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Is it time for a "Million Veterans March"?
E-friends Rurik (whom you met here) and TACAN (who doesn't go public very often) have kindly agreed to allow me to post an email exchange they had yesterday. It began when TACAN sent Rurik a link to this American Thinker post:
An Open Letter to the President
June 27th, 2005
Dear Mr. President,
I’ve no idea what your advisers are telling you, but based on my own experience in Washington I suspect they are talking more bluntly among themselves than they are to you. So I’m writing to deliver an unpleasant message you must hear, and hear now: We are in danger of losing the war in Iraq.
To understand why, think back for a moment to what happened in Vietnam. Even as our troops did better and better on the ground – as they killed more and more North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers and secured more and more of South Vietnam itself – support for that war eroded here at home. For example, the Tet offensive was a huge military victory for our forces – but a decisive political defeat in the US. Simply put, we didn’t lose the Vietnam war in Vietnam. We lost it in Washington.
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In war, public support is the equivalent of cash flow. So the question isn’t whether a war is going well, but whether a war is going well enough, and fast enough, to end in victory before public support gives out. And it’s obvious that public support for the war in Iraq has begun to erode, which means that from now on we are not only in a battle against our enemy overseas, but in a race against time here at home.
I don’t know how much time is left before public support for this war erodes to the point when victory will lie beyond our grasp. ...
You have less time to win this war than you thought you had. So to win, you will need to fight harder.
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First, you need to fight harder in Iraq. You keep saying that you are giving our generals all the troops they want. With all respect, sir, this couldn’t possibly be true. In the history of the world there has never been a general who thought he had enough troops. If your generals are telling you they have all the troops they want to finish the job in Iraq, either the generals are idiots – or they have gotten the word that asking for more troops will end their careers. ... One way or another, put enough troops on the ground in Iraq to secure that country -- fast. And while you’re at it, give the orders to either take out the governments of Syria and Iran or to hit them with so much force that they quit playing footsie with al Queda and the Baathists, because we cannot win in Iraq so long as Syria and Iran are providing support and sanctuary. In short, do whatever is necessary, and do it now.
Second – and in my judgment, even more important -- you need to fight harder in Washington. To explain why this will help win the war in Iraq, let me tell you about how one of your predecessors acted domestically in a way that had a huge foreign impact. Shortly after President Reagan took office, ...
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With all respect, sir, your performance in Washington has been too weak. ....
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Forget all the super-sophisticated, geo-political baloney. War is a very personal business. Look, when you send a platoon of soldiers or Marines out on patrol in Baghdad, or Tikrit, or Fallujah, you don’t expect that second lieutenant to come back to base and report that he reached a “compromise” with the terrorists; that they agreed our guys would kill or capture no more than five of their guys, but in return our own casualties would be light, or that the second lieutenant decided not to engage the enemy because he thought it best to save himself and his platoon for whatever the next battle might be. You expect that young officer to engage the enemy, kill them all – or go down shooting.
Well, so should you. You need to start fighting in Washington just as hard as you expect our troops to fight in Iraq. And you need to keep fighting until the Potomac flows red with the blood of your political enemies. ....
The war is now entering its most dangerous phase, by which I mean that period of time during which we will either secure our victory or lose so much public support that our defeat becomes inevitable. The outcome will be determined by the decisions you make – both foreign and domestic – in the coming weeks.
God bless you, sir, for all you have done to keep us safe. Now, go get ‘em.
Respectfully,
Herbert E. Meyer
Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. His DVD on The Siege of Western Civilization (www.siegeofwesternciv.com) has become an international best-seller.[Click here to read the whole letter. Please. This man makes some very good points.]
Rurik responded:
Throughout the cold war the Democrats and Liberals insisted that we had no enemies, that it was all just a big misunderstanding which we could resolve by being nicer and proving we meant them no harm. The Republicans and conservatives had the sense to see that there were real enemies out there who meant us ill and would take our attempts at friendship as either weakness or guile.
Now - no not just now, but for the past 17 years actually, Republicans and conservatives have tried to apply this same fatuous and failed approach to domestic policy and competition. And its been getting worse.
TACAN replied to Rurik:
Hi [Rurik] - I agree. I've been in heavy discussion with a couple other guys. It is not an encouraging picture. Somehow, we need to educate the people who don't care to be educated - i.e. the American public. Here's a thought I shared with the other guys. Don't know if there's any merit or not.
"We have to begin with the education of the people. There are two aspects: short-term and long-term. Short term, I wonder - - - what if, for example, thousands, hundreds of thousands of old vets and others would march in DC on Veterans Day in support of our troops and our national objectives in the Global War on Terror Everyone wearing vet accoutrements and medals. I don't have a clue how to get something like that together, but it would surely be awesome and hard for the old, lame media to ignore. Parade permits, police permits, porta-potties, media coverage, logistics, security, etc., etc. It would be a hell of an organizational nightmare. If the VVAW could do it back in the 70s, we could do it now. Just a thought."
Rurik replied to TACAN, and copied me:
IMHO a most powerful suggestion. A first step might be to spread this suggestion as widely as possible, to your e-mail correspondents, to the on-line discussion fora, to blogs, etc. Perhaps go fishing and admit that you don't know beans about setting up the logistics for such a thing and request the services of some experienced people in Washington - this is going to have to be set up locally anyhow.
I will be posting your suggestion to a private forum later today, and also to the Swiftees
[http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/, where I met Rurik and TACAN -- BF] - unless you beat me to it, and I will try to identify and find other people - talk-show hosts, etc.
I also don't know how to start a national grass-roots movement - but agitating is one one thing that can help.
And if you/we/our friends succeed in setting this up, I WILL be there, even if I have to pawn my mother for bus fare.
One more note - I'm not sure that the American public doesn't want to be educated. I think most of them already know, but have been atomized and isolated, and are being steamrollered over one by one. They need a standard to rally around and then counterattack. Remember the huge Hard Hat march down 5th Avenue during the Vietnam War? We need an organizing genius to advise and educate us.
[Rurik]
Rurik, TACAN: I'll do everything I can to support your worthy cause. I guess we can consider this blog post part of Rurik's fishing expedition and hope it reaches someone who has some ideas on how to get something like this organized. How do y'all feel about the name "Million Veterans March?" (Is "Operation Dewey Mountain 05" too cutesy?) If we can't educate the whole public (Sometimes you lead the horse to water and he refuses to pull his head out of his ass) maybe it will be enough just to show some wishy-washy politicians that there's still major public support for doing the right thing, whether the Kerry/Boxer/Moore fringe likes it or not.
Fellow Viet Nam vets: We lost a war because while we were away winning military victories the peaceniks took to the streets back in The World and stabbed us in the back. Are we going to let that happen to our brave men and women in Iraq? Will you answer the call one more time?
GWOT vets: I won't say "You saw what happened to us" because most of you weren't even around back then, but I'm sure most of you know what happened. Will you join forces with a few hundred thousand old men to keep it from happening to you?
This doesn't have to be just a veterans' effort, folks. Will the rest of you join us in keeping this nation from repeating a tragic mistake?
Update: Don't miss Mudville's daily
Open Post.
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