Posted on 10/19/2004 1:59:44 PM PDT by hipaatwo
EMAIL OF THE DAY: "I was stationed at a base (Al Taqqadum) South-West of Fallujah that we took over from the 82nd Airborne. Your writing about the Abu Graib prompted me write this. It is an explanation of why so many in the military favor Bush, even though we are the ones suffering the most because of his mistakes:
It is an old military maxim that blunders can be forgiven, but a lack of boldness cannot. There will always be blunders. The simple becomes difficult in war. Take for example the following question: what is 2+2 equal too? An easy question right? Now imagine I gave you 15 such questions and you had 2 seconds to answer them. Most likely you would answer some and leave the rest. Looking at those questions you missed in isolation I might say, "What kind of blathering idiot are you? You can't even answer simple questions like 2+2=4". That is why Armchair Generals are so annoying. They look at one thing in isolation with all the time in the world to think about it and say confidently "the answers obvious". But when you are out in the fight everything looks different. Nothing is ever seen in isolation. You never have enough time. You never know more than 1/10 what you need to know. There will always be blunders.
But the job has to get done anyway. And to get this kind of job done boldness is essential. A leader who never blunders, but who doesn't take the fight to the enemy is worthless. A leader who sets about to win - win ugly if needs be - is priceless.
One thing the Marine Corps taught me is that a 70% solution acted on immediately and violently is better than a perfect solution acted on later. My experience has proven this true time and again. The sad fact is however, that a 70% solution is a 30% mistake. And those mistakes can be hard to take. In WWII for example, 700 soldiers drowned in a training accident in preparation for D-Day (that is about how many combat deaths we've experienced so far in Iraq).
There is a scene in the movie "We were Soldiers" that says it better than I can. In the scene a young soldier on the ground is giving directions on enemy positions to aircraft flying overhead. The aircraft then dropped Napalm on the enemy. At one point the soldier gets the directions wrong and stares horrified as the Napalm is dropped on his own unit. The soldier is shaken beyond belief. He sat there doing nothing - paralyzed by his mistake. Then his Commanding Officer gave him the confidence to carry on. The CO told him to "forget about that last one" and "you're keeping us alive here". And so the soldier swallowed his guilt and kept doing his job and thereby saved the unit. That is what a 70% solution looks like in real life. And those are the 70% solutions that win wars.
Most people and events are beyond your control. Most questions you don't have time to answer. Most facts you will never know. But you have to press the attack anyway. No matter how ugly it gets, you keep going until you win.
Kerry doesn't understand that. Everything he did during the Cold War and everything he says about this one states as much. He represents those who would never blunder, but who would not take the fight to the enemy. He would just sit there - like the soldier in the movie - paralyzed by America's mistakes."
BTTT
Wonder if this had any effect on andrew?
I took my two sons and their friend to see "We were Soldiers". When we left the theater I told them that now they knew more about Vietnam than anybody at the NY Times or at the Washington Post. Thank you for posting this.
Wow. That's a great letter to wobbly would-be Kerry voter. Bet that got Sully thinking.
kerry admitted this when he stated he sat paralyzed for 45 with daschle immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
Later Read...
Perspective is our friend.
It looks like Patton taught the military well. Too bad the public can't learn some of his lessons.
I suggest we turn this letter into an email chain, if not a full-page ad in USA Today.
Bump!
Excellent read. I've already forwarded it to various liberals in the office. Its interesting that Andrew S. posted it. More interesting that Andrew Sullivan, like John Kerry, seemed to vote fore the war before he voted against it. Total a-hole.
Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending.
I want Bush to decide.
John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security.
That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.
Free for how long?
For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure.
Zell Miller
Sort of what Clinton did in his first challenge---Somalia.
And we paid the price a decade later.
"I was responsible for the operation at (put ANY current political issue here), and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality,"
That is a sensational email. Even a shallow Dem shill like Andrew Sullivan would have to be moved by it.
All i can say is WOW!!!
Excellent Idea, it tells the real story.
Great post. Thanks. I notice Andrew did not comment on this one. Does not fit into his new world view, which is I HATE BUSH.
As for Anne-drew S. He is a woman, so he thinks like a woman. He reserves the right to change his mind, as that is a woman's prerogative.
I'm very surprised that Andrew Sullivan posted this e-mail. Perhaps he took some of it to heart.
Kerry keeps attacking President Bush for the 30% mistakes, but the American people are seeing the 70% victory in Iraq. That's why Kerry will lose this election. If he had JUST ONCE in the debates acknowledged any sense of what this soldier says, he might have had a chance. But he couldn't. Not because he doesn't get it; he does. But he doesn't think WE get it.
Wow. His 2 + 2 example is about the best and clearest explanation I have seen of the problems with a lot of the second guessing.
Give Sullivan credit where due. He is not a Bush-hater or a Dem shill, but the problems in post war Iraq (plus his gay white whale) have turned him into a Kerry apologist. That's why this letter is so perfect for him.
AMEN - Do something, even if wrong, and keep on doing something - that the way we learn and not to repeat mistakes!!!
HOLY COW THAT IS AWESOME.
Indeed.
I have read Mr. Sullivan on and off, and one thing sticks with me - he's a guy who thinks. Seriously. It is rare for someone who posts their opinions in public to approach their own opinions critically. Sure, he doesn't do it every day. Sure, he's wrong. But he's one of the very few public personalities who I know will examine himself and his conclusions - and who will, no matter the embarassment, admit mistakes.
If a man is a thinking man, he looks at himself often and critically. If a man has guts, he can admit he's been wrong.
I hold hope that Mr. Sullivan gets a spark from this letter and starts re-evaluating his positions.
Never happen. I used to donate to Sullivan's blog. When W expressed support for the marriage amendment his queer gene took over. W hasn't done anything right since. Sullivan has gone the Brock route.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.
-Teddy Roosevelt
April 23, 1910
Very nice. The support of the military was never in doubt, but I always wondered why considering, like this soldier says, that they are the ones suffering for the Presidents actions. It was a very insightful email, answered a question for me, and further shows just what outstanding men and women make up our military.
Sullivan is thinker -- except where homosexuality is concerned. Then the mind stops. Unfortunately ever since the President came out for the Marriage Amendment this election has been about one issue and one issue only for Sullivan. All his tortured explanations of why Kerry would be just as good for the war on terror are purely transparent rationalizations. He's supporting Kerry because he knows that Kerry won't lift a finger to stop court-imposed "gay marriage," period. It's sad to see a smart man so tied in knots.
If I wasn't in pretty good shape, this would have given me a heart attack. This was a letter from a young Marine, not a soldier. As fine an Army General as Patton was, Marines didn't need to learn a damn thing from him. We had then and have now our own heroes and combat leaders.
Can't help the rather visceral reaction...its sort of in the blood.
No, he didn't post the name.
Bump.
For Sullivan the equation is thus:
Bush's profligate spending + trouble in post-war Iraq + Bush support for FMA = middling support for Kerry despite innumerable faults.
He's one of the most tortured guys out there, that's for sure.
That is just the impression I have gotten since Bush proposes that marriage amendment. The cheap shots he has taken at Bush and convincing himself that Bush could do a better job with lame logic or saying Kerry slam dunked the debates because a CNN poll says so shows he is clearly angry at Bush even if he does not hate him outright.
I'm not sure what that is, but I think I agree. You sift through heaps of dull verbage on the web, then you come across something as crisply argued as this letter, and it stands out.
Laura Ingraham...Is that you?????
We don't need your kind of bigotry. Your comment should be pulled.
Andrew is a girlie man??
Why? Andrew's progesterone has been oozing for some time now. I dont mind that he is gay, I mind that he is double-minded.
Some added perspective. About 16,000 Americans were killed in the Battle of the Bulge (a little less than a month). About 41,000 Americans were KIA in the entire Vietnam war. (1955-75)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bulge/filmmore/fd.html
http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/CASUALTY/vietnam.pdf
Excellent point!!
bump
Not quite an accident. German E-boats attacked LST's in an exercise off the British south coast. For some reason air cover, which would have made short work of the E-boats was non-existent.
Summary here http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheets/makhist/makhist8_prog11b.shtml
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