Citizen Tom

The elections are over.  Conservatives clearly won, but these battles were merely another skirmish.  Until November 2010, we can only, at best, stall the socialist agenda.

So the news media has moved on.  There are two big stories.  They are both about different types of war.  The first story is about the latest battle against the Democrat’s socialist agenda.  Fox News made the battle seem somewhat hopeless, Health Care Protesters Run Up Against Wall of Momentum as Bill Nears Vote.  Whereas ABC News emphasized the “character” of one side of the participants in the battle, ‘Tea Partiers,’ House Republicans Rally Against Health Care Bill.

ABC News also reminded us of the sorry fact that we are on the verge of losing much of our freedom.   In Congress the advocates of socialism have the superior numbers.

“You came! And you came for your House! You came for an emergency house call,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said before the cheering crowd, holding colorful signs and waving banners.

“The Republicans don’t have the votes to kill this bill. … But what we knew was unlimited is the voice of persuasion of the American people. And that’s why you’re here today.”  (from here)

The other story was about a madman, a madman who seems to have brought a faraway war once again home to our nation, Gunman kills 11 in shooting rampage at Fort Hood army base.  This Reuters story the provided background.  Fox News, on the other hand, focused more on the killer, Sources Identify Major as Gunman in Deadly Shooting Rampage at Fort Hood.   What motivated the killer?   That still seems to be a bit sketchy, but the fact the killer was a Muslim is disturbing.

Another story entirely, however, headlined on this morning’s Washington Times, Armored troop carriers called unsafe for duty.  How does the story begin?

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan | Staff Sgt. Daniel Paul Rabidou nervously rubbed the sweat from his palms onto his Army fatigues.

The tall, well-built 24-year-old from San Bernardino, Calif., had already survived two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on convoys in the past six weeks, including one on the same road he was getting ready to traverse again from Forward Operating Base Ramrod near Kandahar to a small outpost in the heart of Taliban territory.

Since they arrived at the outpost on Sept. 13, the Blackwatch unit – Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, with the 5th Stryker Brigade – had lost three soldiers and two civil affairs officers. IEDs had destroyed three of their four Stryker vehicles. Overall, 21 of 350 Strykers have been destroyed since the 5th Brigade deployed in southern Afghanistan in July; more than two dozen Americans have been killed and nearly 70 wounded.

Soldiers call the Strykers “Kevlar coffins,” Sgt. Rabidou said.  (continued here)

How are all these stories related?  We live in a highly competitive world.  We are in a very real sense struggling for survival.  If America is to survive as a free nation, then the American people must be prepared to fight for the right to live free.  Will we continue to fight that battle? Can we continue to win?

Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War thousands of years ago.   He believed he could predict a winner.  Here are the factors he considered important.

13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.  (from here)

Consider why our Army purchased Strykers.  Maneuver is critical in war.  War is won by acting inside the enemy’s decision loop.   What is the objective?

Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.  (from here)

The skillful warrior does not seek to destroy his opponent.  Instead, he seeks to make it impossible for his opponent to do anything except surrender.  Thus the Army sacrificed heavy armor and a costly, clumsy logistical tail, for mobility.   Following Nathan Bedford Forrest principle that we need to “get there fustest with the mostest” (from here), the Army purchased light armored vehicles.  Such vehicles can both be transported rapidly to the theater of operations and can travel rapidly once they arrive. In Afghanistan, this sort of equipment is near ideal.  Afghanistan is on the other side of the world and in the interior of Asia.  We have no easy way to get heavy armor and thousands of gallons of fuel to such a distant place.

So what is the problem?  Rapid maneuver requires smart leadership and a willingness to carry the war to the enemy. If we are going to fight with vehicles like the Stryker, then we cannot sit and wait around to be attacked.  Instead, we have to attack when and where we are not expected.  We have to keep the enemy off balanced and on the run.  We must not allow the enemy time to worry about placing IEDs.

Unfortunately, we do not have a sovereign imbued with the Moral Law.  Here is how Sun Tzu defined the Moral Law.

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. (from here)

Instead of being in accord with our leaders, we are at war with them.  Whether he be a Republican or a Democrat, half our country is furious with our leadership.  What is worst is that our troops have no reason to have any confidence in our current leadership.  Our president simply is not interested.  If anything, it seems he just wishes that the foreign problems that confront him would just go away.  He just wants to worry about his own conquest of the United States.

What is the solution?  There is no immediate solution.  What we must recognize is that we are likely to take heavy losses, both economic and military.  Before we can win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis and the Afghans, we must let the cause of liberty capture our own hearts, souls, and minds.  Then we must elect leaders who love America more than they love themselves.