I keep seeing/hearing these terms bandied around by the press and the visual media. I am beginning to wonder if they have a clue as to what they really mean.
I wrote to Dr. Tom Barnett--
"Tom--
We keep talking about "Exit strategy". I attended USMC Command and Staff College 40 years ago (Class of '69) and I don't remember ever discussing "Exit strategy". We never seem to exit anywhere--we always leave remnants around--grandchildren and perhaps some great grandchildren of WWII folks are now serving in Germany, Italy and Japan.
But exit we must from Iraq and Afghanistan before we leave from exhaustion. Do we wait until our body count gets to 58,000 or what?"
And he replied:
"You're right. We don't exit. We always stay behind, and then those regions stop having war. That's what the Leviathan does.
And we've been enormously successful at it."
But I guess I have to say that this only applies in those battles that we win; i.e., WWII and although we didn't "win" in my estimation, we did leave troops in South Korea. Oh yes, we did leave nearly 2,000 behind in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China--we call them "Missing In Action"! And the tens of thousands buried and MIA in Europe and the Far East after WWII.
I'm not talking about military missions in other countries--we have plenty of them--I'm talking about the "Exit Strategy" we are supposed to have for Iraq and Afghanistan. We keep being reminded of it.
Do we have such strategies? And, if so, what are they?
More to follow. All comments gratefully accepted!
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The answer I would have expected... and agree with.
ReplyDeleteI have not yet sent this answer to Barrett, but plan to. I guess I have to say that this only applies in those battles that we win; i.e., WWII and although we didn't "win" in my estimation, we did leave troops in South Korea. Oh yes, we did leave nearly 2,000 behind in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China--we call them "Missing In Action"! In addition to MIAs, we also leave KIAs whose bodys were not recovered and the bastards we sired while we were "there". Andwe also left tens of thousands buried and MIA in Europe and the Far East after WWII.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Leviathan does leave its spore, but not always what we would like it to be.
For some reason--age I guess, I failed to acknowledge that yesterday, September 2, was the 64th anniversary of Japan's UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER and the end or World War II. Now THAT was how you end a war--UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. If you want to see what that looked like--take a look here: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/japansur/js-8.htm
ReplyDeleteHistory talks about the "nation building" General Douglas MacArthur did after Japan's surrender, but that is NOT what we did. What we did was "state building", but more about that later. Suffice it to say that this idea of state or nation building has a lot to do with our exit strategy.