To Our Military - Defense Secretary Warns Congress Against Tying Military's Hands in Iraq?

Question

Active and Retired, I feel you are the most qualified to answer. No Political Rants Please they don't solve anything

Based on the following statements- Is what Gates said true, Will these resolutions EMBOLDEN the enemy?

Defense Secretary Gates warned Congress against handcuffing military leaders in Iraq as lawmakers pushed toward a vote next week that would rebuke the president's Iraq war policy.

Gates took aim at any resolution that would hinder military leaders and give the message to the enemy that U.S. troops will be in the battlefield without the proper support to succeed. "It's pretty clear that a resolution that in effect says, 'the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he needs to be successful,' certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries," Gates said. "Any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement to those folks. I'm sure that's not the intent of the resolutions but I think it might be the effect"

I realize this looks like a duplicate question but it isn't. I left a "loophole" in the first question to not discourage political rants and didn't direct the question towards getting the opinions I was hoping to receive from the people who I feel have the most experience in giving one.

No nonalcoholic2's, not true at all. It isn't important whether or not I get the responses I "like" or not. What is important is get responses from people who actually have a valid opinion on whether the statements are true or not. The difference between you and me is I WANT to know the truth instead of just spout out garbage. Like you just did..

Answer 1

There are actually people in the world who know about the Vietnam war. That includes almost no Americans. We prefer not to think about Vietnam, so we haven't learned from it. There was a completely winnable war in which we lost no major battles, in which the guerilla fighters (the Viet Cong) were utterly destroyed as a fighting force early in 1968, never to be rebuilt, and yet we lost. How? Diem had announced that he would fight until we got tired of it and went home, and he proceeded to do so. It really didn't matter who won on the battlefield as long as the NVA won on the US TV screen. After the Tet battles of 1968, the Viet Cong were destroyed as a fighting force and the NVA were significantly weakened. Walter Cronkite announced that we were lost, and Johnson said that if Cronkite said so, then the American people were lost. That is, Cronkite's analysis was completely wrong but his conclusion was right, because it was a self-fulfilling prophesy. Our adversaries have learned this lesson, and we haven't. There is no way we could possibly be beaten militarily. The military can handle Iraq. What they can't do is handle public opinion at home, which is where the war will be won or lost.

Answer 2

What is really sad is that Bush has tied the military's hand over the last three years with rules of engagement that have led to this point in the first place.

The enemy, when the only chance they have of winning is to weaken the will of the American people, are the only ones benefitting from a resolution that shows that weakening will.

So goes American public opinion, so goes any war, and the enemy knows then that they are winning. All they have to do is outlast the American people and their will to win, which they will do.

Answer 3

There are different ways to win a war. One, is the old seek and destroy method. When you have killed enough of their soldiers and destroyed enough of their equipment, the enemy is forced to surrender or retreat.

Another method is to destroy the ability to make war. When the factories and warehouses are blown-up or a country can't get fuel, the fight is over.

The "War of Attrition" was the main tactic the North Viet Nam used. They could not stand up and fight us. Our ability to wage war was so much greater than theirs. But, with determination and the resource of people, they could wage war that was not cost effective for us. There guys lived in tunnels they built, carried cheap guns, and lived off the land. If a jet fighter and its pilot was lost, you would have to kill approximately 125,000 soldiers and destroy their equipment to break even. In business, this is not cost effective.

The other method of winning a war is fighting until the other guy packs up and goes home. Viet Nam and Russia's Afganistan are two well know recent wars. We didn't lose the war, we just got tire of fighting. Read into this, that the public was tired of the fighting.

Now to answer your question. The insurgents cannot stand up to fight. There numbers are few and they lack the ability to make war. There people may be tired of the fighting, but the people aren't in control. The only way for them to win is for us to quit and go home. If the public gets tired of the fighting, then they have made progress.

If the generals cannot make the decisions to fight, and have the resources to fully wage war, this will encourage the enemy to hang in there a little longer. They can see light at the end of the tunnel. This will directly feed the public getting tired of the war. Hence, we packup and leave.

Answer 4

I am a retired USAF officer (Vietnam Vet.) and come from a military family. My dad was an USAF officer also and during WW II a grunt in the US Marine Corps.

Yes, the resolutions do embolden and inspire the enemy, just like Hanoi Jane did during The Vietnam War.

Either you take off the gloves and go in to win or you should get out.

Answer 5

Either you just saw the early news or your psychic. Did you see the "planned,organized" attack on our troops in Karbala?? Our own vehicles,our own uniforms, english speaking "soldiers", our uniforms. They passed through a couple of checkpoints and entered a "secured" compound capturing and then killing 5 of our boys. This all going down while Speaker of the House Pelosi in Country. Every time the enemy learns that we (the US) protest and even vote against our own Commander-in Chief, it re-enforces their cause that they believe they are going to win and are winning the war. When we as a Nation as a whole realize that there only cause is to see the United States and Israel eliminated from the human race, only then we'll be succesful. May God Bless us all.

Answer 6

less than no situations ought to this ever happen. We which ability the U. S., Have the sitting Commanders in both NATO positions. structure Belgium, And Allied Forces Southern Europe. Naples Italy. And Command and administration is strictly US. The UN can bypass and suck Canal water. precise alongside with Obama.

Answer 7

The Bush administration must not be aggresive in the Iraq war beacause domestic affairs and the economy are being affected.