On Mon, 23 Dec 2002 09:57:56 -0500 Jon Johanning <jjohanning at igc.org>
writes:
>
> that the end of the war was a delayed result of anti-war actions in
> previous years; it just takes a while for the effects of such
> actions to
> appear.
>
> The problem these days is that the wars the Pentagon wages seem to
> be
> too short for a strong movement a la the anti-Vietnam-War movement
> to
> really get rolling. Plus, of course, the fact that, unfortunately,
> what
> tends to turn most Americans against a war is increasing numbers of
> body
> bags coming back to Dover -- one of the most important factors
> influencing public opinion in the case of the Vietnam War.
And of course current US military doctrine is in large part shaped in terms of the lessons that the Pentagon learned from the Vietnam War, which are to go after the enemy with overwhelming firepower in order to score a quick victory, make as much use of high tech weapon systems as possible, and don't unleash the ground troops until the enemy has been sufficiently "softened up" by overwhelming air power, so as to minimize casualties on the US side (and in the case of the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia, Clinton didn't even bother with sending in ground troops). By taking such an approach to the waging of war, the Pentagon hopes to avoid getting bogged down in "quagmires" which make war politically unsustainable.
>It's very
> sad
> and regrettable that the anti-war movement has to (secretly, of
> course)
> root for high casualties among the troops, but there you are. War
> is a
> damned hard institution to get rid of.
>
> Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
> ______________________________
> From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
> They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
> They are the books, the arts, the academes,
> That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
> Else none at all in aught proves excellent.
> (Love's Labour's Lost)
>
>
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