For what ever reason, the situation in Iraq has gotten to the point where there isn't an easy solution. It might be that things will progress quickly and people will stop dying there needlessly, but history is against it. It looks to be one of those situations where a long term military presence, on the order of generations, will be required to keep stability. That has not long term win scenarios, it is just a struggle to maintain the status quo. I once thought that some sort of victory was achievable in Iraq, I don't think that any more. The fact that the armoring of trucks is even an issue is an indication that things are in a bad way. Trucks generally aren't armored for a reason. One reason, of course, is that it is too expensive. Trucks are intended to travel in areas that are controlled. True, they can still be subject to mortar fire and possibly mines, but that is about it. However, we have been reduced to the firebase concept that we had in Vietnam. To top it off, we can't even guarantee safety in the firebases as we saw in Mosul. This is bad...
Good post!
For the life of me, I can not understand why we don't learn from our past mistakes. Worse.......we delude ourselves into thinking we are this peace loving nation when in reality we are in some war almost every ten years.
During the past 4 years, I have had considerable difficulty reconciling the image of America as I was taught with the current reality. And it seems to get worse by the day......all concern about our global image has evaporated. We know what's best and that's the way it is.....period.
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