Failed War Leadership

The Lyndon-McNamara war leadership (aka GWBush-Rumsfeld) was a disaster on so many dimensions it's hard to conceive how they could have been be so wrong & delusional. In many ways they just repeated the mistakes of Vietnam. They had no concept of victory or doing whatever was necessary to win. They wanted to be loved by history, but will certainly be despised. Here's a couple examples.

Very early after the Iraq government fell, I remember reading in Army Times ( see www.armytimes.com ) that a general was reprimanding soldiers for not wearing seat belts. He had so little knowledge of the situation they faced, in having to bail quickly when under fire. Later he became head of the entire Iraq operation. No wonder it failed.

Then there's Fallujah - a fine example of letting a cancer grow without being excised. And Ramadi. The current issue of Army Times has a story how US units are "Fighting to Gain a Foothold There". Uh, we've been in Iraq almost four years. We won World War II in less time.

Here's an example on how to WIN, from a first hand account of World War II. British tank & infantry units were advancing on a town in Belgium under German occupation. (Remember, Belgium was our ally.) This account is from the tank troop commander. "I told the nearest platoon commander, the only other officer I could see, that if he followed closely behind me, I would put a shell into every house on either side of the street: this would reduce the danger from the Spandau fire [German machine gun fire] that was always such a nightmare for the infantry." (from "By Tank into Normandy", by Stuart Hills, MC).