ALMOST WITHOUT FAIL

 They come out after dark but you can still spot them running around in daylight. They are the ones made miserable by the success of others or the hacks that are unhappy that others are gaining the laurels and they always make sure they share their unhappiness with everyone else. Oh look, they moan and observe that after an excruciating 47 hours of war, it's STILL GOING ON!!!!! Their lesser cousins, the spotted dingo curs all then chime in with varying degrees of angst about the:

a. chilluns,

b. pure innocence

c. innocent infrastructure

d. excessive noise

e. a sort of icky sensation 

It's all perfectly normal human behavior but we see a lot more of it then we used to. I'm pretty sure they still don't understand what total war looks like and I'm sure they'd be appalled if we ever decided to go that route. Right now they imagine that we are at the very limits of what military power can achieve and they base this on the idiotic indoctrination they have received and the endless pundits who appear every single time and mock the effort and deride the planners and demonize the people executing the national policy.

I've written before how war can work in the fashion they sort of semi-imagine but they really would not like it. It's kind of strange because they have the records right in front of them and somehow they must know that we can do tomorrow what we did to both Germany and Japan overnight. But no, these people never see that because their teachers told them that strategic bombing is a pointless waste of time, money and resources and inflicts unfair damage and ...... well, you get the point. They base 100% off two facts they made up in their heads.

1. Strategic bombing didn't end WWII or even contribute significantly to ending the war.

2. All the Linebacker and Arc Light strikes in Vietnam accomplished nothing. 

 

Most people who have actually studied the war will accept that, as taught by American schools, the strategic bombing campaign didn't work in Germany or Japan and yet....When the oil was finally made to go away, the still expanding German War Machine went into almost immediate collapse. It just took our analysts too long to find out what the strategic target really was. They did not recognize the Schwerpunkt until they'd been bombing for years.

 

The same can be said of Japan. General LeMay finished Japan as a war power with the fire raids and possibly lamented that soon there would be no more cities to burn. With the rollback to the home islands the Pacific War was essentially over and the reduction of Japan could have taken many forms. The mines, the sea blockade, the endless bombing, starvation.....

 

Outside of Europe I'm not sure more than a tiny handful of Americans realize that the war in Europe was  just about over even without taking Berlin. 

 

Real war is easy. Anybody can do it. Fake wars with negotiated settlements never really end wars, they just postpone the next one.