A Hell of a Way to Fight a War!

(This Post First Ran in May of 2006.)

A Hell of a Way to Fight a War!

A bearly restrained press is chomping at the bit to go after a story, at least what we THINK is a story, from a place called Haditha in Iraq.

We actually know very little about the so-called massacre at Haditha. Some 2 dozen civilians are said to have been slain by US Marines as retribution for a couple of their men being wounded or killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) … what you and I would call… a bomb.

The MSM, and the political “Left” has been on a crusade to turn the Iraq war into another Viet Nam since, oh, about 48 hours into the conflict. They began by calling Afghanistan a “quagmire” and almost instantly referred to Iraq as the same. Their hope, apparently, is that they can convince enough Americans that all is lost and that the US is in over it’s head in Iraq to influence the government’s prosecution of the war and cause a US defeat or, worse, a cut and run scenario, called a “retreat”, or as the politically correct language has it an “exit strategy”.

Now, some of the MSM are bringing up the My Lai incident, in Viet Nam, and comparing the Haditha incident with the My Lai incident.

Now, I have to tell you that I was never pleased with the way the My Lai incident was portrayed by the media and… the way, in my opinion, the US soldiers involved were persecuted for carrying out their orders. In fact, I distinctly remember circulating petitions to the President to release those men, accused of wrong doing in the My Lai incident, and sending those petitions to the President of the US.

Just days ago, two members of the media were killed and a third was very seriously wounded in an IED attack as they stood outside their armored vehicle in Iraq.

There is something extremely dishonorable about killing people with a bomb! Especially these remote controlled bombs. There is someone watching, and lying in wait, to push the button on the device, to take out an unexpecting vehicle and it’s occupants. It takes a very low, very dishonorable, person to do that.

The Europeans and Asians tend to call the Americans “cowboys”. That’s fine by us! A “cowboy” is a “man of honor”. Yes, he is a man of action… and swift action at that! But, he will not “shoot you in the back”. That is a coward’s way. That is the way a man of dishonor would do it… and that’s the way the insurgents and the terrorists do it. That kind of behavior, that kind of warfare, is abhorrent to Americans! It is the coward’s way of making war. And that is exactly what we now understand as the way the enemy in Iraq, and around the world, chooses to fight… the coward’s way.

Now, having said that, try placing yourself in the place of the Marines, and as a Marine, you see your fellow Marines being killed, day after day, by a bunch of worthless, world class cowards, and your anger continues to build. You swallow it… and you continue to watch as the “civilians” give those cowards sanctuary, and aid, and comfort, and you begin to fume. It is a powder keg with a lighted fuse. At some point it will explode. That is a given.

I am not going to condemn a group of US servicemen for essentially “losing it and cleaning the house”! The day I can walk the streets in Iraq with 80 pounds of gear strapped to my back while dishonorable men take potshots at me… and even more cowardly men set bombs to kill me and my buddies… and I can do this and not “lose it” myself, then I MIGHT, I MIGHT, bring myself to say something detrimental about those who did, most likely, exactly what I would have done under similar circumstances.

I have argued, from shortly after we invaded Iraq, that we have not prosecuted this war aggressively enough. I still believe that. I think “total war” is the way to go. I have absolutely no belief, nor interest, in winning hearts and minds. I believe in winning the war and instilling fear in the hearts of the enemies of the US. You do that by “cleaning their clock”. Then you walk away and leave them sitting atop a pile of rubble that WAS their country. You do not rebuild their country. Hell, we call that “urban renewal”, not WAR!

So, have at it! Condemn what those guys did, if they did anything at all, but do not expect the ordinary, average, American to back you. We won’t.

Those are OUR troops over there. And the earth’s rift-raff, and cowards of the lowest kind, are picking off our troops one by one, day after day. Those who give them aid and comfort share the same category with the SOB who pushes the button on the remote firing mechanism to detonate that bomb. So far as I am concerned, they did the deed just as surely as the coward who placed the bomb, and pushed the button. So, don’t try to convince me they are innocent!

The US Military cannot place good men, in a war zone, with that kind of burden on their shoulders, everyday, and expect them to perform at their highest level. If they continuously have to worry if they are about to do something politically incorrect, then they ARE going to hesitate and they ARE going to get killed… or get their buddies killed.

This is a hell of a way to fight a war!

Longstreet