From: bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman)
Subject: Re: Never again. How soon we forget.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 13:33:02 GMT

demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:

>> 
>> I call your attention to an article in this week's NEWSWEEK magazine
>> entitled "It's All Too Easy to Get Sucked Into War." (August 17, 1992
>> issue, page 20, by David H. Hackworth). The author, David H. Hackworth,
>> was part of a U.S. force which was involved in fighting against 
>> Yugoslavian guerrillas between 1945 and 1953. "In a half century of

>	Which US forces would that be?  I'm unaware of any US forces fighting
>for Tito after the war.

Quoting from the NEWSWEEK article (August 17th issue, page 20):

    On the frontier between Italy and Yugoslavia between 1945 and
    1953, dozens of American servicemen were killed, wounded
    or captured when Harry Truman's grunts and airmen [a.k.a. U.S.
    troops] exchanged shots with Tito's guerrillas.

>> wandering around battlefieds, I've never met fiercer fighters. They
>> could easily suck the United States into a ground war -- hook, line
>> and body bag." writes Hackworth.
>> 
>> Hackworth points out that, fresh from a victory in the Gulf War, we
>> have a tendency to assume that any conflict in the Yugoslav republics
>> will be similarly antiseptic: "...the idea is that we can deal with
>> Serbia from the air. The plan, if it comes to that, would be to
>> replay the gulf war with all its laser and stealth wonder toys:
>> totally antiseptic, almost bloodless and oh, by the way, a boon for
>> the depressed U.S. defense industry, which is a heavy-duty political
>> contributor." The author proceeds to point out why any involvement
>> in Yugoslavia would *not* be a replay of the Desert Storm scenario.
>> He demonstrates that any U.S. military committment would inevitably
>> result in a committment of U.S. ground troops.

>	Why?  Why do anti-interventionists *insist* that it be a US ground war? 
>The Euros are quite capable of handling it.

Again, quoting from the NEWSWEEK article (August 17th issue, page 20):

    ...it's a sure bet that our pilots would see action. And 
    history also guarantees that when the going on the ground
    gets rough for U.N. troops, the United States will become
    a major player down there in the mud and the blood. 

	[Because] Air-control teams on the ground will be essential
    [there is the likelihood that] after a few [of the Air-control
    teams] are knocked off, U.S. grunts will undoubtedly be
    brought in to protect them. 

	The rugged terrain, not open like the Iraqi desert, will
    make it easy for guerrillas to disappear, as in Afghanistan.

>> Hackworth writes that "...Yugoslavia is an impossible mission." Drawing
>> on his lifetime of military experience he warns that military 
>> involvement in the region is tantamount to getting dragged into
>> an unwinnable war. 

>	A strawman.  We wouldn't be fighting Yugoslavia.  We would be allied
>with Bosnia (and probably Croatia and Slovenia and Macedonia) against Serbia.

    Still an impossible mission due to the terrain. Isn't it
    China's turn now to play the part of the hero and go 
    rushing in there with guns blazing? We just finished saving
    the world a year and a half ago. It is someone elses turn
    now.

>> "...Yugoslavian soldiers, irregular or regular,
>> are the meanest mothers in the valley of death and the last tigers
>> the United States ever wants to try to tame."

>	Meanset mothers of all fighters?

    The author (David H. Hackworth) draws on his own experience
    of having fought against them.

>> Hackworth ends the article by suggesting that rather than risk
>> military disaster, we could "airdrop bundles of food and water to
>> the poor people who are trapped in the quagmire below."

>	While we put cotton in our ears to prevent their screams of agony from
>interrupting our dinner hour?

    War is hell, my friend. Our rushing in there would only
    compound the situation. It is easy to adopt a self-righteous
    stance (especially since the U.S. Propaganda Ministry has
    once more launched its parade of crying babies into our
    living rooms). It is harder to stop, count to ten, and accept
    our essential powerlessness over the situation. 

    "War is cruelty and you cannot refine it." 
			-- William Tecumseh Sherman


Brian Redman
(bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."


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