World Tribune.com


Can we win?

By Christopher Holton
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, September 27, 2001

Unfortunately, more and more, we're starting to see the self doubt creeping back into the American psyche. It is certainly not widespread, but it is growing.

A week ago the nation seemed determined to fight the long hard fight against Islamic fundamentalist extremist terrorist groups that have been targeting America for 20 years. Now the doubters are making their voices heard:

  • Innocent lives will be lost.
  • Remember what happened to the Soviets in Afghanistan.
  • We'll never find bin Laden.
  • The entire Islamic world will unite against us in a holy war.
  • The Arab world will unite against us.

    YadayadayadayadayadaÉ.

    Are you kidding me? Can we win? We MUST win and we WILL win.

    Will it be quick? Probably not. Will it be easy? Probably not. Will it be painless? It's already been about as painful as we can stand. But we've been through this before.

    Our fighting soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have cracked tougher nuts than this one and they'll do us proud again and againÉ

    ÉIn 1918, when we entered the Great War (aka The War to End All Wars), our Marines arrived at the front line in France just in time to be ordered to retreat. Their response: "Retreat hell! We just got here!" They stood their ground and soon, at a place named Belleau Wood, they fought so ferociously that the Germans dubbed them Devil DogsÉ

    Do you think these terrorist groups are tougher than the German Army in World War I? Retreat? Hell, we just got here!

    ÉOn December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, America suffered the worst sneak attack in our history Ñ until now. The battle cry for months and years was, "Remember December 7."

    Remember September 11.

    ÉStarved for good news in early 1942, America needed some heroes. As always, we found them. James Doolittle led 16 B-25 flight crews on a real-life "mission impossible." Taking off from the USS Hornet some 800 miles from Japan in a daring raid, these brave men took the war to the enemy and shocked them. Doolittle and his men had no idea how they would get home. They went any way. We remember them still to this day, heroes all.

    We've still got heroes.

    ÉJust a few months later, a massive Japanese naval armada approached the vital Midway islands in the Pacific in a decisive battle. They outnumbered the U.S. Pacific Fleet by at least 2 to 1 in every single category Ñ including aircraft carriers. The result? Japan's 4 best carriers at the bottom of the ocean and a turning point in the war, courtesy of your Navy.

    And our carriers are still out there today.

    ÉShortly after Midway, the 1st Marine Division landed at Guadalcanal to take on what were then considered the best jungle fighters in the world Ñ the Japanese army. This was just the first of dozens of engagements in which the Marines showed the world who the best REALLY were. At the end the Marines were still there--and almost all the Japanese were dead.

    That same 1st Marine Division still has the name "Guadalcanal" emblazoned on its emblem. And they're still ready to show the world who the best is Ñ as many times as it takes. Do you really think these terrorists are as tough as Japan's jungle fighters in 1942? Do you think they can stand up to the United States Marine Corps?

    ÉSuicide pilots? Suicide truck bombs? Been there, done that. 55 years ago, the Japanese tried to beat the U.S. Navy with something called a kamikaze. Didn't work then. Won't work now. Hell, any coward can crash a truck or an airliner. Try a 72,000 ton battleship. The Japanese Navy did. The battleship Yamato sailed toward the U.S. Pacific Fleet in a suicide mission without enough fuel to make it home. The result? Scratch one 72,000 ton battleship.

    Perhaps Patton said it best: "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other bastard die for his country." I believe there are several hundred thousand U.S. servicemen who will be glad to help a terrorist meet Satan.

    ÉOn June 6 1944, the greatest military operation of all time was carried out by the U.S., British, Canadian, and Free French forces. Nothing like it had ever been conceived. The Germans were sure we would land at the "easy" place Ñ the Pas de Calais. But Ike didn't like to take the easy way out. Our fighting men did the impossible and landed at Normandy, breaching Rommel's Atlantic wall, and liberated an entire continent.

    Osama bin Laden is no Irwin Rommel and neither is Saddam Hussein.

    ÉA few months after D-Day, near Bastogne, France, the Germans launched a counteroffensive in the "Bulge." Surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles were offered terms by the Nazis. Their response? "Nuts." A word that will forever live on in the illustrious history of the U.S. Army. Patton's 3rd Army arrived on the scene, the 101st had held out long enough.

    Do you think the 101st is afraid of the terrorists today? You're nuts if you do.

    Along with our allies, our men in uniform saved the world from the Nazis and the fascists. And they'll save the world from the Jihadists as well.

    ÉJust a few years after World War II, we called upon our fighting men to defend the world against a new scourge Ñ communism. North Korean communists had overrun South Korea and pushed allied forces down into a tiny pocket at the tip of the peninsula. The situation was desperate. Douglas MacArthur needed some heroes. He found them Ñ the 1st Marine Division. The Marines landed at Inchon Ñ where everyone was sure you couldn't land--and quickly sent the North Koreans running north of the 38th parallel.

    ÉJust a few months later, the 1st Marine Division's fortunes seemingly had run out. Along with attached units of the Royal Marines and the U.S. Army, the single division found itself surrounded by 18 Red Chinese Army divisions at the Chosin Reservoir. Did the Marines surrender? No way. Did they retreat? No, they simply attacked in another direction. At the end, 10 of the Chinese divisions no longer existed, but the 1st Marine Division did.

    Chesty Puller said it best: "They're on our right, they're on our left, they're in front of us, they're behind us; they can't get away from us this time." And Bin Laden won't get away either.

    ÉEighteen years later, in another Asian nation assaulted by communism, another Marine unit, the 26th Marine Regiment, found itself surrounded by several North Vietnamese Army divisions at a place called Khe Sanh. The North Vietnamese were sure they had another Dien Bien Phu on their hands. Not so fast. Supported by air strikes around the clock by the Air Force, the Navy and other Marines, the 26th Marines fought and waited and fought and waited Ñ and fought and waited some more. Finally, the NVA had lost so many troops and had such little hope of ever taking Khe Sanh that they just gave up and left.

    The United States military never lost a significant engagement in that war. The war was lost at home and in Washington, but not in the jungles, mountains and rice paddies of Vietnam. We won't let that happen this time. There are no doubts about this cause. No American can watch 7,000 innocent civilians killed on TV and question what has to be done. Those who oppose this fight are simply cowards and traitors.

    ÉIn August 1990, a Middle Eastern despot thought he could just rape and capture his neighbor and get away with it. He couldn't have been more wrong. The U.S. military, along with our allies, took apart the "battle-hardened" Iraqi army, including the "elite" Republican Guards, like so much junk. The bloodbath and quagmire predicted by so many never developed. Our fighting men and women simply killed or captured most of Saddam's military in the greatest military victory since World War II.

    And they stand ready to do it again.

    Sure the enemy is different this time, but isn't he always? Were the Japanese kamikazes the same as the German Waffen SS? Were the Chinese at the Chosin Reservoir the same as the Germans at Belleau Wood? Were the Republican Guards identical to the Viet Cong?

    All wars are different and all enemies are unique. And all wars are terrible. But, as McGeorge Bundy once said, "Although war is evil, it is occasionally the lesser of two evils."

    Now is one such occasion. Today's heroes can win this war for America. Today's heroes WILL win this war for America. Today's heroes MUST win this war for America.

    And we must support them through thick and thin.


    Christopher Holton is the president of Blanchard and Company and has been writing about geopolitical issues, economics, and defense topics for more than 10 years.

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