Al,
Your comment "This perception causes many to believe we are a weak and frivolous people who will back down when confronted. How little they know of us and our history." has merit, over the long term.
The problem is, the current generation of "evil do'ers" have seen a different side of the USA.
We entered Lebanon, were truck bombed and left. The reason Osama bin Ladin and his ilk believe we have no staying power is that is what we have demonstrated. Like the bully on the playground, we were larger, stronger and thought that would cover it. Someone stood up and bloodied our nose and we went home.
Desert Storm was the only action we have taken since WWII, where we had effective rules of engagement.
If we are to place troops "in harms way", we owe it to them to:
1. Have clear, concise objectives.
2. Authorize commanders to protect any perimeter against attack. This may mean innocents are harmed. If, for example, the truck in Lebanon had contained innocents with a throttle stuck, destroying the vehicle before it crashed into the barracks would have been an unfortunate event. However, not allowing the commander to take action because of the risk of an error is not fair to our troops. If they are sent, they must defend themselves.
3. Aggressively pursue the objective. Collateral damage must be minimized, but the primary objective must be the priority or do not engage. In a military conflict the objective has to be end your opponents ability to harm you. Do not impose external constraints to this objective.
My 16 year old daughter and I had a long conversation Sunday morning over breakfast. The first word of the attacks was on the news in the background. She was, appropriately, concerned about the innocents that are being harmed by our actions. She noted that people would be at the airports, in the power plants, etc. and expressed the opinion that we shouldn't be doing it.
I asked her what we should do instead, to protect the people in the Sears Tower, or the Congress, or the Pentagon again, or the Mall (had to get a sense of perspective).
After some thought, she responded that we have to do it, but we should be careful.
I agreed and said I hoped we were being careful and that we should expend some effort to care for the civilian population that was not our enemy. (The food drops had not been announced yet.) She asked if I really thought we would do that and I told her it is the right thing to do, so I'm sure we would.
The USA lost the strength you refer to in you comment for a few decades. We showed it again in Desert Storm and then went dormant again for 8 years (sorry, Clintonites, but it's true). It's back now and I hope we never lose site of that strength again.
Ira |
