America the Weak, by military historian Bing West. In the longer term, our standard of living and even our existence is determined in large part by our military, so these sort of issues matter.
In both [Iraq and Afgahnistan], our true enemies were rabid warriors determined to win or die. For us, the wars were limited — fought with few forces and many restraints. When the Islamists proved dedicated to an unlimited struggle, we reversed course and withdrew.
On balance, the results in Iraq or Afghanistan were not worth the costs in American casualties, money, and global influence.
Like Great Britain before us, we were a colonial power. Unlike the Brits, we did not select the commanders of the indigenous armies we were training, equipping, and paying.
[In Afghanistan] we persisted … in fighting an enemy while giving him a 1,500-mile-long sanctuary. Similarly, we knew where the al-Qaeda safe houses were in Syria, just across the border from Iraq. But we didn’t bomb them. We granted our enemy sanctuary.
In the twentieth century, many more combatants were captured than killed. Today, we don’t capture anyone. … Our troops call it “catch and release.”
[W]e remain at war rhetorically, while refusing to fight with determination. … War is the act of relentlessly destroying and killing until the enemy is broken, physically and morally, and no longer resists the advancement of our policy objectives. By that definition, Obama eschews war. He has declared the Islamic State will be destroyed. But his actions belie his words.
[F]or a brief period—two or three decades?—our military technology had outstripped the rest of the world. … Yet we did not win the battles, much less the wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Simple: the enemy adapted. He took off his uniform and used our morality and befuddlement as jiujitsu to overcome our technological advantages. … Most firefights last less than fifteen minutes, because once a gunship or aircraft comes overhead, the enemy is doomed. So he shoots and scoots. Thus the war goes on and on, because the enemy will not commit suicide by massing or wearing uniforms.
Our training, shooting skills, and firepower were overwhelming. The enemy … learned to stay about four hundred meters away from American troops, because every grunt now has a telescopic sight and most are qualified as expert riflemen.
Our largest deficit is national will. … [Obama] refuses to utter the words “Islamic terrorist.” The same is true of Hillary Clinton. … President Bush rashly overstepped in extending war to include nation-building. President Obama ideologically retreated by imposing restraints that encouraged our enemies.
I knew we were lost when 2 weeks after 9/11 while our buildings were still smoldering Bush declared that Islam was the religion of peace.
[T]he Islamic world is using “hijra” – immigration for the purpose of changing non-Islamic lands into Islamic lands, and naïve Western liberals are eagerly going along with the Mohammedans’ desires.
If America allows the Progs to completely takeover, our future will be exactly like the EU: America will be screwed by a Barbaric underclass, and a Progressive overlord class in collusion the underclass to ruin everything in-between, so long as the barbarians let a few overlords think their heads will not be chopped off. …
Obama hopes the Global Progressive Agenda worldview, which he holds so dear, will win in Europe (which he admires for its total dedication to the Global Progressive Agenda), will win in the United States (which he loathes because too many people still cling to the Western Enlightenment philosophy), and will win in the Middle East (which clings to forms of ancient Tribal Control and Rigidity.)
