The business of war

As an 81-year-old Marine, I would like to share a few thoughts on wars of the past, and on the present war, our military and the people who defend us. First, let me say that there is no such thing as an ex-Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

We are fortunate to have an all-volunteer military. Not one member of any service was forced to become a member.

At the core of this voluntary military is a group of men and women who have as their chosen profession the art of waging war. They fully understand that the purpose of war is to defeat your enemy. You do this by killing as many of your enemy as you can while trying to avoid losing too many of your own troops.
They spend their lives learning to wage war, practicing to wage war and are prepared to give their lives if necessary to win a war.
This is not to say that they wish war, but instead that they hope their preparedness will persuade any potential enemies to decide that war would not be in their interest.

They are the greatest peacemakers in the world because they have no selfish interest.

Now, as to wars: Though our numbers decrease every day, there are still enough of us around who remember World War II.

More American lives were lost in one day on Okinawa than have been lost in Iraq in five years. But the military was allowed to fight the war, and a brave commander in chief (Harry Truman) made the decision to end that war by the use of the two atomic bombs on Japan.
By his actions, he saved as many as 100,000 U.S. casualties, and untold millions of Japanese casualties. We won.

Then came the "police action" in Korea. Although this was supposed to be a United Nations action, the only country that actually provided combat troops other than the U.S. was Turkey.

We could have won this war as we were all the way to the border of China when the politicians got involved. There were bridges across the Yalu River that could have been destroyed by our air power, but the politicians would not allow it. The Chinese Army streamed across those bridges by the hundreds of thousands surrounding a force of Marines of less than 5,000 that had to fight its way out to get back to the safety of their rear lines. Many were killed, many froze to death or suffered severe frostbite, but none surrendered.

The politicians finally achieved a cease fire, but now we face a North Korea, and a China, that have nuclear weapons. We suffered more than 50,000 casualties in a war the military was not allowed to win. How many casualties would we suffer in a war with those two now?

The Vietnam War was a political fiasco from the beginning, but if we had been allowed to win in Korea, the Vietnam War might never have occurred.

As to the present war in Iraq and the wider war on terror, this is conflict we did not seek. But to call it "Bush's War" is a stretch.
This war started even before the Carter administration. Fanatical Islamic ayatollahs, lead by Khomeni, declared war on America a long time ago.

Did it ever occur to anyone that the release of the Americans held for more than 400 days came immediately after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president because Khomeni knew that our military was ready to receive orders to descend on Iran in full force.

Now, Iran has long range missiles and is working on nuclear weapons. How many casualties would we suffer if we have to go to war with Iran?

Why did we invade Iraq? Saddam had convinced the major portion of the world's countries that he was working on nuclear weapons. We knew that he had chemical weapons because he had used them on his own people.

All the sanctions tried by the politicians had not swayed him. Finally with the approval of those powers that count in the UN, the U.S. along with certain allies, invaded Iraq and over threw Saddam. Our mistake, however, was in our failure to understand the power of the religious leaders of Iraq. It should come as no surprise that Al Sadar is receiving his orders to disrupt the fledgling government of Iraq from the president of Iran, who gets his orders from the reigning ayatollah of Iran.

How long will this war go on? It will continue until the people of the Islamic world refuse to allow the ayatollahs to ruin the government.

I am afraid I may not see it in my lifetime.

One last comment: We saw what they can do if they are allowed to come over here. I watched the twin towers fall, as did most everyone. Let our military fight this war over there, even if it seems endless. Those whose profession is war realize that it might cause them to lose their lives, but they realized that was part of their profession when they volunteered to put on the uniform.

Thank God for them. I salute them all.

A.R. Chasteen
Gardendale