did you or any of our Viet Nam Vets here happen to see the WSJ Magazine story by Max Book on General Westmoreland
I missed it but will read it. I doubt I need to but will.
I earned my GB in Nov 62 and stayed on active duty 20 years. I lived the entire mess.
There are so many similarities between the mistakes we made did then and what we are doing now it is outrageous.
We focused our major effort with conventional forces away from population centers to avoid hurting any civilians. Our failure to secure population centers enabled the VC and NVA to walk in to every major South Vietnamese city, basically unopposed in TET 68. And while TET 68 eventually became tactical loss for them. It was a strategic loss for us because America lost her will to fight - beginning with LBJ.
The Taliban and AQ attack civilian centers anytime they want to.
The TET 68 offensive began January 31, 68. By a month later America's morale had dropped like a rock. Then after that one month of heavy fighting and heavy American losses, on March 1, 68 LBJ quit his reelection campaign. When the going got tough on the battlefield and demonstrations were everywhere, LBJ quit being president of The United States of America.
Some of us talked about how the war was over…but it wasn't yet. We had more dying to do.
We have a president today, who finding the going getting tough has begun imploring Americans to put their marching shoes on and demonstrate. Does he want to see another Egypt here? Is his intent to create enough internal dissent that he can become a dictator?
Here are some more similarities-
We had a secret force (SOG) crossing borders illegally and killing (?) enemies in adjacent countries one of which, Laos, had been declared neutral by the UN.
We have secret force killing people in numerous countries.
We elected a weak liar for president - LBJ.
WE elected a weak liar for President - BHL
Our A Teams recruited, equipped, armed, trained and lead indigenous forces that were 55,000 strong against the VC and in my case against the NVA. They got terrible support. We were sent flashlights without batteries, guns without magazines and ammo, ponchos and poncho liners were impossible to get, yet everyone stationed in hard building rear areas had at least one of each. The army could/would not supply us with food so they paid us $30 a month to buy our own. Just one problem the nearest store to my A Team camp was 30 miles of treacherous and mined road away.
I've spoken to A team members today who equally tremendous success with locals and who have experienced similar supply issues.
At one point my team had the entire 66th NVA Regiment located. Instead of sending troops, the army and USAF flew 56 B-52 strikes around us with nilch success. Later The Purple Dragon Counter-Intelligence Operation proved the NVA were getting several hours notice on our B-52 flight paths and were notifying their troop units to move out of that line. Can you imagine that? Over 40 years ago the so-called "primitive and backward NVA" had infiltrated our Arc Light flight reporting system on Guam.
Our forces at war today have also been infiltrated with some success.
I should write a book and probably have in all my letters to congress outlining the same old mistakes. Our military has too many flag officers who like alcoholics and addicts keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
It sickens me when I think about our dead and broken bodied soldiers and our widows and their children. They deserved better leadership but instead of better, as in the 60s, it has gotten worse.
Notice some flag officers who made their 4 stars perpetrating this mess are starting to infer there will be no victory. In my mind, that can only be to prepare you for another battlefield loss.
The barbarians are now at our gate licking their chops.
I should also point out that while Obama makes plans for huge DOD cuts, and Cain speaks about 999 and Perry talks about illegals and scholarships, the only candidate that has discussed any notion or plan to keep America's military strong and just how important that is - is Romney.
uw |
