You know, when you think about the study of War there was only really one important aspect of the War Between the States that deserved great study by military planners. How did a virtually unarmed, unindustrialized country actually manage to fight an industrial powerhouse to a virtual standstill for 4 long years of near total war? This would seem to be the focus of every study of that war and it doesn't appear to have been studied at all by recent graduates of our war fighting academies and schools for higher military study. Maybe we all made a terrible mistake sending our future generals and admirals off to get MBAs at Harvard and Penn and should have had them concentrate on how to fight and win wars.
When the world appears to be flying apart it is sometimes difficult to focus on the one real thing, the vital thing. The Civil War went on for so long because the Union failed to concentrate all of its efforts on destroying the Army of Northern Virginia. It nibbled around every single edge, destroyed vast swaths of territory, killed tens of thousands and yet Robert E. Lee maintained the Army of Northern Virginia in the field without much in the way of difficulty for the entire 4 years of the war and it didn't finally surrender until Appomatax. Did you know that only about 164 men were killed in the Battle of Appomattox Court House where Lee surrendered?
How did the Army of the United States of America lose every war since Korea?
You might think that at some point the Army would be interested in learning how they reached this sorry state of affairs and put in place some effective measures to counter it but they haven't. On the whole history has shown us that the side most determined to prevail will prevail. The side that does not place any limits on waging war will prevail against the side fighting a limited war. The side infected with innovation and the means to bring about radical and fundamental tactical impacts will prevail over the side that takes 20 to 30 years to fields a 'new' weapon.
On the gripping hand, you can have the most brilliant generals of all time leading your army but if the political hand is set against victory there can be no winning. Politics has been allowed to strangle every army since 1945. It has done the same thing to the Navy, Air Force and Marines. I almost want to see the Army of the 1990s and post 2000 making war. Despite knowing better they will set up Tactical and Strategic Operations Centers and they will provide endless opportunities for rapid promotion through the officer ranks. Unfortunately the tactics may improve but the Washington generals are the ones that will 'run' the war every bit as brilliantly as they staged the defeat and disgrace in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
Nothing exposed the destruction of the Armed Forces like reading about President Johnson and his coterie of advisors spending the years of the Vietnam War sitting around after lunch on Tuesdays and drawing up and refining the targets in Vietnam for the next week and laying down the law on the Rules of Engagement. You can give yourself an ulcer reading about it even today.
It didn't have to be that way.
2 comments:
You know things aren't going well when the President is on his knees on the floor looking at maps and photos while designating targets, routes and no fly zones.
As a note, once when the CJCS and the other top brass were discussing Johnson's war management, they were asked point blank why they didn't resign in mass. These top generals answered that they knew the next guys in line and said that the new replacements would do even worse than what they were doing.
If you don't explicitly fight to win you WILL lose.
The communist left knows this fact. The rest of America
has forgotten it.
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