The Real Target
Folks,
Ralph Peters, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, has previously published a collection of insightful essays called "Beyond Terror."
Yesterday, he published this piece. While it addresses the same issue--morale--that I blogged recently, his is far more complete, and carries a great deal more authority than anything I can say does.
Here it is:
New York Post
August 4, 2005
The Real Target
By Ralph Peters
In Iraq yesterday a roadside bomb killed 14 Marines. Two days earlier, six Marines from the same outfit were ambushed and killed. Yet those Marines were not the terrorists' primary target.
You were.
Our enemies know the Marines won't quit. But they hope you will.
The terrorists realize now that they can't defeat our military. Instead, they hope to achieve what the North Vietnamese did: To blur the reality on the ground and convince the American public that we're losing.
Those Marines were tactical targets of opportunity. You're the strategic target. The terrorists hope that our media will create an atmosphere of failure - and that you'll give in to a sense of defeat.
The Marines are looking for a few good men (and women). The terrorists are looking for headlines.
The Marines who died on the Euphrates River battleground were closing down crucial smuggling routes from Syria. Recent operations have made life ever more difficult for the terrorists. Our enemies are fighting fiercely because they're cornered.
They certainly want to kill Marines. But that doesn't require video cameras. The rush to document and publicize their occasional successes makes it clear that the terrorists are fighting, above all, a media campaign. It's their only hope.
That's no comfort to the families of the Marines we lost, of course. And the fact that 20 fatalities within three days came from the same Ohio-based reserve unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 25th Marines, magnifies the pain.
But the unit's losses reflect the importance of its mission.
The terrorists want to hit that battalion as hard as they can, to break the unit's morale and gain some breathing space. They've been doing what any thinking enemy would do - concentrating their resources on a decisive point. They probably studied the forces tightening the noose around them and decided that hitting a reserve unit offered the best chance of success.
They don't know the Marines.
Our troops will keep the pressure on even as they mourn. The Marines have faced far tougher enemies - not least the suicidal Japanese, another enemy who showed no mercy (and beheaded prisoners, as well).
The difference is that the extremists in Iraq don't expect a battlefield victory. They're fighting for time. They hope to wear us down, to maintain a level of photogenic chaos in just enough of Iraq to keep the media hot. They'll keep chipping away at our forces, praying that our will will prove far weaker than our weapons.
They don't expect to force out our military through violence. They hope our political leaders will withdraw our troops. The terrorists have done their homework. They know that a disheartening number of our politicians share one of their beliefs: a low opinion of the American people, a notion that we're weak, that we're quitters.
The terrorists know that our Marines aren't afraid of them. But they believe that our politicians are terrified. Of you.
So you're the target of every bomb, bullet and blade our enemies wield. Those Marines were killed to discourage you. They were targeted to ignite political discord in the USA. They died to give ammunition to those in Washington who view our dead only as political liabilities.
There are many practical military issues the administration hasn't addressed. Our forces in Iraq have always have been too few. Much of the equipment with which our Marines and soldiers are equipped is old, inappropriate and inadequate. We went to war with a military designed by defense contractors, not by warriors.
But while those issues are real, we can't afford to play politics with the vital global struggle of our times, the battle with the psychotic strain of Islam that generates terror. Ultimately, the fate of Iraq won't be decided by our enemies. And it won't be decided by our troops. It's going to be decided by you. By your voice and your vote.
The terrorists mean to help you make your decision.
Ralph Peters' latest book, "New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy," will be published this month.
Ralph Peters, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, has previously published a collection of insightful essays called "Beyond Terror."
Yesterday, he published this piece. While it addresses the same issue--morale--that I blogged recently, his is far more complete, and carries a great deal more authority than anything I can say does.
Here it is:
New York Post
August 4, 2005
The Real Target
By Ralph Peters
In Iraq yesterday a roadside bomb killed 14 Marines. Two days earlier, six Marines from the same outfit were ambushed and killed. Yet those Marines were not the terrorists' primary target.
You were.
Our enemies know the Marines won't quit. But they hope you will.
The terrorists realize now that they can't defeat our military. Instead, they hope to achieve what the North Vietnamese did: To blur the reality on the ground and convince the American public that we're losing.
Those Marines were tactical targets of opportunity. You're the strategic target. The terrorists hope that our media will create an atmosphere of failure - and that you'll give in to a sense of defeat.
The Marines are looking for a few good men (and women). The terrorists are looking for headlines.
The Marines who died on the Euphrates River battleground were closing down crucial smuggling routes from Syria. Recent operations have made life ever more difficult for the terrorists. Our enemies are fighting fiercely because they're cornered.
They certainly want to kill Marines. But that doesn't require video cameras. The rush to document and publicize their occasional successes makes it clear that the terrorists are fighting, above all, a media campaign. It's their only hope.
That's no comfort to the families of the Marines we lost, of course. And the fact that 20 fatalities within three days came from the same Ohio-based reserve unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 25th Marines, magnifies the pain.
But the unit's losses reflect the importance of its mission.
The terrorists want to hit that battalion as hard as they can, to break the unit's morale and gain some breathing space. They've been doing what any thinking enemy would do - concentrating their resources on a decisive point. They probably studied the forces tightening the noose around them and decided that hitting a reserve unit offered the best chance of success.
They don't know the Marines.
Our troops will keep the pressure on even as they mourn. The Marines have faced far tougher enemies - not least the suicidal Japanese, another enemy who showed no mercy (and beheaded prisoners, as well).
The difference is that the extremists in Iraq don't expect a battlefield victory. They're fighting for time. They hope to wear us down, to maintain a level of photogenic chaos in just enough of Iraq to keep the media hot. They'll keep chipping away at our forces, praying that our will will prove far weaker than our weapons.
They don't expect to force out our military through violence. They hope our political leaders will withdraw our troops. The terrorists have done their homework. They know that a disheartening number of our politicians share one of their beliefs: a low opinion of the American people, a notion that we're weak, that we're quitters.
The terrorists know that our Marines aren't afraid of them. But they believe that our politicians are terrified. Of you.
So you're the target of every bomb, bullet and blade our enemies wield. Those Marines were killed to discourage you. They were targeted to ignite political discord in the USA. They died to give ammunition to those in Washington who view our dead only as political liabilities.
There are many practical military issues the administration hasn't addressed. Our forces in Iraq have always have been too few. Much of the equipment with which our Marines and soldiers are equipped is old, inappropriate and inadequate. We went to war with a military designed by defense contractors, not by warriors.
But while those issues are real, we can't afford to play politics with the vital global struggle of our times, the battle with the psychotic strain of Islam that generates terror. Ultimately, the fate of Iraq won't be decided by our enemies. And it won't be decided by our troops. It's going to be decided by you. By your voice and your vote.
The terrorists mean to help you make your decision.
Ralph Peters' latest book, "New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy," will be published this month.
posted by Cubed © @ 8/05/2005 03:26:00 PM
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