When Will They Ever Learn?

Last summer I read the book "War" by Sebastian Junger which has been made into a film called "Restrepo". I followed "War" with David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest".

Over Christmas we watched the film "Restrepo". I found it difficult to watch as it seemed to encapsulate the futility of our actions in Afghanistan, regardless of one's opinion as to why we are there.

I don't get it. Reading Halberstam's book is like driving with a drunk-you know it's going to end badly, and yet it is difficult get out of the car. What I find most disturbing is how we as a nation have apparently forgotten the origins of our nations and the war, or more importantly the kind of war we waged in gaining our independence from the British.

We were brought up to ridicule the Redcoats marching in formation. Our guerrilla tactics of harassment played to all of our strengths while essentially negating the training and weaponry of an external army operating in our backyard.

The British were masters of this type of misjudgement essentially failing in every war they entered where the enemy didn't play by the same rules of warfare. Perhaps the only exception to this was the Boer War-and that was a war in which the British fought a scorched earth policy and used internment on such a massive scale resulting in the death of around 15% of the Boer population.

So what is it that has driven the US to such follies as the Vietnam War, the 2nd Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan?

Why have we felt compelled to enter into conflicts which in the first instance are held to be winnable by American arms without any real understanding of the domestic realities of said conflicts?

Why have we established a pattern in which we use our overwhelming air power at the beginning of a conflict resulting in indications of early victories only to find that we need to reinforce the air power with ground troops to maintain our position? These troops also often meet initial success and yet this almost inevitably proves to be short-lived. The ground war then grinds into a nightmare of attrition against an enemy that is impossible to differentiate from the general populace and is extremely effective in causing death and mayhem for as long as it takes.

So why do we do this? If it's because of some geopolitical realpolitik it has to be reviewed as it is simply not working. If it is the military-industrial complex driving these adventures then we need to determine a better use of those resources.

Whatever it is, I believe it is a reflection of a nation badly in need of redefining its role in the world.