Three Smoking Paragraphs from Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, PhD — an Example of Superbly Pointed Writing — regarding American Anti-ISIL Military Action in Iraq and Syria

25 September 2014

Citation

Douglas MacGregor, Obama and the Road to Hell in the Middle East, Counterpunch (25 September 2014)

My essay makes two points

The first is about the “up front” brevity of excellent writing.

The second is about the substance of what retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, PhD, has to say about the doomed to fail character of America’s poorly planned intervention against the Islamic State.

Tell me what you mean, right off the bat — an example of excellent writing

Forceful communication makes its point immediately, before the audience’s attention can wander.

Consider this example:

The Economist recently published an article with the curious title, “Brains, not bullets: How to fight future wars.” The essay’s theme is intriguing because it implies that with enough brains in the right places it’s possible for the United States to get things right, to immunize America’s use of force against bad policies, the wrong senior military leadership and the impact of special interests on an uninformed American public.

If this were true, it would be a revelation. Unfortunately, in open ended conflicts with weak opponents, against people with no armies, no air forces, no air defenses and no naval forces the mental and moral qualities of senior military leaders which are all important in war are suppressed in favor of compliant and obsequious personalities.

After 9/11, the willingness of senior officers to endorse the fiction that the wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan were progressing well, that liberal democracy was sinking deep roots in the Middle East was always far more important than demonstrated character, competence or intelligence for promotion to three or four stars. Put differently, having sex with the wrong person or involvement in legally questionable activities could and will destroy careers, but the readiness to go along with policies and plans that made no military sense was and still is career enhancing. Today’s bench of senior leaders are a product of the last 15 years.

Did your attention slip?

And — in regard to our short-sighted anti-terrorist undertaking in Iraq and Syria

This analytical gem:

Today, the unwillingness of the Arab States and Turkey that border Mesopotamia to commit ground forces to fight the Islamic State makes matters worse. It means that Americans will spend billions of dollars to kill thugs in pickup trucks and bounce rubble for months, even years with doubtful effect.

Thanks to Washington’s duplicitous friends in Ankara, Doha and Riyadh that provide money, arms and recruits to the Islamic State’s fighters, the Islamists will are likely to survive and regroup around new fanatics.

C.S. Lewis described the road to hell as a gradual descent, a soft, moderate slope that is hardly noticeable until the destination is reached. Mr. Obama is on his way.

Americans must abandon the illusion that precision guided munitions obviate the requirement in war for the lethality that springs from disciplined, physically and psychologically hardened men inside highly trained ground combat units to kill effectively.

Americans will have to rise up and collectively drive a stake through the heart of the late Secretary of Defense Les Aspin’s concept for the use of American military power; the task of “punishing evil doers.”

Finally, Americans will have to demand a national military strategy that focuses on protecting Americans, American territory, and core American commercial interests rather than attempts to breathe new life into the comatose body of failed American military interventions that litter the Eastern Hemisphere.

The moral? — Pointed brevity — that is simultaneously and unmistakably true — destroys Stupidity’s power to convince the rational mind

Even if one disagrees with MacGregor’s indictment of current American foreign policy, his selected historical reference points force rational people to come up with reasonable counterarguments to support their positions.

Effective strategy is about thinking it through. “Obama and the Road to Hell in the Middle East” is a persuasive invitation to do that. Those who duck the “think it through” invitation have something other than the national interest in mind.

PeteFree.com

Three Smoking Paragraphs from Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, PhD — an Example of Superbly Pointed Writing — regarding American Anti-ISIL Military Action in Iraq and Syria