendricks"
<dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Dewayne-Net Technology List" <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 1:55 PM
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: Iraq Wireless
[Note: This comment comes from a reader of Farber's IP list. DLH]
From: "Ted Kircher" <tkircher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2005 12:36:40 PM PDT
To: "Mike Cheponis" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Dave Farber" <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Dewayne Hendricks"
<dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Iraq Wireless
Mike,
This is just one more reason why this is an unwinnable war
- the enemy won't fight by the (currently) accepted rules of war.
Utter nonsense. I know something about war - several of them matter
of fact, over 55 years worth, from up close and personal to the
highest levels of government during the Vietnam War after all the
mistakes had been made. The main reason this is dragging on is for
the same reason the US gave up after 10 years in the Vietnam War -
both Secretaries of Defense - McNamara, from the left, and
Rumsfeld, from the right both tried to personally micromanage their
wars, and the preparation for them, as 'civilian control' freaks,
who neither listened to nor followed the advice they were given by
competant military professionals. McNamara and the civilian hot
shots in the basement of the White House imposed their pet
'escalation' theories on the Vietnam War - to include picking
individual targets for Air Force bombing over North Vietnam, or,
ala McNamara tried to use his pet 'cost effectiveness' theories
that worked at Ford to fight a classic Maoist three stage War of
National Liberation. He never understood the nature of that War. So
he sent B-52s to surpress political revolutionionaries. Any good
Special Forces Colonel - who understood how to fight politico-
military Revolutionary opponents could have done a better job.. And
Rumsfeld utterly ignored the military advice he was given before
the invasion, about the troop strength and combinations that would
be needed, not just to knock off Saddam Hussain's Conventional
Paper Tiger troops, but far more importantly what it would take to
pacify, control and poltiically reconstruct the country, after the
conventional fighting was over and the regime overrun, a nation of
25 million spread out larger than California. He refused to let
Colin Powell as Secretary of State - who knows something about war,
and insurgencies professionally - to take over the post combat
'reconstruction' phase of the war, as the State Department
tradionally can do, and better than military in the wake of
conventional military overthrow of local to national government.
JUST as we did suceessfully in Germany and Italy during the
'occupation' . Rumsfeld STILL does not, nor do most of his neocon
hot shots from the Right, understand the Iraq War or what it will
take to succeed at our national objectives, which are NOT primarily
military.
George Bush senior, who understood from his lowly Navy Pilot
experience how chains of command are supposed to operate and how to
delegate, gave his Military Commander, Schwartkopf, via his
Chairman of the JCS, Powell their political-mission orders in
Desert Storm, and did NOT micromanage them and didn't let Cheney do
it either. He knew, like Lincoln did, how to pick commanders,
delegate, expect performance and replace commanders who couldn't
perform.
The problem, Ted, is at the top, not in the field. And not just
because Insurgents can use cell phones. But one thing the
Insurgents DO have going for them, is breathless US Media, driven
by profits and ratings, not public service, who turn every
individual car bomb into a global television 'chicken little the
sky is falling' Media Event.
Dave Hughes
dave@xxxxxxxxxxx