Why Aren’t Our Generals Learning?
Frontpage Mag,
by
Daniel Greenfield
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
8/14/2022 8:36:20 AM
A third of the way into his article, “Afghanistan Did Not Have to Turn Out This Way”, David Petraeus, former head of Central Command, who led forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and then headed the CIA, admits the war was never going to end.
“Some senior officials, including me, had cautioned that we would not be able to do in Afghanistan what we had done in Iraq—that though we might be able to drive violence down, we would not be able to ‘flip’ the country, as we had during the surge in Iraq, and provide it a whole new beginning,” he writes.
"When we recognized that we couldn’t 'win' the war,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
downnout 8/14/2022 8:39:57 AM (No. 1247717)
There are fewer promotions during peacetime….
11 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
SweetPea3 8/14/2022 8:59:48 AM (No. 1247732)
Why aren't our generals learning? They're too busy starching their tutus.
17 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 8/14/2022 9:02:39 AM (No. 1247737)
We may lose a war with China - - but we'll lose it with fewer white supremacists than they have.
And - - no matter how much destruction our military endures - - we'll still have more pregnancy flight suits than the chicoms. So there!
19 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
lakerman1 8/14/2022 9:34:01 AM (No. 1247758)
Petraeus spent a large part of his military service in school - he has a Princeton Ph.D. - and as far as I can tell, never carried an M-16 into combat. Those ribbons on his chest are misleading. The military leaders have established a large number of medals and ribbons for non combat achievements.
And now that we have girl generals, who by law were not able to serve in combat, we have a leadership corps of fat, ineffective generals and admirals. If Gilbert and Sullivan were alive, they could write some funny stuff about the American military.
Milley and Austin could have their own solos.
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 8/14/2022 9:43:00 AM (No. 1247769)
We lost a military when it became 'woke' now they are as useless as Starbucks. We now fight wars by proxy like in the Ukraine just let the other guys do it while we weed out white supremacist and place transgenders in the correct barracks. The American military has gone the way of the FBI, useless.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
MickTurn 8/14/2022 9:43:12 AM (No. 1247770)
Arrogance and Greed top all Leftist Generals lists...and so it goes!
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
red1066 8/14/2022 9:44:43 AM (No. 1247771)
Those in charge need to learn the U.S. doesn't need to be the world's policeman. They also need to learn that one doesn't go into a war without having a plan and the will to WIN it. Spending trillions of dollars and costing thousands of lives for a status quo ending isn't anyway to fight a war. Imagine the world if those in charge now were in charge of WWII. What would the world look like today?
11 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
MDConservative 8/14/2022 9:54:07 AM (No. 1247787)
FTA: "A smarter retired general who serves on numerous influential boards and committees might examine how it was that our enemies got us the same way twice. And how we failed to learn anything either time."
Americans have a weak spot for fighting an enemy. Every foreign "crisis" creates demands for some sort of military response. Let's bomb NoKor, Iran, and garrison Taiwan, while maintaining a tripwire in SoKor and manning bases in Poland...oh, and we should be gunning those Chinese boats in the South China Sea, too. We're in Romania right now champing at the bit to get the 101st into the fray in Ukraine, with plenty of pom pom shakers cheering. We excuse this bellicosity as "Leader of the Free World". Sometimes things are best left to our "allies", if not left alone.
So, war and military action is always a popular political and economic alternative to negotiation or even neutrality. And when the war turns into "nation building" or otherwise becomes a stalemate come the cries to "SURGE!" And if anyone suggests leaving a bad situation largely self-constructed, come the charges of "Defeatist!" and the justification that "We cannot leave or we will have fought and died in vain."
The public needs some lessons, too. #1 is to stay the hell out of foreign affairs that are none of our business. #2 is to win the fight and leave the defeated to their own rebuilding. #3, which is really #1 is that defense begins at home at our own borders - keep out the world's riffraff. Read Washington's Farewell Address...he was a "smart" general.
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
czechlist 8/14/2022 9:58:58 AM (No. 1247794)
History is circular, only the names and places change
We bugged out of Afghanistan just as we did Vietnam abandoning allies and assets..Our "leaders" are busy studying diversity and affirmative action and have no time for history.
12 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
coldoc 8/14/2022 10:38:16 AM (No. 1247829)
Military leaders learned the lessons of Patton and MacArthur well. Politicians think they know how to manage wars and dont need generals telling them what to do. Winning is not allowed, except for "hearts and minds". Who was the idiot who came up with that concept, anyway?
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 8/14/2022 11:11:06 AM (No. 1247850)
Generals need to learn to break things and kill people and to do what they are told by a legally elected President and congress (if we ever have one again). In places like Afghanistan, run by Muslim fanatics, if we have to go to war, we can't keep doing it like spoiled sissies. We need to go in heavy, destroy their military, destroy their system of government, and outlaw their version of Islam. After that we need to dominate their country as if it were a colony for about a decade, eventually allowing it independence again when we know it will behave itself.
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
mean Gene 8/14/2022 11:11:37 AM (No. 1247851)
No, he's right.
Islam is fighting the LONG war while we are led by those who have the attention span of the MTV generation.
We had been fighting extremist Muslims "over there," with well armed, well trained soldiers.
Now we have to fight them here, with older people, anarmed people, people who lack situational awareness.
People who do not recognize that we are still in this war.
Brilliant, joe, really brilliant!
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 8/14/2022 11:12:20 AM (No. 1247853)
Because they were selected for political reliability, not for actual military leadership merit. For quite some time, leftists have been forcing actual patriotic warfighters out while promoting the leftist political types who will do exactly as told, regardless of the Constitution or moral right and wrong.
8 people like this.
Although it took 2 decades to get there, we had a pretty good thing going until Butthead pulled out. 700 active duty plus the CIA operating within the secure confines of Bagram Air Base. Not a big deal - we have troops stationed in countries all over the world. With close ties to the Afghan government, we let their military and informants sniff out the bad guys and then launch a drone or Hornet and wipe them out 15 minutes later. Also used that strategic footprint to keep closer tabs on neighboring Iran, all the other "-stan" hellholes, and even western China. No U.S. casualties for over a year prior to the pullout. Wasn't cheap, but it served our interests there quite well.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
hershey 8/14/2022 12:21:20 PM (No. 1247901)
Because the good ones have been cashiered and driven out and only the 'prideful' and line toers are still there..
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
MickTurn 8/15/2022 11:02:48 AM (No. 1248770)
Because they are too busy fitting all our troops with Pink TUTU's.
0 people like this.
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