I am very tired of sending messages, using kinetic response. You send messages through diplomats. You send them through press releases and press conferences. You send them, these days, by Tweetering. That's how you send messages.
You don't send messages with cruise missiles and bombs and troops and other kinetic means. You destroy things with weapons of war.
We have sent Syria a 'message' for years. "Don't cross our red line." "Don't do that again." "You can't have that toy in the cereal aisle" "We are going to send you another angry letter if you don't stop it...." It's more futile than a mom at the grocery store... when the two-year-old can't be reasoned with. Most of these nations are like two-year-olds... and we act like an idiot minivan mommy who won't properly discipline a recalcitrant kid.
Here is how you use kinetic military power: Assad uses chemical weapons after being told, clearly, not to... in a message.
Kill %$#@ding Assad. Bomb his palaces, his legislature, his government buildings, his power plants, his dams, his railroads, his water treatment plants, every bridge in the country, every airfield, every military base, every dock, every ship, every road junction, every food storage facility, every factory, the home of every general, colonel and major in his military and every vehicle bigger than a HiLux.
After that, let the nation sort themselves out... or starve on CNN. F&*k them. They didn't control the future of their own nation.... and the behavior of their sovereign country like people should do... F**k them. Note that we haven't had any problems with Germany and Japan since 1945... have we?
That is how you use military power. You use it in a coordinated and overwhelming manner. Not to send a Candygram... and then act like it accomplishes something.
Two nights of strikes and we could accomplish 90 percent of those goals in a sh**hole like Syria. It would be TV worth watching.
If you don't want to do that... we have covert means of accomplishing many of those same goals. But do that quietly... that would be the definition of covert. In which you also don't 'send a message.' You fu%$ing get rid of the problem. Instead, Assad's car blows up, there is much rejoicing in a command bunker somewhere... and, again, screw him.
Oh and last... both those approaches... send messages. The message is... when we send you a Tweet or some cookie-pushing Foggy Bottom weenie with a message... we aren't kidding around.
Cheers and sorry for the unrepentant rant. But it really pained me to see Mattis talking about 'sending messages.'
Sirhr
You don't send messages with cruise missiles and bombs and troops and other kinetic means. You destroy things with weapons of war.
We have sent Syria a 'message' for years. "Don't cross our red line." "Don't do that again." "You can't have that toy in the cereal aisle" "We are going to send you another angry letter if you don't stop it...." It's more futile than a mom at the grocery store... when the two-year-old can't be reasoned with. Most of these nations are like two-year-olds... and we act like an idiot minivan mommy who won't properly discipline a recalcitrant kid.
Here is how you use kinetic military power: Assad uses chemical weapons after being told, clearly, not to... in a message.
Kill %$#@ding Assad. Bomb his palaces, his legislature, his government buildings, his power plants, his dams, his railroads, his water treatment plants, every bridge in the country, every airfield, every military base, every dock, every ship, every road junction, every food storage facility, every factory, the home of every general, colonel and major in his military and every vehicle bigger than a HiLux.
After that, let the nation sort themselves out... or starve on CNN. F&*k them. They didn't control the future of their own nation.... and the behavior of their sovereign country like people should do... F**k them. Note that we haven't had any problems with Germany and Japan since 1945... have we?
That is how you use military power. You use it in a coordinated and overwhelming manner. Not to send a Candygram... and then act like it accomplishes something.
Two nights of strikes and we could accomplish 90 percent of those goals in a sh**hole like Syria. It would be TV worth watching.
If you don't want to do that... we have covert means of accomplishing many of those same goals. But do that quietly... that would be the definition of covert. In which you also don't 'send a message.' You fu%$ing get rid of the problem. Instead, Assad's car blows up, there is much rejoicing in a command bunker somewhere... and, again, screw him.
Oh and last... both those approaches... send messages. The message is... when we send you a Tweet or some cookie-pushing Foggy Bottom weenie with a message... we aren't kidding around.
Cheers and sorry for the unrepentant rant. But it really pained me to see Mattis talking about 'sending messages.'
Sirhr
