Larry H. Mason – 3/21/07

This page was last updated on March 21, 2007.

Win the war militarily; Larry H. Mason; Beaver County Times; March 21, 2007.

In February 2005, Mr. Mason asked, “When will troops leave Iraq?”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The secretary of Defense and commanding U.S. military leaders have said the war in Iraq either can’t or won’t be won militarily. They said that, I didn’t.

“Since that is their decision, they either can’t or won’t win the war in Iraq militarily.

“Either they should be replaced, or every American soldier and every penny of U.S. military funding should be pulled out of Iraq ASAP.

“They said the war in Iraq can only be won politically. Tell a dead or maimed U.S. soldier’s family that they died or were maimed in the political arena. I prefer changing U.S. military leadership to those who can and will win militarily.”

[RWC] For whatever reason, Mr. Mason fails to note comments similar to “the war in Iraq either can’t or won’t be won militarily” is always followed by “alone.” This is true for all wars. The purpose of the military portion of a war is to inflict enough death and destruction on your enemy so he will submit (surrender) to a political solution (peace treaty). That said, the war on terrorism is a bit different than past wars in that – for the most part – our enemy is stateless and thus cannot be defeated in the same way as Germany, Italy, Japan, et cetera.