How we fight todays wars without resolve
September 1862 the confederate army has moved north into Maryland with its first major invasion of the North. They will meet at Antietam Creek as the north called it, or Sharpsburg per the south. The first major (large) battle in this era of modern warfare that emphasized the new rifled musket but continued with the old battle line approach. On the 17th of September the two armies met and battled for a single day. The result, Americas most costly day ever, 22,717 dead, wounded and missing. Famous locations were ingrained in historical minds forever. Dunker Church, Burnside Bridge, Millers Cornfield, and the Sunken Road. In 1862 Mathew Brady opened and exhibition of his famous photographs in New York called The Dead of Antietam to show a curious public the horrific scenes of war. For the first time the media has on full display the horrors of war. Not clean, as from public view, but nasty, mean, dirty and unforgiving.
Living here in the south, William T. Sherman, known by his troops as “Uncle Billy”, has a bad taste even today in the year 2021. After Uncle Billy took Atlanta, he received his orders from Grand and from November to December moved south cutting a swath 20 miles wide of burning and destruction with two wings of Cavalry. Kilpatrick’s on the left and Slocum’s on the right towards his march to the sea bringing the concept of total war to the population and culminating in his taking of Fort McAllister and then the capture of Savannah, Georgia on December 21st. During this march to the sea Sherman implemented his SCORCHED EARTH policy of TOTAL WAR. In later years he would make the famous statement “WAR IS HELL”.
It is truly unfortunate that politics play such an instrumental role when it comes to our military. It is no longer and arsenal of democracy when we drop Thors Hammer, but instead a pesky fly swatter. The public and our elected leaders have come to believe that war is clean and surgical. As William Tecumseh Sherman once said “WAR IS HELL”. I watched on FOX the other day when a missile strike was made in Afghanistan and non-combatants, children, were killed by the strike. Everyone, both parties, were shocked and incensed and wanted to find out why this happened and who is going to pay for the error. It’s war everyone, and it’s cruel, nasty and dirty. No one seems to understand that this is what war is, a nasty business and casualties like this happen and will continue to happen. It’s the nature of the beast since the dawn of time. If one thinks these occurrences can be controlled they are in for a very rude awakening.
These surgical beliefs go back to the Vietnam era. I believe these surgical attitudes towards war is due to the ability of our rapid communication infrastructure to relay to the world at large what is going on the battlefield in real time. Military leaders are on edge to make war as clean as possible as the public is watching and grading them on their civilian casualties. Unfortunately, this is a double edge sward. WWII was most likely the last war where Generals or a military central command made the decision regarding strategic operations in leu of politicians or civilian authority. At the time of WWII, the mission was predominant and field correspondence or journalists were there to report the conflict. McArthur was fired by Truman because MacArthur would not follow what the president wanted from a political perspective and not militarily and the fear of angering the Chinese.
Vietnam became the first war fought and conducted in the media. The day’s events were being submitted hours after being filmed to the world at large with American casualties being displayed every night. The White House’s directives to the military regarding operations was in direct relation to what was happening in the media. For the first time the media (reporters or correspondents) had a direct impact on how the administration was conducting their operations. This was a huge impact and curtailed the military in its operations or to limit the carnage that was viewed at home. Images of civilian casualties or non-combatants paid a huge influence on how the war was conducted. Politicians were so worried about political fallout that it effected their decision making in regards how to conduct the war. Vietnam was never about winning but a holding pattern at the 16th parallel.
Afghanistan was not about winning, but holding the Taliban at bay until the Afghan army could handle the situation. Nation building never ends well when you still have an enemy to deal with. The end result Afghanistan is exactly where it was 20 years previous, except for the modernization of the cities with the Taliban and their cohorts receiving the best military equipment it could never be purchased or stole.
Not since WWII has there been a political leader that was willing to state the issue and the resolve needed. George Bush the younger came close to it after 9/11 but still came up short.
There was a comment that stated “you cannot bomb an ideology”. The hell you can’t, because it has been done and we did it. It’s not pretty, its nasty, mean and very dirty, but you need the resolve and will to use a level of violence and brutality that today’s generations cannot fathom. They had suicide bombers back then, they were called kamikazes. We were not worried how many civilians were killed when Dresden in Germany was bombed into oblivion. 25,000 civilians killed. Curtis LeMay did not worry when he fire-bombed Tokyo and killed 100,000 civilians. No, there was a will to win, to stop it so it could never return. To make them quit. Back then we had leadership, resolve, resources and determination. Until we have this resolve it will never quit. Today we are concerned about everyone’s feelings would be hurt.