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Digging our own grave.I'm a college student. A first year college student. A history major, but still just a first year college student. And I can see the pattern. When the Hoplite vanished, Greek power soon followed. When the presence of Roman citizens in the Legions declined, so did Rome. Anywhere in history when you have a great power built on the back of the hoplite, the citizen soldier, that power has inevitably declined when the mercenary replaced the hoplite. America is a great power. American power is built on the backs of citizen soldiers. But I see mercenaries in Iraq. And still I see the pattern. What I don't see is the reason. Each year, we have more people attempt to enlist than we have slots. Each year, we force out good soldiers who want to reenlist. But when war comes knocking, instead of taking them and training them, we hire "contractors" who cost more and who aren't subject to the uniform code of military justice. "Contractors" who don't wear the uniform. Contractors I am less than convinced we can control. In Rome, it started with Quintilius Varus and the Varus disaster. Three Roman Legions died in the Teutoburg Wald. After that, it became increasingly difficult to get Romans to enter the Legions. In America, it started with Vietnam. It has become politically inconvenient for an American President to have soldiers coming home in flag drapped coffins. Hmmm... Maybe I should have titled this one "JFK, give me back my divisions!" I hope, as we go forward, we fare better than the Romans.
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What this country needs...
What this country needs a world war... we need to see foreign troops beaching in Daytona, Boston Harbor, SF Bay, and up the Mississippi. we need to see enemy troops pouring through the streets of middle american towns and suburbs. We need to know for what we fight and die for in foreign lands. And apparently the only way to know that again, is to fight and die on our own lands.
I wouldn't go that far.
I wouldn't go that far. I don't ever want to see an invader's boot on American soil. I think the problem is, we want the war to be over. We are not, by nature, a warlike nation. We're nice. We're nice to a fault. That's why it is so frightening when you do get us mad. But, at the end of the day, we just want to go back to being nice.
After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Halsey said "When this is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in hell." It very nearly came to that, because then, we had a target. We know who attacked us, where to find them and how to fight them. And we did. We killed them until we were sick of it. We killed them until burning two entire cities off the face of the Earth was the preferable choice. It ended the war.
Of course, it didn't end the killing. We were still digging Japanese soldiers out of holes on Pacific islands when then Korean Conflict started. They don't teach you about that dirty little fact in school, do they?
If 9/11 was the War on Terror's Pearl Harbor, then Afghanistan was its Japan in the American consciousness. What we're doing right now is trying to convince the soldiers that got left behind that the emperor has been defeated, and it's time they surrender.
I expect us to have less luck then we did with the Japanese because the emperor hasn't been defeated yet, and even if he is, they don't believe Allah will allow them to lose this war.
So, we're fighting a war that could take decades to win. A war, that by its very nature runs contrary to the nature of the American character.
You touch on the core issue in the current war.
You touch on the core issue in the current war. Allah. No, not the belief in Allah, but religion in general. We are fighting an enemy who believes their God tells them to fight and die. It is nigh on impossible to make the other man quit the field, when dieing on the battlefield is a much higher reward than getting to go home with his shield instead of on it.
It is going to take *generations* to win this war. It took 20-30 years before Japan became indistinguishable from most other western nations in conduct, philosophy and social structure. It will take even longer for Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi, etc.
The thing some people are fogetting is that prior to GW-1, our predicted casualties, our expected casualties was on the order of 10-50 THOUSAND soldiers. We lost, what? 50? a hundred?
That set the tone for all future 'wars' for us. We have become complacent and arrogant. We are going to lose men and women in this war. We are going to lose a lot of men and women in this war. We are going to be attacked on US soil again.
We are going to be tested as Americans, as Citizens and as humnans. Now if only we pass the tests.
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