Posted on 04/12/2010 7:38:12 AM PDT by Reaganesque
bttt
ping
The founders always wished though that they could play by those rules though. Washington lamented how he could not field a European style army. And it was the final force on force battles like Yorktown that decided the war.
See the book in this post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2489017/posts .
It outlines a strategy similar to what you are endorsing. Not mega centralized groups, but many smaller groups. It uses ideas from free market economics create the system (think Smith’s inivisible hand applied to politics).
I heard another example of this where someone said they could beat any of the greatest football teams in history if he were allowed to field as many players as he wanted. It didn’t matter how good the other team was or how good his own players were if every square inch of the field was covered with one of his players.
That’s correct. We had very few true battlefield victories in the War for Independence. The Regulars were over-stretched and very far from home. So, as a means to keeping their numbers up to fighting strength they would conclude a battle after suffering so many casualties. In most cases they could’ve stayed on the field and anihilated the Americans but at too great a price.
I agree. For example, every year the pro-life movement has a parade in Washington that numbers in the millions. Every year the press **ignores** it. Isn't it time to do something different?
Yes, these large Tea Party and pro-life marches are wonderful for building moral, but why not try having a pro-life march next year right on the doorsteps of MSNBCABCCBS in New York City? It could be that they might even have a larger turn out. Why not a massive turn out in the drive ways of the CEOs of the media organizations that refuse to fairly report on pro-life and conservative issues.
By the way, has anyone noticed that "flash mobs" are organized within minutes by teens using cell phones? What would happen if one million people simply all decided at the same time to show up at opportune times and places?
While large marches are useful and should not be abandoned, ultimately if conservatives fail to win elections the nation loses. Winning elections means aggressive poll watching, vigorous purging of the voter rolls, and block by block "get out the vote" organizers.
I've said over and over again, if we insist on playing in a rigged game by the one-party Democrat-Republican monopoly's rules, we will lose.
And so, the first thing we must do is change the rules and stop playing their game.
Sounds like an excellent plan!
Make THEM react to US, instead of the other way around.
This sounds like obama and the dems taking on America by not playing by the traditions and rules.
The small pt boats are the family. Make those stronger, and send our kids out into the country with Christian values and a love of country. That is how we take the nation back, by denying the liberals their cannon fodder.
The full title of the book I referenced is: “The Conservative Hand - A Manifesto to Achieve Conservative Political Goals.” It has a pretty detailed plan of how to get this done.
It’s great to use generalized examples about boats and football teams, but to get to get something done you need a specific plan. The book lays that out. If you are really serious about doing something (and not just talking about doing something), then I strongly urge you to go to Amazon.com and buy the book.
I don’t mean to come across too strongly, but I’ve noticed there are a lot of conservatives that want to do something spontanious and easy (post an idea on a message board, show up at a rally), but when it comes to the next step—come up with a detailed plan to get something done and commit to doing it—the ranks thin out pretty quick.
He is expounding my posts for some time now. We always lose by following liberal rules. Our behavior and posts on the conservative bastion of Free Republic is policed by politically correct sanctimoniousness. Their rules
There is another game, TEGWAR, the Exciting Game Without Any Rules. We should be playing TEGWAR and making new rules. The Rats just trashed the rules to pass the Health bill. That is the game we should be playing.
There should be new rules that exterminate those who persist in trashing America.
I think that while not that radical, Sarah Palen is a TEGWAR player. Her lead must be followed
This kind of skirmishing was not unique. It certainly was not "utterly outside contemporary military thinking at the time". It had been practiced for centuries beforehand (although admittedly the Patriots were particularly good at it). The British were perfectly capable of doing the same thing back, and did so on numerous occasions.
The problem with this kind of fighting is that although it can inflict casualties and delay an enemy, it is rarely decisive in its own right. Contemporary military commanders recognised this. They fought lined up in neat rows for a very good reason. It worked. It is rare for one combatant in a conflict to "steal a march" with some tactical breakthrough. It is even rarer for them to maintain that edge for very long. Similarly, I would suspect this hypothetical wargame navy won because it "played to the rules" of the game itself. It wouldn't work in real life for the very simple reason that the world's military would have deployed such a force if it did. They do, after all, spend their lives working this kind of stuff out. Straight off the cuff I would argue that a giant fleet of PT boats would struggle because a) they don't have much range and b) they aren't very seaworthy. They probably couldn't fire their weapons in rough weather and a gale would sink most of them.
You have to keep an open mind. Things do change. But you also have to be careful. There are very good reasons why some things are done the way they are. It's because they work better than any of the alternatives. :)
I don’t think the guy meant running a perennial third party loser for president and getting 48,000 votes was the answer.
mark
“a giant fleet of PT boats would struggle because a) they don’t have much range and b) they aren’t very seaworthy.”
I’ve never played this game, but I would also think that such a flotilla also would be very vulnerable to being taken out with just a few large weapons (e.g., fuel-air explosives, as one example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9xCgNdZPKk). So yes, the sheer number might preclude taking them out with individual rounds of artillery or whatever, but their small size and inferior seaworthiness would correspondingly elevate their vulnerability to other types of attacks.
They were grassroots, principled, patriotic citizens who decided to put him on the ballot so that they would have a true choice that fit their consciences, since John Judas McCain did not.
We will preserve our right to act according to our conscience no matter how much folks like you hate it.
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