No Military Solution
Even as the “surge” progresses across Iraq and it becomes more difficult for those counting on defeat to deny that military progress is being made, we are sagely advised by those same people that even as we are being successful in establishing security and killing the enemy that there is no “military solution” to the Iraq War.
Stop. Just stop. It became unfashionable many years ago to study military strategy and tactics. Please stop repeating banalities and acting as if they are deep and new revelations.
War is nothing but an extension of politics; a political entity has decided it can no longer hope to achieve its goals through negotiation and compromise and it then decides to go to war.
An overt military act might be a cause belli, but it is still a political decision to act on the provocation. The seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 was an overt military act and certainly one that would have justified going to war, however the Carter Administration chose not to do so.
Similarly military operations help shape political conditions; when the political conditions are right for all combatants then the fighting stops. It is that simple. That is how it is with all wars.
During World War II, the Allies made the political decision to have unconditional surrender as the End State of military operations. This did not necessarily require the complete military annihilation and invasion of the Axis nations. Germany could have made the political decision to surrender long before May 1945; the political conditions, however, did not exist to compel the Germans to surrender. The Nazi leadership likely knew their unspeakable crimes would result in the hangman’s noose or some other comparable end.
Compare and contrast the German decision to accept unconditional surrender with the Japanese decision to do so.
Both nations had been pounded by Allied air power, but the conventional wisdom today seems to be that was counter-productive. The first nuclear weapon on Japan hardly caused them to blink; only upon the dropping of the second bomb did the Japanese Government begin to believe that Armageddon might actually be upon the Japanese people if they did not acquiesce to the Allies terms.
To surrender was a political decision; one that was surely shaped by military operations, but it was a political decision nonetheless.
So too in Iraq. The political decision by various parties to stop fighting will be made when fighting is of no benefit to those parties.
The other mistake many people make in analyzing the political decisions to stop fighting is taking the top down approach. This view is that if the National Parliament and government cannot resolve political issues then no solution is possible. Those politicians have no incentive to do anything though than pander to their own constituencies as long as the people at home appear willing to fight. The pols in Baghdad will compromise when the people at home tell them too. The people that are fighting won’t stop fighting if some national law is passed. It will be a bottom up process, not a top down process.
So when someone observes there is “no military solution” to Iraq they have made an observation as banal as the sun is going to come up tomorrow morning. What ever your opinion on Iraq, do not allow yourself to be bamboozled into thinking that such pronouncements indication any particular wisdom on the issue.
Posted by Badgersix at 2:28 pm on Saturday, August 25, 2007
6 Responses to “No Military Solution”
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August 25th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I’m sorry, Badgersix, but you are speaking to people who are so used to speaking in bromides and platitudes that they honestly think they are informing us with great, deep thoughts.
August 25th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Dog of an Infidel!
What do you know of Iraq? Do not presume to correct your betters, experts such as Bill Maher and the aptly-named Dick of the Durbin! From their vantage points in the vast American Barco-lounger, they see far better than you the true nature of warfighting!
August 25th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
There is no solution without military action in cases such as currently operational in Iraq.
And Iraq is not the end of this war either.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
The political decision by various parties to stop fighting will be made when fighting is of no benefit to those parties.
And the political decision by one particular party in the US to stop demanding immediate withdrawal (surrender) will be made when doing so is finally recognized as causing political damage to said party.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Lest we forget, Carter unilaterally invaded Iran, without UN or Congressional approval, or even Blabra Streisands.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:39 am
The “No Military Solution” mantra is regurgitated by those who want to oppose the war but still seem patriotic. This way, they can disassociate themselves from Bush’s invasion but still want the US to succeed in Iraq (just not through a military solution, as Bush supposedly intended) Of course, in reality, these are intertwined. Any politically good outcome is predicated on military success. You can’t compartmentalize the two. Particularly, you can’t talk about defunding the war and hope for a favourable political solution notwithstanding your military shameful self-inflicted defeat.
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