Sunday, September 14, 2014

Mistakes?

This is coolbert:

ONLY as the shooting has just barely begun American policy and strategy with regard to ISIL less than sanguine?  

Thanks to the tip from Ken and the article as written by Gary Anderson.

"If You Liked Vietnam, You’ll Love the War With the Islamic State"

"President Obama is repeating three key strategic mistakes that President Johnson made in Vietnam."

1. "an open ended commitment"

2. "thinking it can be done by airpower alone."

3. "That brings us to President Johnson’s third great mistake; he allowed North Vietnam to become a sanctuary."

"President Obama has emulated Johnson and will create sanctuaries by taking the ground option off the table."

The plan is the base from which all change is made!

Dynamics creating circumstances that warrant change.

Change as a response to dynamics.

NO plan works perfectly from the start. The better the planning and the more correct the assumptions the less change becomes necessary. But start with some plan and go from there.

coolbert.

1 comment:

Steiner said...

Wrong. The full weight of American air power can achieve any political outcome, even if that means utter destruction of the foe so that there is no longer a partner for negotiation. In Vietnam, Linebacker II forced the Communists to the negotiating table because they could no longer tolerate the ceaseless bombing of their urban areas and infrastructure. This lesson is forgotten because it contradicts the establishment narrative that everything the American military did in Vietnam was a failure, particularly under Nixon and Kissinger. The Islamists are even more vulnerable to air power because they have no ground to air capability whatsoever, to say nothing of air to air. Pound them with everything except nukes, day and night: unleash Linebacker III!