Iran And Lessons From Hiroshima, The Civil War, Vietnam, And The IDF - Wars Are For Winning

President Trump and advisors - Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Secretary of Energy (needed to weigh in on Iran's oil), Secretary of the Interior (once we get Ukraine's rare earths, the future of American lithium mining), and others met in the war room to discuss the ongoing wars.

Back in 1968 when the War in Vietnam was at its hottest and American anti-war protests were at their height, George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, ran as an Independent.  His far-right, segregationist, ultra-nationalist party was unlikely to win the election against Richard Nixon, but a statement had to be made.  The course of the country was going very wrong, and it was time to stop the hemorrhaging.  The country's white heritage was at stake and Thomas Jefferson's warning about the divisive, destructive release of African slaves into American society had come true. 

America was shilly-shallying in Vietnam, said Wallace, letting a force of black-pajamaed irregulars, the Viet Cong, run American military forces ragged.  It was a shameful display of American pusillanimity and downright weakness. 

To convey the message of American might and the need to show the Vietnamese, their Chinese patrons, and the Russians that we mean business was Curtis LeMay, retired general, World War II hero known for his military absolutism. He firmly believed that the enemy should be shown no mercy, its country reduced to rubble, its military obliterated, and its complaisant, complicit population given a lesson they would never forget.  

 

Years before in WWII he had been placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a massive firebombing campaign against 66 Japanese cities, and Operation Starvation, a crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways. He was a firm supporter of President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and firm advocate of the firebombing of German cities, most notably Dresden, a campaign which did indeed reduce the city to ashes. 

LeMay had grown increasingly impatient over the American prosecution of the War in Vietnam.  He let it be known that the Hearts and Minds strategy of the military - i.e. the war cannot be won by military force alone but only if the peasantry, the people of Vietnam, understood and demanded freedom, social justice, and the benefits of liberal democracy - was deeply misguided. 

The implacable Vietnamese enemy were in those same Hearts and Minds villages ensuring loyalty through brutal intimidation, torture, and public executions. That was the key to allegiance in war, not candy and soft furry bunnies.

It was all a waste of time, this American mollycoddling policy.  Wars are for winning. Although he was supportive of Rolling Thunder, the Johnson-Nixon campaign of massive B-52 bombing of the North and Southern supply lines, he said that it didn't go far enough.  He saw how the Viet Cong hid in deep tunnels while the bombing went on, then emerged to rebuild the Ho Chi Minh Trail and went on to disrupt American operations in the South. 

It was a start, said LeMay but nowhere near enough. Only total annihilation of North Vietnam, the seat of power, the base of Ho Chi Minh and his brilliant General Giap would do. Just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, massive bombing - yes, even strategic nuclear bombing - would be just the right ticket for the path to victory.  'Bomb 'em back to the Stone Age', he said. 

LeMay was considered a wacko, a loony, an unhinged maniac whose finger should be kept as far from the nuclear trigger as possible.  If had his way, said liberal critics, the United States would be known as a merciless killer, a nation without compassion or mercy, a brutal regime no different than the authoritarian murderers Stalin and Hitler. 

Of course LeMay was nothing of the sort, and the same allegations could be made of Harry Truman for incinerating Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the A-bomb.  The war against Japan was almost over, critics said,  American forces were working their way towards Tokyo, the Japanese military was in tatters, so there was no reason to destroy these cities.  

Yet Truman, 'to save American lives' but more importantly to show the Soviet Union what they could expect if they caused trouble, without hesitation, remorse, or second thoughts let Fat Boy drop from the Enola Gay. 

General MacArthur pleaded with Truman to let him take the Korean War to the Chinese.  They were the problem, not the pesky Koreans and only if the Communist Chinese were destroyed now, they would be an increasingly powerful adversary and enemy in the future.  LeMay was of course supportive of MacArthur.  There was no way that a stalemate on the Korean peninsula was going to be in America's interest.  Finish it once and for all, he advised. 

This same military strategy was embraced by General Wm. Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War.  Sherman marched through Georgia and South Carolina not only to rout the remaining Confederate Army troops but to send the South a lesson.  'The South shall never rise again', he said as he laid waste to everything in his path. 

Which brings us to the present day and America's war with Iran.  What started off as a decisive military operation to depose the theocratic regime of the mullahs, to restore democracy, and return the rightful heir to the Persian throne, has faltered.  Under political anti-war pressure, President Trump has opted for a peaceful solution.  The war would end if the Iranians gave up all nuclear ambitions. 

Of course the ayatollahs refused, for they had enough missiles and drones to keep both the US and Israel at bay; and they also knew that a peace option would simply allow them to rebuild, rearm, and continue their support of regional terrorism, with or without the bomb.  Unless Iran was completely, irrevocably destroyed, it would continue to be a problem. 

Yet, the President - despite Israeli President Netanyahu's objection - continued on this path to settlement when the only viable option was military.  Iran must no longer exist, said Netanyahu. 

Israel and the IDF showed the world what it meant by total victory, bombing Gaza to a rubble, knowing full well that if it showed any hesitation, let alone mercy, Hamas would simply rearm and renew its attacks on Israel.  A stated policy to destroy Israel and annihilate all Jews would not easily be shelved by Israel's resolute enemy. 

Yet Israel too has taken its foot off the gas.  A ceasefire which would 'bring both parties to the table' is in place and only beneficial to Hamas which already has the support of worldwide anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda.  Netanyahu's advisors, Israeli versions of Curtis LeMay are urging him to renew IDF attacks on Gaza and remove the enemy once and for all. 

President Trump should finish the job he started.  While he may have underestimated Iran's resilience and will to fight, let alone its significant arsenal of missiles and drones, and as importantly its control of the Strait of Hormuz, he should not hesitate to bomb Iran, completely destroy the ruling theocratic junta, devastate its civilian and military infrastructure, and bring the country to its knees - exactly as America did with Japan in World War II. 

The outcry from the progressive Left will increase, but Trump should not listen.  The world will be safer without the mullahs and their repressive terrorist regime.