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As wars go, the twentieth century was the United States' century to fight, to die, to disarm, and
then fight and die and disarm again, time after time.
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In the last century, roughly two million young Americans were killed or wounded serving their country
in wars, primarily because we were weak and unprepared. And now once again we are weak. We can launch a devastating
assault on hostile forces that lack air power and electronic warfare capability; but we lack the Active Military Forces needed
for sustained combat. |
| In April 1997, the National Security / House Armed Services Committee of the US House of Representatives
issued a report characterizing our military forces as undermanned, undertrained, underequipped and undercompensated. This
report entitled "Military Readiness 1997: Rhetoric and Reality" is available on request. Telephone (202)
225-2539, or go to www.house.gov/nsc and see the Committee Publications.
An HASC subcommittee majority report released in January 1998 by Senator Thad Cochran asserted we have no defense
against intercontinental ballistic missile attack, and cited worldwide proliferation of missile technology and weapons
of mass destruction. This report is available by calling (202) 224-2254, or visiting www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/ispfs.htm. and see "The Proliferation Primer".
Our military weakness is an invitation for others to attack or terrorize us. The threat to our security is real, and
growing. Primary threats to us are from Iran, North Korea, and Red China.
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In World War I (1914-1918), 321,00 Americans were killed or wounded, many of them by poison gas.
World War II (1939-1945) started for us with attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake
Island. The Bataan death march was part of the price our young men paid for lack of military readiness. One million,
seventy six thousand young Americans were casualties in World War II.
In the Korean War (1950-1953), 157,530 Americans were killed and wounded. Committed piecemeal, many
were lost to superior numbers in the early stages of the war. Others, ill equipped for winter warfare, simply froze
to death.
We suffered 360,209 casualties, dead and wounded, in theVietnam War (1950-1975), far away in
the jungles of Southeast Asia.
In the Gulf War (1990-1991), young Americans faced a barbarous lunatic who was armed with poison
gas and toxic bacteriological agents - and who was experienced in their use. In addition, the climate and terrain were inhospitable,
and the sky was always full of debris from sandstorms and burning oil fields. At least 766 casualties were suffered.
But, all those young men did not have to become casualties; for, if we had been strong militarily
in 1913, 1938, and 1949, it's not likely World Wars I and II and the Korean War would have happened.
By the summer of 1918, US General John J. Pershing had arrived with over a million American
soldiers in France, adequately armed and instructed. The Germans tested them, by attacking our soldiers with some of
their best units. The Americans held. When the Germans realized three million more fresh American soldiers were
in training or on the way to France, the war was suddenly over.
Suppose we had had a large Army, well trained in 1913. "Kaiser Bill" probably
would not have executed his von Schleifen plan in 1914, wheeling into France through the Low Countries. But no, we were
so weak as late as 1916, we had to activate the National Guard just to chase Pancho Villa back across the border into Mexico.
Pearl Harbor
At the end of World War II in 1945, we had 12.1 million men and women in our armed forces.
By then we had the military force and the industrial support necessary to impose our will, in our national defense, all around
the globe. But, when Adolf Hitler began his rise to power in the 1930s, we had an Army of some 137,000 men. This
was less than half the number killed in World War I. We didn't purchase tanks or trucks; we equipped our soldiers in
the 1920s and 1930s with horses, mules and wagons and left-over World War I weapons. We made the Army run Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) camps instead of experimenting and training with new equipment. That's why, about the time Billy Mitchell
was advocating the buildup of our air power (and being court-martialed for his troubles), the Japanese Zero and the German
Messerschmidt and the Stuka dive bomber were on the way to dominating the skies. That's why, in the Louisiana Maneuvers,
some American soldiers had to use stovepipes and broomsticks to simulate weapons. And that's why the German Tiger tank
was on the horizon when George Patton was still on horseback.
But, suppose we'd had in the mid 1930s a large, modern military force; and suppose President
Roosevelt had established the Manhattan Project as soon as he could see that Adolf Hitler intended to dominate
the world. Hitler and his tin-horn buddy, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo would have been dissuaded from illusions
of world conquest by an awesome mushroom cloud at Alamogordo Flats in 1938.
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By 1953, we had eight US Army divisions and a Marine division in combat in Korea, supported by 18 tactical
air wings and about 175 US Navy surface combatants (e.g., aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers). By then, US, South
Korean and other United Nations forces had reestablished the North-South border at the 38th parallel. But, when Kim Il Sung
had wanted to launch his drive in 1950 to seize South Korea, he turned to Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung for support; and
those two accurately assessed the weakness of the US Army and urged him on.
Had our Army been as strong in 1949 as it was in 1953 (or 1945), there would have been no invasion of
South Korea.
For a graphic summary of the combat forces deployed in the Korean War, Vietnam War and the Gulf War battle areas, see the
attached Chart.
Now we are engaged in a world war testing whether a nation like ours can long endure.
We are the strongest nation on earth - economically, militarily and morally. This is so, because
our founders, steeped in Judeo-Christian beliefs, formed a nation based on individual liberty, representative government and
the rule of law.
Despite domestic secular socialists constantly tearing at our Constitution and Christianity in order to satisfy
unprincipled greed and lust, and to wield power, our external adversaries are currently in check.
But, our foreign enemies are many and ubiquitous. Our problems with them are exacerbated
by our willingness to deal commercially with autocrats and despots who by stifling individual liberty are generating indigenous
hatred against themselves and against us. Examples are Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and North Korea - to name
just a few. Hiding behind an exclusive faith, Wahabism, the Saudi royals pay "protection money" to direct
terrorism toward Israel and the United States, vice toward the Saudi royal family.
When President Bush, seated in a Florida schoolroom on September 11, 2001 was informed of the plane crashes into
the Twin Towers, he said, "Somebody will pay for this!" And a day or two later, President Bush called in Attorney General
John Ashcroft and told him, "Don't let this happen again!" Likewise, the secretaries of defense and state got their
marching orders.
Following the enlightened tactics successfully adopted by General Creighton Abrams in the latter months of the
Vietnam War, Secretary Rumsfeld in the beginning of the Afghanistan Campaign and then in Northern Iraq used indigenous personnel,
backed by US military might, to rout the Taliban out of Kabul and to seize the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.
Saddam Hussein was removed from power in Iraq, despite threats from that barbaric leader, who had used weapons
of mass destruction against Iranians and Iraqis, that he would use WMD against our troops, in stifling heat which made wearing
protective gear almost unbearable.
Meanwhile, US forces in combat were perfecting their art of joint operations to a level of efficiency never before
seen.
In my dreams, the President of the United States, at the request of our Congress, starts a domino effect with the
toppling of the barbaric Saddam Hussein Iraqi regime - which causes regime changes worldwide, so that autocratic rule
is replaced everywhere by sovereign nations established with the consent of the governed - nations that abide by the rule
of law and are dedicated to the proposition that all men are not only created equal but also are entitled from birth to individual
liberty.
In my mind, our young men see visions of what I dream, for Kosovo, Sudan, Indonesia, Egypt, Red China, North Korea, Saudi
Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Iran, and Syria. And, in opposition to those of our own citizens who would destroy our Judeo-Christian
moorings, our Constitution, and our national identity, our young men in my dreams see the visions our Founding Fathers saw.
Then I dream our young men act on those visions, diplomatically, socially, commercially, and - if need be - militarily.
But, because we are considered "infidels" in the Middle East, we'll need to occupy Iraq and support Afghanistan
with a physical presence with thousands of troops for many years to come.
These two ongoing campaigns are just the start of our war for peace. All around the globe - e.g.,
in the Philippines, Indonesia, North Korea, Iran and Red China - there is a need for regime changes and / or US support.
Iraq and Afghanistan, however, are good starting points. If we can create viable republics there, the citizens of surrounding
nations will demand the same: Individual liberty, representative government, and the rule of law. Today, Iraq; tomorrow,
the world !
Yet, the Bush Administration is unwilling to expand our armed forces to accomplish the worldwide tasks.
Whereas, we should be doubling the strengths of the active Army, Navy and Air Force, by soliciting volunteers, or, if need
be, by reinstituting the draft, we have called up Reserves and National Guardsmen. When they were campaigning for office,
George Bush and Richard Cheney recognized the intolerable operations tempo and promised the military members, "Help is on
the way!" But, instead of providing relief by enlarging the force to share the burden, as president and vice president,
they added a war to the already stressful tempo.
Finding additional money for defense simply calls for the will to cut federal taxes and follow the Constitution. Cutting
income taxes increases revenue by freeing up money for discretionary spending on savings, investments, and entrepreneurship
- all of which are taxable. And following the Constitution includes observance of the Tenth Amendment, which gets the
federal government's expensive bureaucracy out of the social and environmental affairs of the people and the states, who can
meet their own needs at lower cost.
Rejuvenating our domestic defense industries would be good for our economy, and would guard against dependence on foreign
factories to provide our national security materiel.
You can tell your US senators and representative what you want them to do about our current national security situation
by contacting them at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov , respectively.
| M1 Abrams Tank |
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| Driving in Iraq |
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