War is a means to an end. And the ends are always politically defined, not militarily defined. We need to remember this before engaging militarily another nations forces. And if our politicians cant agree on an end state goal by setting it out in a declaration of war before war starts (if we are the initial aggressor) or as early in the first days of conflict (if we are the victims of another nations aggression), then our military ends up fighting a war for the sake of fighting a war--a war without an objective, an ends, and not with any real purpose. It is up to the people to ensure our leaders know our wishes on the nations wars--those currently under way or soon to be fought--so our political leaders can determine the propriety of formal declared war, determine and set the political end state which the military will then achieve via combat. Do anything else, and we risk other misadventure like Beirut, Vietnam and Iraq--clear examples of where our nation used the military without a clearly defined political goal or end state, and then used deception, not on the enemy, but on its own citizens, to justify the military operations. Sun Tzu stated as much 2400 yrs ago when he noted that the winning army seeks victory first by fighting. The losing army fights first and then seeks victory. We must learn from history. And on this score we have failed miserably over and over again.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:08:21 +0000
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