Target Centermass

Category: General

  • The Cowards’ Approach to War

    For over a year now, the media and the leftists have demanded for the Bush administration to voice an exit strategy from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many on the right, sans media, have wondered about the exit strategy from Bosnia for years.

    What is our exit strategy from the Korean conflict? Did Truman ever voice one?

    What is our exit strategy from our bout with the Axis powers of Germany and Japan? Surely FDR announced an exit strategy to the American public in World War Part Deux.

    Well, yes, he did. Speaking almost a year before Pearl Harbor, FDR spoke of “no end save victory” in the defense of liberty and freedom. This is how he led the American and Allied efforts in WWII, demanding the unconditional surrender of the Axis countries of Germany, Italy and Japan. He did not fight for a stalemate. He did not settle for a return to pre-war boundaries. He fought to win.

    It is my belief that the very concept of exit strategy is a self-defeating idea. To have any strategy other than victory as the objective is a mistake. A stated and accomplished list of milestones may insure a “peace with honor,” but it in no way guarantees a desired outcome in the long term. War is not the end-all be-all solution to the world’s problems; however, when war must be waged, it must be waged to win. American lives should not be tossed aside for the sake of a tie or, worse yet, an honorable defeat when victory could have been attained had we, as a people, had the stomach for it.

    I have been unable to find any military or political usage of the phrase “exit strategy” prior to the Viet Nam War. Certainly, this is the conflict that popularized the term.

    Stated bluntly, exit strategy is a planned way of disengaging short of victory. Contingency planning in the event of defeat is needed and understandable; planning a withdrawal, based on milestones and dates decided by political needs and not long-term requirements, without defeat but before victory is achieved is indefensible. And yet, this is just what has been demanded by the media during practically every American military involvement of the last thirty years.

    Yes, in the short term, this does have the effect of reducing casualties within a given conflict. Unfortunately, it serves to set the stage for greater loss of life in the next conflict. It is the cowards’ way of waging war, deferring the losses to those fighting later.

  • Iraqi Group Threatens to Kill Zarqawi

    FoxNews.com is reporting that a video of a group of Iraqis threatening Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been send to al-Arabiya television.

    A group of armed, masked Iraqi men threatened Tuesday to kill Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search) if he did not immediately leave the country, accusing him of murdering innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion.

    The threats revealed the deep anger many Iraqis, including insurgent groups, feel toward foreign fighters, whom many consider as illegitimate a presence here as the 160,000 U.S. and other coalition troops.

    I would rather see such threats coming from the Iraqi security forces, but vigilante justice is preferable to al-Zarqawi’s injustices until the security forces are capable and reliable enough for the task. Also, it is encouraging to see some practitioners of Islam standing up for the tenets of their faith violated by these Islamist terrorists.

    In the video, three men, their faces covered with Arab headscarves, were flanked by rocket propelled grenades and an Iraqi flag. The man speaking had a clear Iraqi accent.

    “We swear to Allah that we have started preparing … to capture him and his allies or kill them and present them as gift to our people.” the man said. “This is the last warning. If you don’t stop, we will do to you what the coalition forces have failed to do.”

    Al-Zarqawi, said to be connected to Al Qaeda, is believed to be behind a series of coordinated attacks on police and security forces that killed 100 people only days before U.S. forces handed over power to an Iraqi interim government.

    His followers have also claimed responsibility for the beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg (search) and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il (search).

    Hopefully, this is a sign that the Iraqis have had enough and are reaching the point that they’ll fight for their own future.

  • Happy Independence Day, America

    Posted from Amarillo, Texas, at the home of my girlfriend’s parents. Back to Dallas tomorrow evening.

  • Gunner, sabot, tank!

    Identified!
    Fire!
    On the way!
    Target, cease fire.
    –Tank fire command sequence between commander and gunner

    Well, as I’m new to the blogging realm, I have set my goals for this page at what I feel are minimal and realistic levels. From an undetermined future launch date, I plan to post at least one link with commentary per day and at least one original piece per week. Vacations, though rarely taken, will be excluded from these rather low targets. The “official” launch date will be when I have my first original work (probably some brief bio stuff) and am happy with the look of the site. I may throw a few links up before the launch, though.

    The majority of the stuff I put on this page will be political, although I reserve the right to put in anything from Aggie football to military history to movie reviews to what I had for lunch.

    Well, let’s just see how it goes.