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November 7, 2023

We must be very careful how we deal with Iran and other bad actors in the world. If forced into a war in the Middle East, we must go in prepared to throw all our national willpower into the struggle. Poking at our enemies here and there has not brought real peace to that corner of the world—just periods of relatively less conflict.

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Recent history demonstrates that our government usually doesn’t understand how to properly employ our military in anything other than an all-out war or where the US simply has overwhelming strength against an enemy that does not really enjoy the support of its people.

During WW2, the US clearly demonstrated the willpower to fight to the bitter end. We made use of all the resources at our disposal, including using two atomic bombs against Japan.

WW2 involved everyone in the US to one extent or another, from frontline GIs to the young Boy Scouts collecting scrap metal to support the war effort. Women left traditional roles and entered the working world in factories and other professions. At the war’s end, the US was relatively untouched by actual combat, still had fully operational factories and supply lines, and stood ready to supply the rest of the world with what it needed to rebuild. In short, the US was becoming more prosperous than ever.

Image: Berlin in 1945.

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Due largely to fear of Soviet expansion and a great deal of hubris, the US took on the role of the global anti-communist. However, we learned that, short of a full-scale engagement, wars are actually quite difficult to win. This is especially true when the enemy is highly motivated by past injustices (perceived or real) and a desire for self-determination.

Our first hard lesson came via the Korean War. We certainly had the ability to fight the communist North Koreans—and even the Chinese when they unexpectedly entered the fight—but we did not have the will to fight another WW2-type war against mainland China, so the war “ended” in a draw.

Our second came from Vietnam. We fought alongside our South Vietnamese allies. However, over time and due to internal corruption and political ambiguity in South Vietnam, we gradually took on the responsibility for most of the fighting. We limited our attacks on the North and played by rules that the enemy did not. We were actually very successful against the enemy, but the South lost much of its will to fight and, as the conflict dragged on, the American people decided enough was enough.

In my time in the army, we learned about the concept of Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC), unconventional warfare (UW), and the “hearts and minds” concepts gleaned from Vietnam. These principles implied that the US might not need to fight a full-scale war to “win.”

Rather, if we could do things to address the injustices inflicted on the people to get their support, and fight only limited engagements with small, determined units of guerrillas, we could simply wear out the enemy. We also knew that we could build up our bands of guerrillas into a larger army over time and engage the enemy in a conventional war if that ultimately became necessary. Very sound in principle, yet extremely difficult to do.

We were also fully aware that, in any future engagement supporting another country, we could not allow ourselves to become the main combatant again. The host nation’s forces had to have the will to win, and their people had to support them. This why we had Special Forces units involved in Civic Action projects—building remote clinics and schools in war-torn areas, to demonstrate in visible ways that their government did, in fact, care for them.