Notes on Living in Wonderland

Part 3:
Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
... or would somebody please change the channel.

If US military theorists learned one lesson from the Viet Nam War, it surely was that the US must fight strategically to achieve a convincing military victory quickly and avoid becoming engaged in a prolonged and indeterminate ground war. Otherwise, the domestic situation starts getting kinda hinky back home.

Thus a new strategy emerged: Hit hard, hit fast and win convincingly with an overwhelming show of force.

Rapid technological advances in sophisticated weapon systems like satellite and GPS-guided smart bombs, armed drones and cruise missiles seemed tailor made to complement this new form of sanitized warfare.

This was the concept behind "Shock and Awe" in Iraq. No matter where you stand politically, it's simply a fact that the US military's stunning defeat of the Iraqi Army was nearly textbook perfect in its effectiveness.

But during the years while the Pentagon was learning from its Viet Nam mistakes and re-writing our strategies, insurgent groups around the world were also evaluating what the US did wrong in Viet Nam ... with one difference: insurgents were scribbling notes in the margins detailing what the Viet Cong did right, and learned to avoid engaging superior forces; that the way to wage war was in the streets, and at times and places of their own choosing.

That's why it wasn't long after declaring Total Victory that the Pentagon experienced an Uh-Oh moment.

If we'd won the war so spectacularly, then why hadn't all the fighting stopped?

The problem is that in our hurry to win quickly and cleanly, we forgot all about winning completely: although we targeted and destroyed "high value" strategic military targets (like airfields, government offices, and military bases) we did little to engage and destroy the enemy's will to fight.

If "Shock and Awe" fell a bit short of its mark the reason had little to do with the US military: the American people simply will not stand for seeing Iraqi cities like Baghdad, Falluja and Karbala bombed and machine-gunned to dung heaps the same way German and Japanese cities were carpet- and fire-bombed to gravel and ash during World War II.

Our military leaders know we don't have the stomach for it. And maybe that means we don't have the nerve to do what it takes to win a war.

Yet there's another, even more revealing explanation behind the Pentagon's love affair with smart bombs, surgical air strikes and "contained warfare": They believed that by achieving a series of quick tactical victories we would achieve a comprehensive strategic victory and avoid the possibility that massive troop deployments might be necessary to occupy and oversee Iraq's reconstruction.

In other words, our leaders went to war handicapped by the reality that political suicide was inevitable if our armed forces became involved in a prolonged conflict in Iraq that would require reinstating the Draft.

The Draft? Are you serious?

The truth is that we've become so seduced and in love with the romance of fighting bloodless, gallant wars of principle with sophisticated weapon systems that we actually believe real combat must be exactly like combat in video games. And we don't understand why the war in Iraq can't be fought and won the same way.

We want to fight all our wars with technology, because people like you and me don't get shot at or die in video games.

But terrorists fight with real bullets, blow up real car bombs and cut off real people's heads.

That's why it's easy now to blame Bush for "starting" an unnecessary war and causing trouble, and why some politicians have demanded an immediate timetable for withdrawl. They wanna see the Game Over! screen start flashing right now.

But aren't Iraq and Iran so far away that their antics should hardly concern us? Wouldn't the world be a safer place if we just pulled out and brought our troops home?

I'll bet 98% of Americans couldn't find Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Somalia, Malaysia or Indonesia on a map if that's all they had to do to win a billion dollars. Yet each of these countries face daily terror threats from Islamic insurgents, and they're only a handful of the countries you should already be familiar with to be aware of the potential danger to our way of life they represent

We're talking billions of Muslims worldwide, and the Qur'an and Muslim Hadith are the only sacred writings in existence that encourage followers to make war on unbelievers.

We don't wanna dwell too much on tough issues like that because we've never had to deal with unpleasant stuff (including the possibility of being drafted) before. Our idea of a grueling, nightmarish day means spending 40 minutes on the phone waiting for tech support. Or having to wait too long at the drive-through.

We want to forget that fundamentalist Islam teaches young men that slaughtering infidels like Christians is their only guarantee of entering Paradise. Compared to American Idol that kind of mind-set seems too strange, too 8th Century and too totally weird to be taken seriously.

In the meantime, while American men are focused on financing new cars, dating and downloadable porn, Islamic terrorists are focused on the 72 virgins they're expecting to receive in Paradise.

So long as we're living in denial mode, let's also deny that last week North Korea launched a 3-stage rocket capable of delivering Kim Jong il's nuclear warheads to almost anywhere within the continental United States, and that Iran has publicly declared its intentions of acquiring nuclear weapons and using them to incinerate Israel ... wouldn't ya know ... to fulfill an Islamic prophecy.

Earlier this week Former Speaker of the US House Newt Gingrich wrote that with Hezbollah's unprovoked rocket attacks on Israel, we're witnessing the start of World War III.

Nah, that can't possibly be true. The only thing I want to know is How Much Longer Before the Stock Market Goes Up and Gas Prices Come Down. I'll deal with the rest of the world when it gets here, but in the meantime all I wanna see is Lil Kim bustin' out! GOOD TIMES!

Life's too good here in Wonderland to pay much attention to anything else.

-- next Part 4: The Irrelevance of Experience