I served alongside the US military as part of ISAF…in the early days when support for the US was high.
You have no concept of what it means to have a mandatory civic duty to your country.
“Alongside”.
You did not serve with the US Armed Forces so you have no idea what we’ve learned.
What country did you serve with?
You clearly know nothing of how the modern battlefield operates, or should I say interoperates. There were entire sections of Afghanistan under the control of European ISAF forces where Americans supported our operations.
I’m well aware of that. Unless you were assigned to and trained with a US unit you have no damned idea what we’re taught.
I’ll ask again, what country’s forces were you serving in?
As we all train to the same NATO standards for interoperability purposes, whatever point you are trying to make about the US military is not applicable.
I served 6 years in the Bundesheer: 1999 - 2005.
Then your only actual experience would be training to NATO and UN standards.
You’d have to have been embedded with a US unit for years to even get a grasp of what we’ve learned in the last fifty years.
I enjoyed Austria when I was there in the 80’s. Among other things a few of us got an insiders look at the Spanish Riding School. Amazing animals, handlers, trainers, and riders and breathtaking architecture throughout.
Not UN standards. NATO standards. The same standards that the US Army trains to. I enjoyed my time at Ft. Bliss for training with the Germans.
That wasn’t the point of this discussion. No individual soldier can grasp 50 years of combat experience on his own. I didn’t suggest that. The larger discussion was about the US military not learning lessons from engaging in needless conflict.
Austria is a beautiful country. It’s my homeland and I will always love it. I travel back twice a year but since the migrant crisis happened it is not the same.
You can if you are embedded study, and listen.
I was with JSOC’s International Element for nearly my whole career and that was my job.
I would embed with allies for 9-13 months at a time learning everything I could then we’d rotate back and teach before heading out for another assignment.
It was valuable experience.
Vietnam should have been put in the hands of the military; and all politicians should have backed off. Could have been laid to rest in 2 or 3 months. Just pull out all the stops. Maybe even less than 2 or 3 months. First step, turn Hanoi into a black spot on the map; and it should have been done before a single American was taken prisoner. 24/7 high altitude carpet bombing, napalm, etc. at every single installation. Probably a week at most. Harbors - all shipping, roads - bridges, major cities, rail lines. River levees.
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So are you saying that only your experience matters and that the experiences of others does not?
What I said: If you are in a combat situation, the object should be winning the conflict. You pull out all the stops ( conventional weapons ), and it makes for a shorter ( much shorter ) war. It’s known as logic. Just be relentless on “strategic targets”. In Vietnam, many many Amercian lives were lost, and it was totally unnecessary. First you give a detailed warning, as what to expect; and if you are not taken seriously, you follow through with a vengeance. Wouldn’t have taken long for the North to realize, these guys are dead serious.
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I agree! If you’re not in to win don’t go in.There are times the political handcuffs should come off.There has to be a clearcut strategy not make it up as you go along.
In the ME we have to go allout to eradicate the cancer of Radical ISLAMIC terrorism which is destabilizing the area and fully support Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah.
War is an extension of politics. (Whoever said it was right).
You can’t separate the military from politicians, Jim.
The US managed to expand communism into Cambodia where the dreaded Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) gabbed power and massacred millions.
Some researchers believe in was an experiment of the New World Order.
Our government relies on the intelligence agencies before they make decisions.
In Vietnam they reed on the intelligence agency with the Gulf of Tonkin.
In Iraq they relied on the CIA for the WMD assessment.
No our administrations have not learned to question the intelligence (oxymoron) agencies before making decisions.
And you comment:
there are many in the US population who would sacrifice their own countrymen
Is for the most part bovine fecal matter at best.
The reality is that when you allow politicians to run a war you os every time.
Examples:
Korea. Stalemate.
Vietnam. Loss
Iraq: Loss when we walked away.
Afghanistan: Where empires go to die, another lost cause.
Somalia: Loss.
etc., etc.
Every one run by politicians.
Experience matters. They type of specific experience matters even more.
One cannot comment from a first person perspective without actual experience in a specific area.
In spite of what many believe simply having access to the internet does not equate to either experience or expertise.
All true.
The first requirement however is to define your overall objective, construct a strategy for achieving it and interim goals to measure if your overall strategy is working and if your long term goals are achievable.
Some people will believe any baseless conjecture or bullshit conspiracy theory they read.
Thanks for another great example.
Experience don’t meant shit if there’s no understanding.
Whatever it is you think you know about making war you learned from comic books, video games, and cartoons.