Posted by
Old Bill on Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:50:47 PM
Befor we consider how to win this war, first let us ask: what is winning? What would victory look like? Let us not deceive ourselves: we must win. "In war, there is no substitute for victory."--Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Our first impulse is to assume that when our soldiers can walk across a battlefield stepping from the body of one dead enemy to another, as did Phillip of Macedon at Charonea, that is victory. It is victory in a battle, true--and as Clausewitz observed, there can be no victory in war without fighting. Whoever dreams of victory in war solely through manuever without the bloodshed of battle simply does not understand what war is: it is a clash between men willing to kill in order to impose their will on their enemy; necessarily willing to risk being killed.