Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t

Wednesday, October 29, 2014 - 11:12

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t

Who would want to be a 21st century politician? Obama is now getting it on a daily basis as he seems to be ambushed with everything around his which his normal platitudes can't solve. It is fairly obvious that Afghanistan will retreat to where it’s been over the last 2,000 years but now distorted by ISIS supporters who want world a caliphate. Who empowered these people in the first place to fight the Russians who did not have to worry about families of casualties writing to local congressman? If the Russians couldn’t do it, what sort of idiot thought the Americans could? How about the mess in Iraq after removing the man who for better or worse held it all together? Iraq is a basket case one can admit to because it requires apportioning blame. Now the idea is that it is possible to drive back and eliminate ISIS by bombing them into oblivion. Hello. Anyone heard about the bombardment of the Japanese (and Vietnamese) for days only to have them emerge from their holes?

This again raises the question of past history and who no one learns from it.

 Selected for Duntroon [pictured with Brigadier Long and his son along with the son of the SA Lieutenant Governor]. 

This was just before I heard that the Chiefs of the General Staff had advised Prime Minister Gorton not to follow the Americans into Vietnam. Their advice was “Go in and blow shit out of them or stay away because you can win a guerrilla war the way they Americans propose”. Gorton rejected military advice and we went “All the way with LBJ”.

Understandably the ISIS situation is more complicated since you had a President in Iraq who victimised the other Islamic code and enraged their followers to revolt. All the other players in the area want to get their rocks off and headed off into the fray so we have "One God" with two sides fighting each other for I presume, Him.

One could gain some comfort from the fact that even Christianity had its moments of insanity (like The Crusades) but on the other hand ISIS has emerged as one of a kind and is now armed with Iraqui captured American supplied tanks and field guns and are not just running a hit and run campaign. They have a common purpose in kill everyone else and this is hard to beat when you have an inefectual army and ISIS is headed to a large part by Sadam's former military commanders. Watch this space...