Does it come as any surprise?

If these hippies were so smart during the '60s, what happened to them recently? Power madness?

Vietnam re-visited with even less cause, less strategy, worse tactics, and no leadership. I DO believe we're in trouble.
 
The UN says it will take a month to get troops in there. By then there won't be any Albainian Kosovars left. They're all running for the border now.
 
You would think that in a country like ours, there would be a few people at the national level who would be clever enough to outwit this Balkan thug.
All this posturing and agonizing over whether or not to send in ground troops is supposed to fool whom exactly? Milosevic isn't buying it. So is it intended for the same brain-dead American public that has been giving Clinton those high marks for leadership all these years?
I could be wrong.
Maybe Clinton does have a plan. He says no ground troops, but have there been any reports of large numbers of American tourists with short, military style haircuts and 82nd Airborne tattoos coming out of Italy lately?
 
"There is no substitute for victory."
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

What is victory? In war, victory is obtaining the strategic objectives which are selected by the civil and military authorities of the nation prosecuting the war. The war plan is developed based on the strategic objectives. If the strategic objectives are not clearly defined then the war plan cannot be clearly developed. It is possible to win every engagement and battle tactically but to lose the war strategically.
Vietnam demonstrated this exquisitely but apparently Mr. Clinton never learned.

People have asked,"What's the exit plan?" If the US is basing its actions on sound strategic concepts then the answer is simple. Victory.

The stated objective of the US is the acquiescence of the Yugoslav government to a peace agreement with Kosovan rebels which accepts "peacekeeping" forces in Kosovo. The battle plan is to bomb them into acceptance of this. A gentleman you may remember had the same plan about a half century ago. Adolf Hitler. His attempt to bomb Britain into defeat failed. There is not one instance of air power ever being the sole factor in obtaining military victory. Not ever. I would like to know what basis Mr. Clinton and especially his military advisers have for expecting it to succeed in this instance.

"You know you never defeated us on the battlefield," said the American colonel.
The North Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment. "That may be so," he replied,"but it is also irrelevant."

Conversation in Hanoi, April 25 1975 between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr., the Chief, Negotiations Division, U.S. Delegation. Four Party Joint Military Team and Colonel Tu, Chief, North Vietnamese Delegation.

[This message has been edited by Spartacus (edited March 30, 1999).]
 
Not lately, Art. Clausewitz's On War and Summers' On Strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War. I read Pournelle but nothing from my previous post came from him. I'm puzzled.
 
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