Christian Democrats in the United States

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:31 AM

what is useful strategy?

Playing video games and training simulations, if you shoot up some innocent people, no one really gets hurt. This is a useful strategy because the simulated mission objectives, defined as eliminating the combative individuals, are then accomplished in the programmatic game.

Our military cannot go the way of the failed states of history, in which soldiers translated that mentality to the real act of killing innocent people. Else, we will be remembered only as another failed state of history, like Athens, whose democratic master class failed to recognize the same entitlement to freedom in all people.

Just recently, some combative individuals took pot-shots at a pair of American helicopters. The "strategy" utilized by the helicopter team was to open full fire on the building, killing an innocent family.

With due respect to John McCain's time in war and as a prisoner, in his speeches, he criticized "the other side," making enemies across the aisle, of over-emphasizing America's failures in the war. It sounds as if he, like the current President, parrots a series of excuses written by the speech robots of war interests.

The fact of war is, decisions are difficult under stress, but the Commander in Chief needs to lay down the law on the enemy and his own troops. The short-term strategies employed by combat teams and drilled into their training should correspond to the long-term goals of the campaign. In this case, the long-term goals of the campaign were harmed by pursuing the short term goals of the strategy of the helicopter team. As a President, we need someone who is going to be honest about these things, who will not make excuses for these mistakes or downplay their gravity.

In the case of helicopter patrol teams, consider Los Angeles, California, where helicopters patrol the city around the clock. If an incident occurs, the helicopter is used to monitor the situation from a distance out of range of arms fire and to track the suspects for ground officers to pursue. They do not open fire on apartment buildings with heavy artillery!

In Iraq, the goal put forth by the President, though not Rumsfeld (Gates, what took you so long) was to restore freedom and civility to Iraq after the removal of the fascist state machine. So, our goals in Iraq should correspond to our common democratic goals for civil management of cities like Los Angeles, where, after all, things can get pretty rough.

A helicopter team that comes under fire can rise to a safe altitude, monitor the streets (with the assistance of on-board surveillance technology and tasked satellites), and relay information to ground forces who should pursue the individuals who opened fire. Only in the case that those individuals begin to use heavy artillery against the ground forces should helicopter team commanders consider opening fire on civilian buildings.

Another excuse like "hindsight is 20/20" or "the fog of war, blah blah" will not accomplish the wishes of the American people in Iraq. These obvious facts of conscience and civil policing should already be policy after 6 years of continuing urban conflict. The Commander in Chief bears the responsibility of ensuring that short-term combat strategies correspond to the goals of freedom and democracy. In this war, we have leaders who do not take their own words seriously, who say them and do not feel or comprehend what they say. Leaders who have lied and continue to lie.

America needs Iraq, and the countries of central Asia need America, as a defense of freedom against all fascism. Saudi Arabia for instance, from which most of the combative individuals come from, is a country whose government prefers to let children burn alive because they are not wearing the proper hat, sentences "witches" to death for "having sex with evil spirits," and jails American women for having idle conversations with men. Yet, the current administration has just armed the Saudis to the teeth. The Bush administration is like a junkie for Saudi Oil and Afghani opium. It has lied, it lies, and will continue to lie, as will the majority of the Washington establishment.

This is why we must elect someone who understands what America wants, who is courageous and intelligent enough to go against the procedural grain and tell the troops what they should do to accomplish our goals and the goals of freedom and common respect for all humanity.

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