Total War, most of our enemies can’t read but they understand the game far better then we do.

Total war, the operational concept initially contributed to German General Ludendorff in 1936, is to fully engage all the power and resources of a nation state against its enemies. Ludendorff, like Von Clausewitz, Napoleon and Sun Tzu before him came to understand that asking the soldier to fight a war while the nation attempts do business as usual results in total defeat.  The idea behind total war is simple, win at all costs and that means all cost to everyone,  not just the man in the field with his m-4. Total war is the equivilent of going all in a poker game, it’s all or nothing.

How is this accomplished?

Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden and his hired muscle,  Mullah Omar of the Taliban are conducting total war in Afghanistan as we speak. The Taliban on paper are not an overwhelming force by any means in fact if the Taliban were to field its entire fighting force for one set piece battle in classic western style the war in Afghanistan would be over in a matter of hours not days, weeks or years, which is exactly why it will not happen. Total war is warfare at is purest, it is the type of warfare we have not seen in the west since Sherman’s March, if you discount Curtis Lemays bombing strategy during World War II. In total war, no distinction is made between combatant and civilian, no resource is to be left to the enemy, no supplies, no water, no food and no population to reinforce his ranks. In total warfare, the tax base of a nation is just as likely a target as its tank or soldier, because the tax base pays for the tank and  the soldier, so total war recognizes that wrecking a country’s economy impares its ability to conduct a war against you. The more open the nation state’s economy the more peril it faces in total war. Going all in so to speak.

The stated goal of Osama bin Laden in 2001 was to bring the United States to its knees by bleeding it dry, not in terms of lives but in terms of money. Osama and his Taliban allies are of the opinion that the Soviet Union fell not because of Ronald Reagan’s speeches and military spending but because of the war in Afghanistan, and many economists agree that the overwhelming burden on the Soviet economy the Afghan Campaign coupled with the effective undermining of Soviet morale by the Mujahadin’s willingness to die, Radio Free Europe and the stinger missiles provided by the USA were larger causes of the collapse then Reagan’s rhetorical attacks.

Living with constant warfare from the moment of birth the typical Taliban fighter is less than 25 years old,  a local member of a Pashtun Tribe, his family has lived in the same village for 500 to 1300 years, to say he knows the territory is an understatement, he fights side by side with his brother and father, uncle and cousins, a high esprit de corp and unit cohesion through cohorting units are modus operandi for the Taliban.  The history of the Pashtun people is one of constant turmoil, and violence. Like in Vietnam the local people either harbor the guerilla fighters or die a quick death by summary execution for consorting with the enemy, so most will either support them openly or under the table based on the proximity to US forces. Sure some of our NATO allies are effective but look a the recent news that the Italian forces were paying the Taliban not to attack them, and when the Italians were replaced by the French in that sector the Italian Commander didn’t bother to inform the French of this fact. The result, eight french soldiers killed in one attack. So not only were the local people supporting the Taliban so were the Italians!

 

So you think you still want to fight in Afghanistan, and by that I mean you want someone else to fight in Afghanistan not you or your kids. But you do want the US Flag carried into the fight, but you don’t want to pay more in taxes? Ok, so let’s get this straight, the US Forces are engaged in a War which is now longer then our involvement in WWI and WWII combined, and you won’t go, and your kids aren’t going, who is fighting this war and more importantly who exactly is paying for it?

Now back to the Taliban, they are going all in this hand, all the chips are on the table. They are all fighting, if they can walk they fight, if they can’t fight they pitch in with everything they have, and I mean everything. Meanwhile back at the ranch, you’re watching the NFL on tv and complaining about your taxes, which are the lowest they have ever been in the history of the country while we were at war! But you want your neighbor to send his ass and his kids asses over to fight for you. Hell you might even say that the Hollywood anti war types are doing more for this effort then you are, and they are. They are paying more in taxes, and they are going over on USO tours to entertain our guys. Remember, if there is one thing the Army learned from Vietnam it wasn’t that you can’t fight local guerillas with popular support it was don’t let the media see what the hell is going on and do not under any circumstances draft people, those two things make the public pay attention to what you’re doing ten thousand miles away. If on the other hand you control the media (embedding) and you ask for all volunteer’s, don’t raise taxes then you can do whatever you want and the American people will not even question it. So here we are at the poker table of life and death that is modern warfare, sitting across from a professional poker player who is not only holding all the cards, he’s dealing em. He has all his chips on the table, his is all in, and he hasn’t even told us the rules of the game. We are looking at our cards, and think it’s a good hand but then again we don’t even know the rules of the game. Gee I am sure glad it’s not me, or my money at that table because that doesn’t sound fair at all.

So Mr. President, feel free to go all in after the hand is dealt just remember that the rules in war are made up as you go along, and that the chips are mens lives and the stakes couldn’t be higher, at least for the few chips we have in the game.  Sure you were dealt a bad hand by the prior administration who left Afghanistan in a hurry to get into a high stakes oil game in Iraq but you can’t blame them anymore. Mullah Omar and his boys will be back in the spring time with a vengeance, and the game they are playing is total war. Don’t even mention the fact that the Pakistani Army is pushing the Taliban for the first time, if you believe that Mr. President your more of a fool then the people at Fox News make you out to be.

So your 19 and you want to go to Iraq to work for Haliburton Subsidiary KBR think again

Obama, a smart guy who is thinking way too much to be President.

C-Span, CNN, FOX News, and even MSNBC are all begining to openly ask, can the President turn his rhetorical skills and smooth style into action? An excellent question, and we’ll see. Can he, is he, should he, would he , could he, wait that sounds a little like Doctor Seuss.  The pundits are jabbering on and on about this or that, half saying he is doing too little, while the other half screaming he is doing too much. Obama this, Obama that, Obama should, Obama can’t. He must do this, he must do that, Obama must pull a cat out of his hat!  After eight years of the train that is America going off the track having a steady hand at the wheel appears too great a change for most.

The left is calling for reactionary measures, pass this, pass that, prosecute him, prosecute her, we need this, we need that come on Obama where’s our cat? The right is screaming as loud as they can, he’s is the devil more than a man, he is wrecking our country and destroying our land, get him out as fast as we can!

We have added men to Afghanistan and began our withdrawl from Iraq, we have brought the economy back from the brink when the last President allowed it to sink. We are after all a nation of many not just one man. The President has a lot on his plate so much so he even stays up late. Pressing for answers and searching for clues we have a President who wants to know what to do, for many who demand immediate action his style is so foreign, after all where was he born? The last man we had in that office ran around calling for action, Iraq was the reaction. “There are no good targets in Afghanistan sir, but I have a list of beauty’s right here”, “Iraq Rummy are you sure”, asked the President. Then without another thought off we went and trillions spent. Bombing and shooting and then invading a little country to kick the crap out of one man of course we have to kill Saddam, he has weapons of mass destruction, Saddam kills his own people, Saddam eats babies for breakfast, Saddam this, Saddam that, Saddam could pull a nuke out of a hat.  Bullshit.

Of course anyone who knew this was not true got branded as a traitor or unpatriotic by a group of pundits who were at best idiotic. So before we go and make huge mistakes give the man a moment to see what it takes. He is slow and methodical, rather more like a tortoise than a hare. Those who scream and howl really don’t care, they demand action be taken right or wrong “we must act now, no time for discussion or debate, more men for Afghanistan before it’s too late!”  While the right screams for more troops, the left are clambering for action on healthcare,” free insurance for all deficit be damned we need healthcare for all throughout the land.”  The crowds are screaming, surge for Healthcare, surge for Afghanistan, surge here and surge there surges everywhere. So after 8 years of Republicans pulling resources out of Afghanistan to divert to Iraq, now they are screaming attack, attack!    Oh, now you what to complain after letting the Taliban refit and recruit new fighters when we could have crushed them in 2002. Where were you then?

So lets summarize this, the last President tripled the National Debt, got us into a war of choice in Iraq in response to an attack he was warned of in advance and did nothing about. He hired a horse show judge to rebuild New Orleans and gave away billions to friends. He had the Federal Reserve hold down rates, which created the housing bubble. He exposed covert CIA agents for political gain and ran secret torture programs without refrain. When exposed he shreaded the orders, destroyed the tapes, and prosecuted privates and sergeants from Ohio while pardoning his minions in advance. He gave away billions to the banks and got library donations as thanks. He tried to depose Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and failed, twice, and you want to complain that Obama has done nothing, I say thank you, because if this is the kind of action you want you are an idiot. PS: Did I mention Osama bin Laden yet? Oh, the bluster of it all, dead or alive, we are going to smoke em out, and the rest of his bullshit. Bring it on, that was classic Presidential material, and of course landing on an Aircraft carrier with the Mission Accomplished Banner in 2004, that mission accomplished was Iraq, where we still have in excess of 120,000 troops and 75,000 private contractors, err mercenaries. So do you want the hare or the tortoise in charge, me I’ll stick with the tortoise and slowly but surely things will improve after all they can’t get any worse or can they?