How to Lose a War - Surrender before you win
One often hears the defeatist whine that it's impossible for us to win in Afghanistan because we are squandering our military resources in Iraq. The following blogger has an interesting take on fighting on two fronts:
Cyberhillbilly, 10 Sep 2008, Petraeus Key to Victory in Afghanistan?
Once upon a time America was engaged in a bitter struggle in a multi-front war. Several years into the conflict the country wasn't convinced it was worth fighting or even winnable. Then a star arose; a General who helped win victory on one front with his dogged tenacity. But victory on a single front did not win the war so the General was called to oversee the effort on the other front as well as assume responsibility for the entire course of the war. The General? U.S. Grant. Now it's General Petraeus's turn.
Of course, fighting on two fronts is nothing new to America, during World War Two we had to fight in the Pacific as well as in Europe, either one of which was enough of a war all by itself.
The Israelis fought successfully on three or four fronts in a number of wars and probably did not win decisively in last year's Lebanon War precisely because it was NOT fighting on multiple fronts.
Fighting on many fronts simultaneously by itself does not mean one is doomed to failure, unless you are a defeatist, leftist coward. Indeed, success is almost entirely dependent on will, on spirit. If the defeatist cowards in Congress had just kept their mouths shut we would not have had an insurgency in Iraq. They encouraged resistance among the jihadists by giving them the idea that it was possible to get America out of Iraq by the simple expedient of killing our soldiers. Muslims saw weakness in our resolve to pay any price, endure any burden to ensure democracy in that country.
Even when we are winning the MSM misinterprets the statements of our military leaders. For example in a BBC interview, Gen Petraeus said that we will be in Iraq for a long time and that we are not in the type of struggle where we can simply declare victory in Iraq as we did in previous wars. There are no enemy leaders as there were in Germany and Japan to sign a peace treaty so obviously we will never be able to print banners declaring "Victory in Iraq"; so what headline did the BBC use for the story?
No victory in Iraq, says Petraeus
Read [BBC Story]
Makes it looks as if we lost, eh? Certainly these are the kind of headlines that liberal idiots need to see in order to feel good about the fact that they have been rooting for the other side all this time. Sadly Liberals would prefer we lose in Iraq just so a Democrat can get elected in November. It must gall them that the surge worked and that very few American soldiers are dying; I'm sure Obama prays every night for more soldiers to die, for things to go horribly wrong in Iraq. What I'm not sure of is exactly which God he prays to.
