Friday, November 17, 2006

Bush In Hanoi??!!

Perk up your ears...
Do you hear that old Vietnam refrain?
Pssst!! Send more troops. Send more troops! Pssst!

1968: Gen. Earle "Bus" Wheeler asked for 200,000 more troops without any guarantee that they could find the light at the end of the tunnel. Lyndon Johnson finally said "no" and in effect resigned from the presidency.

1983: Remember what Ronald Reagan did when suicide bombers blew up a Marine barracks in Lebanon? He promptly removed the Marines and took full responsibility for the disaster. That's what a buck-stopping CIC does he has produced a fiasco. They don't worry about American credibility or honor. They don't talk about sending in more troops.

When I was in ROTC decades ago, I learned that the responsibilities of command are:
  1. Accomplish the mission
  2. Care for the troops under your command
  3. When and if the mission is deemed no longer attainable, force preservation becomes the primary concern of command.
I have to believe that these principles still hold sway in our Armed Forces, the best military in the world. It's just at the very chickenhawking top of our command structure where these principles were never learned.

More Americans should not be put at risk so that their leaders can try one last foolish attempt to save face.