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2008-04-21 16:44:16
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|7006|SE London

Myth No. 1: War doesn’t change anything.

Of course war changes things. That's just stupid. How could anyone believe that.
For example in Iraq it has turned a brutal, yet functional and secure, state into a complete mess.


Myth No. 2: Victory is impossible today.

Victory is always possible. How possible depends on who you are fighting and how low you are prepared to stoop morally.
Against seriously ingrained extremism then you have to kill all the people in the region, as well as all sympathisers outside the region. How is victory in the Middle East going to stop, for example, home grown European Islamic terrorism? It can't. Only global social shift can. Obviously in modern socio-political environments this is effectively impossible (through military means) - but that does not mean it can't be done, it just won't be done (and rightly so).

Myth No. 3: Insurgencies can never be defeated.

Why not? It's all about support base. If the insurgency has a large enough support base then it cannot be destroyed, because genocide is not something people like these days. If their support base is small, they can be easily eradicated. If it is large, say a couple of hundred million, then you're fucked.

Myth No. 4: There’s no military solution; only negotiations can solve our problems.

There's always a military solution. It's just about whether it's worth it and how many people are left alive at the end.

Myth No. 5: When we fight back, we only provoke our enemies.

Nothing wrong with provoking your enemies. It's creating new ones you want to worry about with that sort of thing.

Myth No. 6: Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.

Depends. You may make them martyrs in the eyes of their compatriots and sympathisers. But then you also remove a dangerous element from society permanently - although that could be achieved at least as well by locking them up. It's a delicate balance.

Myth No. 7: If we fight as fiercely as our enemies, we’re no better than them.

What? How do you even begin to respond to something so vague and ludicrous. If you fight Islamic terrorism (for example) with absolutely every means available then you'd end up with no Islamic extremism and probably a death toll approaching a billion. That's going to have wider reaching consequences. If you take it the other way and consider the it to be the killing of women/children/non-combatants, then the West already kills far more than Islamic terrorists do anyway.

Myth No. 8: The United States is more hated today than ever before.

Not myth. Fact.

Myth No. 9: Our invasion of Iraq created our terrorist problems.

Missing a bit off the end there. Should read "Our invasion of Iraq created our terrorist problems in Iraq".

Myth No. 10: If we just leave, the Iraqis will patch up their differences on their own.

Probably. Eventually. Who knows. It's totally unpredictable.

Myth No. 11: It’s all Israel’s fault. Or the popular Washington corollary: “The Saudis are our friends.”

Israel is a banner for Islamic states to unite against. That unity is what drives widespread Islamic terrorism. Without a hostile localised non-Islamic  state, Islamic terrorism would not exist in its current form. In fact the success of terrorism by Zionist agencies between the 20's and 40's could well be why it was later adopted by Islamic radicals.
Saudis? Bastards.

Myth No. 12: The Middle East’s problems are all America’s fault.

The problems in the Middle East are lots of peoples/nations fault. America is hardly the prime suspect.
2008-04-21 16:53:42
Turquoise
O Canada
+1,596|6829|North Carolina

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 1: War doesn’t change anything.
War does change things, but it's certainly not always for the better.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 2: Victory is impossible today.

And in the words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, “It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.”
...It's also fatal to enter any war without the funds or resources to do so.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 3: Insurgencies can never be defeated.
Sure, insurgencies can be defeated in the long run, but you always have to ask whether or not the fight is worth it.  England chose to give up against us back during the Revolution, and for good reason.

Now, it looks like we've taken on the role of the British....  The question is whether we'll be wise enough to know when to quit.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 4: There’s no military solution; only negotiations can solve our problems.
http://i31.tinypic.com/w7n62u.png
In most cases, the reverse is true.
Actually...  neither generalization is true.  Every conflict must be taken case-by-case.  All that is certain is that negotiations must come before war.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 5: When we fight back, we only provoke our enemies.
http://i26.tinypic.com/33cnfc4.png
When dealing with bullies, either in the schoolyard or in a global war, the opposite is true: if you don’t fight back, you encourage your enemy to behave more viciously.
...and the terrorists probably see us as the bully.  Any questions?

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 6: Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.
The strongest part of Peters' argument is in this point.  You can't negotiate with extremists.  The problem is that there are levels of fanaticism. You can't just kill everyone that doesn't like you.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 7: If we fight as fiercely as our enemies, we’re no better than them.

The greatest immorality is for the United States to lose a war.
Correction: the greatest immorality is for the United States to start a war.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 8: The United States is more hated today than ever before.
We may be less divided internally than in previous times, but in the Middle East, we're hated more now than we've been in a few decades.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 9: Our invasion of Iraq created our terrorist problems.

Did our mistakes on the ground in Iraq radicalize some new recruits for terror? Yes. But imagine how many more recruits there might have been and the damage they might have inflicted on our homeland had we not responded militarily in Afghanistan and then carried the fight to Iraq. Now Iraq is al-Qaeda’s Vietnam, not ours.
It would appear that Peters has drank the paranoia koolaid.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 10: If we just leave, the Iraqis will patch up their differences on their own.

The point may come at which we have to accept that Iraqis are so determined to destroy their own future that there’s nothing more we can do. But we’re not there yet, and leaving immediately would guarantee not just one massacre but a series of slaughters and the delivery of a massive victory to the forces of terrorism. We must be open-minded about practical measures, from changes in strategy to troop reductions, if that’s what the developing situation warrants. But it’s grossly irresponsible to claim that our presence is the primary cause of the violence in Iraq - an allegation that ignores history.
What Peters fails to realize is that if we stay in Iraq much longer, it will be America's future that will suffer, not Iraq's.  It's us or them.  I'd prefer we follow our best interests.

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 11: It’s all Israel’s fault. Or the popular Washington corollary: “The Saudis are our friends.”

As for the mad belief that the Saudis are our friends, it endures only because the Saudis have spent so much money on both sides of the aisle in Washington. Saudi money continues to subsidize anti-Western extremism, to divide fragile societies, and encourage hatred between Muslims and all others. Saudi extremism has done far more damage to the Middle East than Israel ever did. The Saudis are our enemies.
It seems odd to me that Peters realizes this but still supports the Iraq occupation. 

Ralph Peters wrote:

Myth No. 12: The Middle East’s problems are all America’s fault.
http://i31.tinypic.com/17po2a.png
Muslim extremists would like everyone to believe this, but it just isn’t true. The collapse of once great Middle Eastern civilizations has been under way for more than five centuries, and the region became a backwater before the United States became a country. For the first century and a half of our national existence, our relations with the people of the Middle East were largely beneficent and protective, notwithstanding our conflict with the Barbary Pirates in North Africa. But Islamic civilization was on a downward trajectory that could not be arrested. Its social and economic structures, its values, its neglect of education, its lack of scientific curiosity, the indolence of its ruling classes and its inability to produce a single modern state that served its people all guaranteed that, as the West’s progress accelerated, the Middle East would fall ever farther behind. The Middle East has itself to blame for its problems.

None of us knows what our strategic future holds, but we have no excuse for not knowing our own past. We need to challenge inaccurate assertions about our policies, about our past and about war itself. And we need to work within our community and state education systems to return balanced, comprehensive history programs to our schools. The unprecedented wealth and power of the United States allows us to afford many things denied to human beings throughout history. But we, the people, cannot afford ignorance.
That last sentence is quite true.  What he states above is mostly true, but he's conveniently ignoring our government's support of oppressive regimes that had little interest in spreading oil wealth to their citizens to improve infrastructure and the overall quality of life.  Saddam's regime being the most obvious one....

 

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