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YOU CAN ONLY WIN ON OFFENSE - Here’s how you win the war on terror.
Bob Lonsberry ^ | 12/03/2002 | Bob Lonsberry

Posted on 12/3/2002, 8:12:52 PM by SAMWolf

YOU CAN ONLY WIN ON OFFENSE

Here’s how you win the war on terror.

You shift your emphasis from “defend” to “defeat.”

Offense wins games. Defense is essential, but secondary.

You win wars by killing the other guy.

This is nothing new. Smarter people have said this better than I can. Hopefully, some of them have the president’s ear.

But most Americans are missing it.

Most Americans think we fight terrorism by tightening security.

We don’t.

And don’t be confused on that point. Putting more guards at the airport doesn’t fight terrorism, neither does opening the mail with rubber gloves.

You fight terrorists by killing them.

Our goal must not be to “defend” ourselves against terrorism, it must be to “defeat” terrorism. We must take the battle to them, not wait for them to bring it to us. We are safer on the march than we are while cowering.

Sure, we should take precautions.

Yes, we must tighten security.

But the primary focus of our efforts must be directed toward violently rooting out terrorists at home or overseas. We must attack, relentlessly.

Our efforts and treasure must be directed toward bloodying him, not covering ourselves so he can’t bloody us. In part because perfect defense is impossible and perfect offense is not.

There is no way we can imagine and prevent every conceivable attack against us. There will always be an opening, a loophole or a lapse. When you are on defense you must anticipate and be prepared to fend off a million blows. When you are the terrorist attacker you must land only one blow.

Defensive measures will always be fallible.

Offensive measures, however, can bring total security.

That is the lesson of history. In America, the Indians aren’t scalping anybody anymore, and the Nazis aren’t sinking any more ships in the Atlantic. That is not because we made pioneer homesteads any more secure, or because we made oceangoing vessels more seaworthy, it’s because we eliminated the threat.

We played offense.

We beat them.

And we enjoyed peace, freedom and prosperity as a result.

And if we want our children and grandchildren to do the same we will need to fight on to similar complete victories.

Because defeating our enemy assures our freedom, and defending ourself from our enemy restricts our freedom.

We have too quickly accepted in America the belief that security restrictions imposed after September 11 are permanent, a necessary hallmark of the new world.

But they are not.

America is a society which has enjoyed a free openness unparalleled in human history. We go where we want and do what we want and we live as we please. Domestic security precautions restrict that.

And while that may be necessary in times of war, it must not be permanent. During World War II, homes had blackout shades for the windows, to keep enemy planes from being able to pick out targets. Those were necessary then. But when the war was over they were gone.

It must be the same with this war.

The defensive restrictions of World War II – and the Civil War and the Revolutionary War – went away because we eliminated the need. We killed the enemy who threatened us.

It must be the same with this war.

We will endure tightened security at home for a time – in the name of defense – but it must be made unnecessary as soon as possible by victory.

We must recognize that and be willing to pay the price required. Not in our liberties, but in our national treasure and blood. It may require us to fight a real war. It may require us to station troops permanently in new parts of the world. It may require a draft.

That’s what smart people are saying.

And they are right.

The fight is not here, it is there. We must not focus on what we can do, but on what we can do to our enemy. For us to live safely in our home, we must make it impossible for our enemy to live safely in his home.

We must beat the living hell out of him.

I grew up in a town where the pioneers lived in fear of countless rattlesnakes. They handled that by killing all the rattlesnakes, not by wearing snake-proof boots.

We must do that now.

We must remember that the goal is not to “defend,” it is to “defeat.”

The preservation of American society demands it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: terrorism
A NOTE TO MEN AND WOMEN IN THE SERVICE

This is a Thanksgiving note to the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States.

The soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen.

Thank you.

At a time of year when the nation stops to count its blessings, please know that America is thankful for you. Please know that your country appreciates and understands, and as millions of families link hands and hearts in prayer around their Thanksgiving tables, you will be in those prayers. God will be thanked for your existence, and God will be asked to protect you.

America knows the price you pay to protects its peace and freedom.

And that is never truer than at this season of the year, when you naturally long to be home with your families. At this season of the year when the burden of your duty seems greatest and most daunting.

At this Thanksgiving, as preparations for war unfold and the threat of terrorism is real, you are not alone. No matter where your service has taken you, no matter the circumstance or condition. You are not alone.

The thoughts and concerns of every American are with you. A vast nation of hundreds of millions keeps a watchful and worried eye over you, and keeps faith with the errand it has sent you to fulfill. The nation understands that its safety and liberty are in your hands, that the price of freedom and security will be paid by you.

Your country believes you are a hero.

Not just for what you may be called upon to do, but for the simple fact that you have offered to do it. Some will carry guns into battle, and others will fuel jets or cook or run a supply room. But all will serve, and all will wear the uniform, and all will be ready. All may be asked to sacrifice.

Like this holiday.

Whether you are deployed far from home, or at your permanent post. Whether you will have your family and loved ones around you, or will be separated from the ones who mean the most. You are sacrificing. And you are sacrificing because you are in the service. And America appreciates it.

This holiday may offer nothing of love but some wrinkled photographs in your wallet, or a brief phone call or e-mail. If that is the case, please remember that it is not just the people you know who love you and miss you. It is all of us. Whether you are some grizzled veteran of 30 years or more, or a teen-ager newly in uniform, you country loves you like a son or a daughter, and holds you to its breast.

At times like these, we are all family, the military most of all.

So be of good cheer this Thanksgiving, and don't forget what you're giving the rest of us.

After September 11, America remembered what was of real worth. Family, faith and freedom. One institution in our society protects those three things, and guarantees them for us all. And it is you, and your brothers and sisters in arms.

Parents and children will sleep peacefully in their beds this Thanksgiving, and spend the day enjoying turkey and football and parades and grandma, because of you.

And none of us is going to forget that.

Please don't you forget it either.

So, thank you. For having what it takes to be enlisted or commissioned in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. For understanding what it means to uphold and defend the Constitution. For training and preparing to protect our shores and our liberties. For being away from your homes and families. For being in harm's way. For doing what most of the rest of us haven't the courage to do. For living on meager military pay and putting up with the guff your service requires.

And thank you for being a hero.

For being made of the same stuff earlier generations displayed at Valley Forge and Gettysburg, at Iwo Jima and the Mekong Delta.

Thank you for being the American patriots of our day.

May God bless you in your efforts, and may he make us worthy of them and you.

Thank you for Thanksgiving. And may yours be warmed by the knowledge of your nation's love and gratitude for your service.

God bless you and protect you and bring you home safely.

- by Bob Lonsberry

1 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:12:52 PM by SAMWolf
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To: souris; AntiJen; Victoria Delsoul; MistyCA; SpookBrat; SassyMom; bluesagewoman; GatorGirl; ...
The Thanksgiving note is a little late, but it still applies.
2 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:13:42 PM by SAMWolf
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To: SAMWolf
Nice post. TY.
3 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:16:25 PM by Republic of Texas
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Republic of Texas
I've been telling my kids the same thing. We and our Allies kicked Germany and Japan's butt so bad that they haven't really bother anyone for almost 60 years.

When did it become un-PC to destroy those that would destroy you?
5 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:33:42 PM by SAMWolf
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To: SAMWolf
The author is 100% correct (200, if you're an NFL or O.J. Simpson fan!) You may be interested to know that this was an idea (preemptively eliminating the terrorists,) floated 20 or so years ago by William F. Buckley. Who was listening then? Who is listening now? Modern Western democracies, with their political and intellectual elites beset by self doubt, react, they seldom act. They went after Milosevice after 10 years of atrocities, we went after Bill Gates after he's already eliminated all competition. What's the use of that? We are now observing the borking of Kissinger, who's no saint, true, over some alleged actions in Chile. After Watergate, after Iran Contra, I think it's a bit optimistic to expect from the US government what the author proposes. We can dream...
6 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:42:08 PM by Revolting cat!
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To: SAMWolf
Victor Davis Hanson always makes this point. He says that liberal democracies (I know, we're a republic) are slow to anger and do not like to go to war. But when we are stirred to fight we are vicious, unstoppable killers who make sure our enemies do not trouble us for generations to come. He mentions leaders like Sherman and Patton (and a few ancient Greeks). I'd like us to get back to that style of war.
7 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:42:51 PM by ClearCase_guy
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To: SAMWolf
Hi, Sam!

It's never too late for Thanksgiving messages; especially ones that come from the heart.

8 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:54:51 PM by Pippin
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To: Revolting cat!
we went after Bill Gates after he's already eliminated all competition

Got a frog in your pocket, buddy? 'We' didn't go after Bill Gates, the federal government did at the behest of heavy campaign contributors which just happened to fancy themselves as Bill Gates' competition. They couldn't win in the marketplace, so like any good scoundrel they funneled their money into the 'political process' and now Microsoft itself is forced to play the game - to pony up money to politicians to protect itself from the politicians, and as importantly the politicians other supplicants.

9 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:56:15 PM by Gunslingr3
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To: Pippin
Hi Pippin. I missed posting that message on Thanksgiving Day.
10 posted on 12/3/2002, 8:58:34 PM by SAMWolf
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To: Gunslingr3
So, your point is that Western democracies do initiate actions such as what the author proposes or is it that you totally missed the point of the argument whatever the fine details of the Microsoft case?
11 posted on 12/3/2002, 9:06:59 PM by Revolting cat!
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To: Revolting cat!
you totally missed the point of the argument whatever the fine details of the Microsoft case?

It bothers me to see it asserted as common knowledge that the federal government turned the law against Microsoft 'too late'. What should be common knowledge is that the government, federal or otherwise, should not be trying to break up companies at the behest of that company's competition.

So, your point is that Western democracies do initiate actions such as what the author proposes

The 'Western democracies' have shown the resolve in the past to annihilate threats. People seem to have forgotten that there was plenty of 'suicide bombers' working for the Emperor of Japan - they strapped planes on their backs instead of backpacks. Two nuclear weapons and the promise to continue until their ilk were wiped from existence seems to have knocked the fight out of them quite nicely. The jihadists are going to have to be convinced that they can't win. They realize individually that they will die, what must be threatened is existence of those they assert they are fighting to 'defend' from America, etc.

12 posted on 12/3/2002, 9:29:41 PM by Gunslingr3
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To: Gunslingr3
Just because you called the cops on the crime being committed outside your window doesn't mean the criminals are innocent. But let's not get into a debate about the sins (or alleged sins) of Microsoft.

I think that Western democracies have lost the nerve since WWII. This is evident all around us - the guilt ridden hand wringing, the why-do-they-hate-us questions, the victim mentality, the multiculturalism, the massive, unending amounts of aid from the West to the corrupt Third World countries. The West lost its sense of purpose and superiority since the end of colonial times.

13 posted on 12/3/2002, 9:43:43 PM by Revolting cat!
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To: SAMWolf
BTTT
14 posted on 12/3/2002, 10:21:45 PM by Soaring Feather
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To: Gunslingr3
You got that right! It started with a Republican by the name of Orrin Hatch who was bought and paid for by Novell.
15 posted on 12/3/2002, 11:01:09 PM by Crusader21stCentury
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To: SAMWolf
Most Americans think we fight terrorism by tightening security.

We don't. ...

You fight terrorists by killing them.

Now, about those armed intruders crossing into this country via our southern border....

-archy-/-

16 posted on 12/4/2002, 1:30:32 AM by archy
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To: SAMWolf
Great post, Sam.

And don’t be confused on that point. Putting more guards at the airport doesn’t fight terrorism, neither does opening the mail with rubber gloves. You fight terrorists by killing them.

I totally agree.

17 posted on 12/4/2002, 2:38:04 AM by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul
The faster the better.
18 posted on 12/4/2002, 4:22:28 AM by SAMWolf
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