On Winning War

This is a transcript of the Unto the Breach program. Click here for the audio.

From Oliver North’s most recent column:

He was standing at the counter when I entered the store. As he paid the clerk, he turned, and I noticed, in this order, his beard, his T-shirt, which had “Marines” emblazoned on the front, and his cane. His prosthetic foot still was masked by the counter when I said, “Semper fi, leatherneck.”

In case you didn’t know, Semper Fi is short for Semper Fidelis – the Marine Corps motto, which is Latin for “always faithful.” It guides Marines to remain faithful to the mission at hand, to each other, to the Corps and to country, no matter what. Marines have a bond that is different than any organization out there, they are more than a family. Whether you are eighteen years old fresh out of high school, or an eighty-something-year-old veteran of Iwo Jima, you are part of a brotherhood that lasts for life. That’s why there are no EX Marines. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

He smiled and replied: “Semper fi to you, too, Colonel. You were embedded with my unit in Afghanistan last year.”

We spoke for a few minutes. He had been wounded by the favorite weapon of radical Islamic terror, an IED. He’s minus some of his body, a little less mobile, preparing to re-enter civilian life and permanently proud of having served his country. As he moved to leave, he said: “We did our part. Sure hope the crowd in Washington doesn’t screw it up.”

Now why would this veteran say that he hopes Washington “doesn’t screw it up?”

This Marine felt strongly enough about his country that he willingly risked his life in order to protect what it stood for. But what have we gained by this great man’s sacrifice? Perhaps he fears “the crowd in Washington” will “screw it up” because since World War Two, politicians have become an obstacle to our military, and have arguably played a bigger role in the outcomes of our conflicts than even the enemy forces we have fought.

While I feel that a check and balance on the military is absolutely necessary, our government has had it wrong when it comes to our nation’s conflicts since World War Two, but especially when it comes to the fight with Islamic supremacism.

In 1979, Iran overran our embassy took the staff hostage for 444 days. Instead of coming to the aid of American citizens, including many Marines, Jimmy Carter did the worst thing he could have done. Carter violated chapter one, page one, sentence one of counter terrorism by placating terrorists. Diplomatic efforts and negotiations failed miserably in securing the hostages’ release, as there is no middle ground, no room for compromise with extremists.

Then in Lebanon in 1983, Washington showed our enemies that they had no resolve when it comes to our troop commitments. Thanks to the efforts of Democrats, and especially then-senator Joe Biden, terrorists learned that all they had to do was kill a handful of Marines and the rest would be withdrawn. In October, a truck bomb killed 244 servicemen, and Washington pulled our troops out shortly after. Once again, the mighty US proved that it was a paper tiger.

Politicians have just enough backbone to send some troops in order to keep up appearances. That way they can show voters that they are at least making it look like they are safeguarding our security and freedom. But this is not enough to win, just enough to serve the interests of the politicians. After all, we can’t wage total war, as they need the votes of the anti-war peace-at-all-cost-voters, too. But once the ugliness that is war hits home and it starts to negatively affect the re-election campaigns of the politicians who hold the military’s reigns, it is time to pull out the troops. Once that happens, it is no longer about the mission, it is about the politician. Because after all, representing ‘We the People’ has become a business, not a responsibility.

Have we learned from our mistakes? No – Washington is full of lawyers, not historians.

What are we trying to do today in Afghanistan?

One: We are trying to cut deals with terrorists. What possible deal would make Osama bin Laden, Beitullah Mehsud, or Mullah Omar lay down their arms and behave themselves, whereby our security situation here at home would be improved? The Pakistani government continually cuts deals with the Taliban, each time the Taliban renege on the deals. The Saudi government paid bin Laden off to the tune of $500 million, and that didn’t work either.

Two: We are coming up with exit strategies. Pop quiz: what was our “exit strategy” in World War Two? The only exit strategy was to defeat the Germans and the Japanese. Anything less would mean defeat for the United States and everything we stood for. When our nation knows that we have to defeat the enemy, we win, and we win hands down. The Japanese basically destroyed our navy in a matter of hours, and we managed to beat them in less than four years. At the same time, we beat the Germans in a matter of months. The simple fact that we use the words exit strategy shows our enemies that waging war with the United States is simply a matter of staying alive until the resolve runs out, as we showed in nearly every conflict since World War Two.

Unfortunately, so long as there are humans, there will be war. Obviously we couldn’t find middle ground between liberty and tyranny with King George. There was no compromise between the northern and southern states on slavery. Although we thought the allies had secured peace in our time with Hitler, that didn’t work out so good either. What would the compromise be with an extremist like Hitler, limit the genocide to just a couple of million jews? Should we only have allowed Japan to conquer half of the Pacific and rape half of China?

So using that logic, what is the deal that we can cut between the Islamic supremacists and the free world? The Qur’an states that the “invitation” to Islam is either to be converted, subjugated, or killed. Where is the middle ground there? Obviously not all Muslims are supremacists, and I do not have a problem with the ones who are not. They are free to practice their religion so long as it doesn’t interfere with my inalienable rights. After all, Muslims here in the United States enjoy the same Constitutionally-protected freedom of religion that I do. But Islamic supremacism destroys our inalienable rights, our Constitution, and our form of government.

So where does that leave our military? Flapping in the breeze. If politicians are going to send them in harm’s way just so they can stay alive, might as well keep them out of harm’s way, right? A Marine in the Pacific theater in 1943 knew what he was fighting for. He wasn’t simply fighting for the guy on either side of him, he was fighting for freedom. But ask a combat veteran of Iraq of Afghanistan what he fought for. You are likely to get an entirely different answer.

The “crowd in Washington” has sent enough troops and resources to make a showing, but they haven’t committed enough to win. They haven’t even managed to identify our enemy. How can the Taliban and other Islamic supremacist groups be our enemy when our government is trying to cut deals with them, and even worse-engage with them. The only engagement a soldier in the European theater did with the German SS was at gunpoint, not at the negotiating table.

Say what you want about FDR, and there is plenty of fault to find with the man, but I doubt any serviceman said of our politicians during World War Two that “I hope they don’t screw it up.” At least FDR led a country to defeat two of the greatest militaries the world has ever seen at the same time.

Our military has fought remarkably in every war, and this one is no exception. The problem is that they can’t win if they aren’t allowed to. The members of our armed forces signed up knowing what was in store. If we want to support the troops, it isn’t about pulling them out of conflict. It is about giving them the resources they need to defeat the enemy, THEN come home.

Freedom isn’t free. It must be paid for with each generation – not at the negotiating tables, but often on the battlefield. Because while there is a place for negotiations, it is after you defeat your opponents. There was no middle ground with King George, Tojo, or Hitler. What did we do? We went to war with everything we had. We defeated the most powerful militaries in world history not because of great moments in diplomacy, but because we had the resolve. We did what it took to win, because we fought for freedom.

The fight with Islamic supremacism is no different. We fight an enemy that has no borders, one that is held to no laws of warfare, one that willingly kills its own civilian population in order to advance their causes. Make no mistake, this enemy wants to destroy our freedom. Let us not forget that this enemy seeks to – and has – brought this war to our shores. We can’t reach a deal today with a group that seeks the destruction of our lifestyle, just as we couldn’t reach a deal with Germany and Japan in the past. Whether we want to admit it or not, our enemy has declared war on us, and has been infiltrating and undermining our institutions ever since.

Korea didn’t follow us home. Vietnam didn’t follow us home. But the ideological battle between Islamic supremacism and the West was home before it even started. The war is upon us – we had no choice in the matter. Either we can keep throwing just enough troops and resources into Afghanistan in order to keep up appearances, or we can be the United States of America and defeat this enemy with the full force of our military and the full support of the country behind them. That’s the only way we will win, the only way we will preserve our freedom and way of life. We will never completely defeat the ideology, but we sure as hell can drive it back into the 14th century where it belongs.

And another thing…

Another thing that deserves the ire of the American voter: Obama’s “compassion czars” as Col. North calls them in his column hatched a hideous plan that some of the cost of health care for illegal immigrants and “disadvantaged” citizens be borne by America’s combat-wounded service members. The administration figured that charging veterans’ private insurance companies for treatment of service-connected injuries, wounds or sickness could save $540 million. The thousands of wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardsmen that received their injuries while serving this country would pay for their combat-related injuries while people who are in this country illegally would receive free care.

Last time I checked, Blue Cross/Blue Shield didn’t deploy any troops.

This was one of the most infuriating things I have seen to come out of Washington. Illegal immigrants are obviously far more important to politicians than the people who are fighting and dying every day for this country. That fact alone should unite the voters against our ruling class, but only time will tell.

It’s not like this veteran lost his leg in some freak off-duty accident, he lost it in service to the very country that almost told him that he would have to foot the bill himself. Meanwhile, people that by the very act of coming here have already broken the very laws that our politicians have sworn an oath to protect. What has this nation come to?