9/11 Thoughts

[Flocka]

Originally Posted by martinss01

me or taos? i assume that is directed at me. i assure you that is not my intent. but if my statement is coming across as such i will remove it.

Naw, just don't feed him, he just wants to turn this forum into the poli forum.

[Steve19]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeMike80

Agreed.

Air power and sea power can strangle a country and is of great strategic value.

Boots on the ground can hold territory.

so what you really mean is more tanks, soldiers, 11-bang bangs and Marines. And I'm ALL for that. The threats haven't diminished - in fact as the days go by they seem to be multiplying.

However, as demonstrated in every guerrilla war since the American Revolution, a centralized military power will almost certainly be unable to defeat a radically decentralized opponent.

[NorthShoreBuck]

I was traveling to an IBM business partner conference in San Antonio. I had landed around 7:30 and went to get my rental car.The event hotel wasn't far away and I was able to catch the opening and a few sessions. A friend on mine from St Louis had brought his girlfriend and she came down from the room to tell us about the first plane. A short time later everyone knew what was going on and people were in tears. There were many people that were from the NYC area at the event. A Cisco rep's wife worked in the towers and they were trying to contact her and get someone to pick up his kids. She did not make it but his kids were safe.

The hotel told us we could stay as long as we wanted and they charted buses to get people home. Dinner was a sad event.

That was an annual event and they scheduled it for August the following years.

I drove that rental car home to NOLA the next day. Weird to see no planes in the sky and many signs and flags posted on interstate over passes. It seemed every radio station had stopped playing music and there was fear and anger in every callers voice.

I was on one of the first flights into NYC for some additional IBM training. The pilot tipped the plane so we could see the site with the smoke still rising. The training center in Palisades was a refuge for the body sniffing dogs. Lots of armed police and military personnel.

I found out later that one of the guys I graduated engineering school with was on one of the planes.

I told my wife to not let the kids watch the TV. I spent a majority of my time traveling by plane and that was the last thing I wanted them to see.

I am not the most religious man but where ever I am on 9/11 I stop in a church.

[BuckeyeMike80]

Originally Posted by Steve19

However, as demonstrated in every guerrilla war since the American Revolution, a centralized military power will almost certainly be unable to defeat a radically decentralized opponent.

Did I say any differently??

BTW don't look now, but when we got serious on the ground in Iraq, we kicked the dog[censored] out of Sadr, AQ, Al-Zarqawi and any FRE elements.

[Taosman]

But we won, right?

[BuckeyeMike80]

Originally Posted by Taosman

Iraq War= Cluster [censored] of the first order. Poor planning. Poor leadership. Poor politics. 4000+ young Americans dead. Tens of thousands permanently crippled. Thousands of new terrorists created. Trillions of dollars thrown drown a [censored] hole for a failed ideology.
But we won, right?

We aren't debating the Iraq War here Taos, despite your attempts to turn this forum into the cluster [censored] that the Poli Forum WAS (since the Mods/admins are cleaning it up now )

And yes that's all the answer you're going to get.

[BuckeyeMike80]

Originally Posted by Taosman

It was from the beginning. Your just blind to the reality.

So I'm guessing you want to be banished from this sub-forum too???

[Taosman]

Originally Posted by Muck

Strategic airpower is grossly overrated.

Tactical airpower is grossly underrated.

Now this is a philosophy.

[Taosman]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeMike80

So I'm guessing you want to be banished from this sub-forum too???

You sent it this direction so maybe you should go first?

[BuckeyeMike80]

Originally Posted by Taosman

My wife was at work, 13 miles from the World Trade Center. I was at home and got her call to tune in CNN and find out what was going on.
Crazy. Madness. Who would have thought that a President would take advantage of such a situation?

Originally Posted by Taosman

Iraq War= Cluster [censored] of the first order.
Sadam planned the 9/11 attacks?
But we won, right?

Originally Posted by Taosman

You sent it this direction so maybe you should go first?

Wrong again. Imagine that.

It's not even fun anymore.

[Taosman]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeMike80

We aren't debating the Iraq War here Taos, despite your attempts to turn this forum into the cluster [censored] that the Poli Forum WAS (since the Mods/admins are cleaning it up now )

And yes that's all the answer you're going to get.

But you never were a part of all that, right?

[BuckeyeMike80]

Originally Posted by Taosman

But you never were a part of all that, right?

Did I say I wasn't?

More importantly to stop this ongoing attempt at thread derailment, what does this have to do with 9/11?

[Taosman]

But, back to topic...............

Does one act of madness(9/11) always require an equal act of madness(Iraq invasion)?

[Muck]

Originally Posted by Steve19

However, as demonstrated in every guerrilla war since the American Revolution, a centralized military power will almost certainly be unable to defeat a radically decentralized opponent.

This is patently false.

Off the top of my head:

Peru, Greece, Guatemala, El Salvador, The Philippines (multiple times), Tibet, Sri Lanka (Tamil Tigers), Spain (Basque Separatists), Malaya, Morocoo/Western Sahara (Polisario)....anyone think the IRA actually won in Ireland?

Hell people's favorite classic example...Vietnam itself was not a guerilla victory. Dien Bien Phu was a standard combined arms battle & it was the NVA (with lots of Soviet support) that defeated the ARVN not the Viet Cong.

...and yes the US Revolutionary war was primarily fought using the standard tactics of the time.

The guerilla victories tend to stick in people's minds (and guerillas get undue credit from time to time just because they happen to be around when the other side quit the field for others reason .... ie the collapse of colonialism) but in reality the majority of the time the little guy gets the short end of the stick and when he does win it's usually because he's getting lots of outside support.

Hell you LIVE in a country where the "centralized military power" won.

Unless the 2nd Boer War happened before the US Revolution...or you're living in an alternate timeline where the Brits didn't win.

[Flocka]

Working hard to add on to that poli ban, Taos?