a policy of throwing resources at the problem
I the past 60 years since World War II ended America hasn't really prevailed in any war where they had a landslide victory even though they had an abundance of well more advanced arms than any of their adversaries, I will cite Americas wars since the war in Korea in the 1950's:
Korean War (1950-1953)
Victorious early on in the war the American forces managed to defeat the stretched out defending Koreans bringing the war up north until the Chinese (with no air support) with tanks and artillery overrun the American forces forcing them back to the 38th Parallel were Korea is divided with until this day.
Vietnam War (1964-1975)
After more bombs being dropped on North Vietnam than Western Europe in all of World War II, this causing a lot of damage didn't destroy the Vietnamese forces and when the Americans went into the jungle they ended up fighting an enemy that was everywhere and at the same time nowhere!
As the years progressed more died and Nixon bombed the north so hard that the bombs started overflowing into neighboring Cambodia!
The long and dirty war which saw over 58,000 Americans dead;
By 1975 the north were coming down hard on the south, Operation Frequent Wind was launched in Saigon evacuating the last of the Americans and a few hundred Vietnamese in a giant airlift before the communist north took the south of Vietnam, they had failed in their initiative which was originally set out over ten years earlier!
Operation Urgent Fury (1983)
The US invasion of the tiny island state of Grenada in the Caribbean because it was obviously a threat, the invasion consisted of 7,300 soldiers with heavy air support a against 1,500 Grenadian regulars and 722 Cuban military engineers, they achieved a quick victory, however some 19 American soldiers were killed and 116 wounded!
Operation Just Cause (1989)
George HW. Bush obviously had a "just cause" for launching Operation Just Cause the invasion of the third world state of Panama to oust the dictator Noriega, 205 US troops were killed while up to 4,000 Panamanian civilians were estimated to have been killed.
They achieved this with total air superiority of course and by using a land connection to its bases in the Canal zone!
Operation Desert Storm (1991)
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 the US responded with Operation Desert Shield launching a spectacular amount of air and naval power into the Gulf Theater, around 500,000 troops were also sent, below is a clip from the time showing what tactics were used;
Basically fire power over manpower, what this resulted in was the US bombing the Iraqis in Kuwait, hunting them out of their and then bombing them on the highway on their way home, they continued the war into Iraq bombing all of the major cities and destroying the nations military bringing it back economically to the stone age.
Economic sanctions afterwords starved tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians!
Well done America, you achieved a TV war and got to test your military in a fireworks show the size of a limited Vietnam!
War in Afghanistan (2001)
After 9/11 the US having total air superiority over Afghanistan proceeded to look for targets bombing caves and other suspected Taliban strong points, allied with a 19th century like cavalry the Northern Alliance they gave it air support while it took Kabul in late 2001.
The war has been on and off since then with the Taliban like the Viet Cong popping up everywhere and nowhere.
Currently Obama has launched Operation Tip of the Sword, the largest marine operation since Vietnam, I wonder if the same lessons learned from the Viet Cong will apply to the Taliban?
Iraq War (2003-present)
Thankfully the Iraq War seems to be drawing to a close, a 250,000 strong army covered by the air managed to cripple the Saddam regime, Iraq had its back broken in 1991 and wasn't able to recover since then because of the economic sanctions, yet insurgents did kill a costly amount of American soldiers since then.
Some 4,000 American troops were killed since George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared 'Mission Accomplished'.
So basically we have established that America likes having the big guns on a battle and can defeat standing armies with it but when it boils down to conventional warfare against insurgents the American beast can get clogged down and dirty wars prove to be Americas fault since Vietnam, but they've seem to have adopted a policy since Vietnam of simply throwing more money and resources at a war, the Iraq War proved this to work eventually but after much cost in valuable dollars and more importantly lives!
P.S. Today marks the death of 93 year old former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, he served under President Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson, I would recommend watching the Fog of War documentary about him!
Korean War (1950-1953)
Victorious early on in the war the American forces managed to defeat the stretched out defending Koreans bringing the war up north until the Chinese (with no air support) with tanks and artillery overrun the American forces forcing them back to the 38th Parallel were Korea is divided with until this day.
Vietnam War (1964-1975)
After more bombs being dropped on North Vietnam than Western Europe in all of World War II, this causing a lot of damage didn't destroy the Vietnamese forces and when the Americans went into the jungle they ended up fighting an enemy that was everywhere and at the same time nowhere!
As the years progressed more died and Nixon bombed the north so hard that the bombs started overflowing into neighboring Cambodia!
The long and dirty war which saw over 58,000 Americans dead;
By 1975 the north were coming down hard on the south, Operation Frequent Wind was launched in Saigon evacuating the last of the Americans and a few hundred Vietnamese in a giant airlift before the communist north took the south of Vietnam, they had failed in their initiative which was originally set out over ten years earlier!
Operation Urgent Fury (1983)
The US invasion of the tiny island state of Grenada in the Caribbean because it was obviously a threat, the invasion consisted of 7,300 soldiers with heavy air support a against 1,500 Grenadian regulars and 722 Cuban military engineers, they achieved a quick victory, however some 19 American soldiers were killed and 116 wounded!
Operation Just Cause (1989)
George HW. Bush obviously had a "just cause" for launching Operation Just Cause the invasion of the third world state of Panama to oust the dictator Noriega, 205 US troops were killed while up to 4,000 Panamanian civilians were estimated to have been killed.
They achieved this with total air superiority of course and by using a land connection to its bases in the Canal zone!
Operation Desert Storm (1991)
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 the US responded with Operation Desert Shield launching a spectacular amount of air and naval power into the Gulf Theater, around 500,000 troops were also sent, below is a clip from the time showing what tactics were used;
Basically fire power over manpower, what this resulted in was the US bombing the Iraqis in Kuwait, hunting them out of their and then bombing them on the highway on their way home, they continued the war into Iraq bombing all of the major cities and destroying the nations military bringing it back economically to the stone age.
Economic sanctions afterwords starved tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians!
Well done America, you achieved a TV war and got to test your military in a fireworks show the size of a limited Vietnam!
War in Afghanistan (2001)
After 9/11 the US having total air superiority over Afghanistan proceeded to look for targets bombing caves and other suspected Taliban strong points, allied with a 19th century like cavalry the Northern Alliance they gave it air support while it took Kabul in late 2001.
The war has been on and off since then with the Taliban like the Viet Cong popping up everywhere and nowhere.
Currently Obama has launched Operation Tip of the Sword, the largest marine operation since Vietnam, I wonder if the same lessons learned from the Viet Cong will apply to the Taliban?
Iraq War (2003-present)
Thankfully the Iraq War seems to be drawing to a close, a 250,000 strong army covered by the air managed to cripple the Saddam regime, Iraq had its back broken in 1991 and wasn't able to recover since then because of the economic sanctions, yet insurgents did kill a costly amount of American soldiers since then.
Some 4,000 American troops were killed since George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared 'Mission Accomplished'.
So basically we have established that America likes having the big guns on a battle and can defeat standing armies with it but when it boils down to conventional warfare against insurgents the American beast can get clogged down and dirty wars prove to be Americas fault since Vietnam, but they've seem to have adopted a policy since Vietnam of simply throwing more money and resources at a war, the Iraq War proved this to work eventually but after much cost in valuable dollars and more importantly lives!
P.S. Today marks the death of 93 year old former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, he served under President Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson, I would recommend watching the Fog of War documentary about him!
Labels: invasion of grenada, iraq war, korean war, operation desert storm, operation frequent wind, operation just cause, united states, vietnam war, war in afghanistan
posted by Paul Iddon @ 9:26 PM
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