I'm posting this here as it deals with the politics of foreign policy and the quest for this administration to turn our military into Globo-Cop.
I just finished reading what I personally feel is a very well written book, Mark Bowen's "Black Hawk Down". The book is the story of the battle waged in Mogadishu, Somalia in support of the failed UN effort to relieve the starving and suffering of civilians caught in the web of tribal warlords that run the country. It's a riveting account about battle, the ranges of emotions, the brotherhood that soldiers share, and some of the nuances of war, battles, and firefights, as well as some of the politics behind battles fought. I feel a bit emotionally exhausted, and even sitting here, mentally confused at trying to process the "combat information overload" that Bowen shares as a demonstration of the confusion and complications that Mr. Murphy brings to firefights. One passage at the end, in describing the effect of the battle in Mogadishu, struck me as pretty incredibly profound, and I feel compelled to share this passage with the gang here for our own introspection and/or discussion.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
It aborted a hopeful and unprecedented UN effort to salvage a nation so lost in anarchy and civil war that millions of people were starving. It ended a brief heady period of post-Cold War innocence, a time when America and its allies felt they could venal dictators and vicious tribal violence from the planet as easily and relatively bloodlessly as Saddam Hussein had been swept from Kuwait. Mogadishu has had a profound cautionary influence on U.S. military policy ever since.
"It was a watershed," says one State Department official, who asked not to be named because his insight runs so counter to our current foreign agenda. "The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders. Somalia changed all that. Here you have a country where just about everybody is caught up in hatred and fighting. You stop an old lady on the street and ask her if she wants peace, and she'll say yes, of course, I pray for it daily. All the things you'd expect her to say. Then ask her if she would be willing for her clan to share power with another in order to have that peace, and she'll say, 'What, with those murderers and thieves? I'd die first.' People in these countries - Bosnia is a more recent example - don't want peace. They want victory. They want power. Men, women, old and young, Somalia was the experience that taught us that people in these places bear much of the responsibility for things being the way they are. The hatred and the killing continues because they want it to. Or because they don't want peace enough to stop it."
[/quote]
We can note that Kosovo may become an even more recent example. I highly recommend this book, and would suggest that it become required reading to all those in this administration, WJ and Albright, the State Department, and our foreign services, as an exercise in imagining their own sons or daughters sent to administer a foreign policy devoid of military objectives, and based on specuous, arbitrary, or self-absorbed political agendas. Too bad they'll never heed the words, stories, or experiences of those they put in harm's way.
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Don LeHue
The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arms reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.
I just finished reading what I personally feel is a very well written book, Mark Bowen's "Black Hawk Down". The book is the story of the battle waged in Mogadishu, Somalia in support of the failed UN effort to relieve the starving and suffering of civilians caught in the web of tribal warlords that run the country. It's a riveting account about battle, the ranges of emotions, the brotherhood that soldiers share, and some of the nuances of war, battles, and firefights, as well as some of the politics behind battles fought. I feel a bit emotionally exhausted, and even sitting here, mentally confused at trying to process the "combat information overload" that Bowen shares as a demonstration of the confusion and complications that Mr. Murphy brings to firefights. One passage at the end, in describing the effect of the battle in Mogadishu, struck me as pretty incredibly profound, and I feel compelled to share this passage with the gang here for our own introspection and/or discussion.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
It aborted a hopeful and unprecedented UN effort to salvage a nation so lost in anarchy and civil war that millions of people were starving. It ended a brief heady period of post-Cold War innocence, a time when America and its allies felt they could venal dictators and vicious tribal violence from the planet as easily and relatively bloodlessly as Saddam Hussein had been swept from Kuwait. Mogadishu has had a profound cautionary influence on U.S. military policy ever since.
"It was a watershed," says one State Department official, who asked not to be named because his insight runs so counter to our current foreign agenda. "The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders. Somalia changed all that. Here you have a country where just about everybody is caught up in hatred and fighting. You stop an old lady on the street and ask her if she wants peace, and she'll say yes, of course, I pray for it daily. All the things you'd expect her to say. Then ask her if she would be willing for her clan to share power with another in order to have that peace, and she'll say, 'What, with those murderers and thieves? I'd die first.' People in these countries - Bosnia is a more recent example - don't want peace. They want victory. They want power. Men, women, old and young, Somalia was the experience that taught us that people in these places bear much of the responsibility for things being the way they are. The hatred and the killing continues because they want it to. Or because they don't want peace enough to stop it."
[/quote]
We can note that Kosovo may become an even more recent example. I highly recommend this book, and would suggest that it become required reading to all those in this administration, WJ and Albright, the State Department, and our foreign services, as an exercise in imagining their own sons or daughters sent to administer a foreign policy devoid of military objectives, and based on specuous, arbitrary, or self-absorbed political agendas. Too bad they'll never heed the words, stories, or experiences of those they put in harm's way.
------------------
Don LeHue
The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arms reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.
