The Art of War

“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War    

It appears the United States has lost its understanding of what war is all about. In 2004, the United States sent in Marines, along with Iraqi government forces and British forces, to flush out and destroy insurgents in the city of Fallujah. The US casualties were approximately 95 killed and 560 wounded. Now, the news media is reporting that Fallujah has fallen to insurgents once again. John Kerry has said the US will do nothing and that the fight is up to the Iraqi government.

During World War II, the United States knew how to fight a war. After that, we lost our way with Korea and Vietnam, allowing our warfare to be mitigated by political concerns more than with destroying our enemies. In the second world war, Germany was reduced to rubble. After the second nuclear attack on Japan, the Japanese realized they were headed for the same fate as their ally and capitulated without conditions. To emerge victorious, one must completely reduce the enemy's will to fight.

One of the best examples of this has to do with Vlad the Impaler of Dracula fame. In 1462, he was faced with certain defeat when Mehmed II, leader of the Ottoman Turks, approached the Danube with 80,000 men. Vlad could only muster 30,000, but he held 20,000 Turks prisoner from earlier conflicts. When Mehmed II reached the Danube, he and his men saw 20,000 impaled, Turkish corpses on the opposite bank and Mehmed's army refused, out of abject fear, to venture into Wallachia. They returned to Constantinople and Vlad won the battle without drawing a sword.

There is one unalterable truism when it comes to warfare. To defeat violence, you must use greater violence. To hear that Fallujah has once again fallen to those who wish to destroy us and inflict their warped idea of religion upon us all, is a slap in the face to every father and mother who lost a son in that 2004 conflict....or, had sons return who can never walk again, or see again, or think straight again. These people understand one thing when it comes to war, and one thing only. They understand greater strength. How do you think Saddam Hussein was able to stay in power for so long, especially when he was affiliated with the minority Sunnis?

Your next question may be, "So, do we become as evil as he, or as Hitler?"  As if that is a valid question. The United States does not have concentration camps that herd millions of people into the gas chambers and we never have. When has there been an equivalent to the Bataan Death March that can be laid to our charge? Has the US ever shipped thousands of Chinese women to government sanctioned brothels so our soldiers could have comfort sex while they are out and about taking over other lands to keep? When we defeated Japan, did it become a part of the United States as a spoil of war? No, the US is as benevolent a country as has ever been seen in the history of warfare.

Make no mistake, we are still at war with radical Islam. What happened in Fallujah a couple of days ago is a direct result of Iran's intrusion into Iraq's sovereignty. They wish to make it a puppet state so they can get that much closer to their ultimate goal, the destruction of Israel and her allies.

So, what can we do? First, we can stop being ignorant of our enemy. They will not cease fighting until they are forced to stop. The operations our government carried out, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been impotent as concerns defeating the enemy. All we have done is instill stop-gap measures that have no hope of stopping anything. Second, we can stop being ignorant of ourselves. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. When I was a child, or even a young adult, I cannot remember seeing muslim women around here. Now? They are everywhere....and I mean everywhere. This religion is only tolerant of others when they are in the minority. But, what happens when they are in the majority? Saudi Arabia is what happens. Iran is what happens. Libya is what happens. Syria is what happens. Egypt is what happens. And I could go on and on. It will happen here one day and I'm glad I won't live to see it.

I know you're waiting. We have shown no real regard for the sovereignty of Iraq for the last twenty years, so why start now? I would give those in Fallujah a week to get out of Dodge. Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets would be dropped, telling them to get out. Once the week was over, I would systematically carpet bomb the city with B52's until it looked like Nuremberg did after the war....nothing but rubble. Then I would say to the terrorists, "Now you can have it." Otherwise, the men who lost their lives and limbs in 2004, made a sacrifice for nothing. Fallujah would cease to exist if it were up to me.

We have reached a point in our history where the vast majority of the world hates us. So be it. That means we have also reached a point where our politicians and our military need to blow the dust off a book written between 544 and 496 B.C. We need to go back to the basics and a time when we knew how to conduct warfare. Nary a peep has been heard from Japan and Germany since they were almost completely destroyed. They have not forgotten. We need to do the same to our new enemies. They want to hide in civilian clothes and in their mosques? Let them. It's harder to claim innocence when they all dress alike and it's easier to destroy them when they hide in their churches like rats. The time for political correctness and winning over the populace should be over. The time to utterly destroy our enemy's will to fight is long overdue.

However, as I said in the beginning of this post, we have lost our way. The Art of War, for us, has been reduced to finger painting. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, there was nothing short of a will to utterly destroy our enemies. When 9/11 happened? Well, you have seen where we are today, and the distance in ideals, between that time and this, are now light years apart. We are, a nation undone.