405,399
364,511
13,283
9,556
7,099

405,399- U.S. military fatalities in WWII

364,511 – Military fatalities in the Civil War

13,283- U.S. military fatalities in the Mexican War

9,556- Total U.S. military deaths during the PEACETIME of 1980-83

7,099 total U.S. military deaths during the first four years of the Iraqi War from 2003 – 2006

Also since 1998 5.4 million people have been killed in the Republic of the Congo, and as many as 45,000 per month continue to die.

Tips to Randall Hoven in “Iraq and Its Lessons”, Part 2 in American Thinker 12.29.08

Israel is often criticized for disproportionate response to their terrorist foes. Yet any successful military solution is disproportionate. It is the only humane way to fight a war. A war is not a field game designed to be fair and equal, to minimize the game spread. It is meant to defeat an enemy and eliminate a threat.

If a war was fought ‘tit for tat’ it would go on forever and sustain more casualties than necessary. The parties would slowly bleed, reconstruction would never begin, and no one would invest in and develop anything without some property security. Short term ferocity is the humane way to fight a war.

In Gaza Hamas must be not merely restrained, they must be eliminated. They have shown no interest in peace and the sooner they are eliminated the sooner both sides will be at peace.

The more disproportionate the response the better.

from

Looking for Trouble
Adventures in a Broken World
by Ralph Peters

“Intelligence officers worry too much about dead facts and too little about their antagonist’s delusions. What men believe about themselves is often more important than their reality- and certainly more useful, if you must fight them. Measure the difference between an enemy’s mundane existence and his self-image and you arrive at the shortest distance your bullet need travel.”

When some of our special ops soldiers met up with the Northern Allaince in Afghanistan they had to quickly adapt to horseback to cover their operational territory. Saddles sores became so severe it became a disability. They requested hundreds of pounds of vaseline.

But the fine dust of the region mixed with the vaseline and turned it into an abrasive gel making the problem worse. The ever adaptable soldiers found the solution.

Panty hose. So much for ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’

from War and Decision by Doug Feith.

Ralph Peters, a critic of the Rumsfeld fiasco period, is high on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his selection of soldiers’ soldiers to run the war. The article, Gates’s Grand Slam.

General Robert Patraeus will take over US Central Command.

Lt General Ray Odierno will take over as head of the forces in Iraq.

Lt. General Peter Chiarelli will take Odierno’s place in the Pentagon.

It seems that we have often fumbled early in our conflicts, but changed and adapted to the reality and achieved victory. England did not quit after Dunkirk. While critics and cynical commentators lament the lack of a plan, the reality is that adaptability is far more important. It is America’s secret weapon.