Dien Bien Phu and the Will To Win

The Weekly Standard has a long three-page article that does a great job summarizing the post-WWII battle for Indochina between the French and Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh guerillas, and the lead up to American involvement in Vietnam. 

It's a good review in light of what seems to becoming an aimless American involvement in Afghanistan right now.

The article hits on many themes, a couple that seem important to me are the difference between the performance of highly trained, highly motivated troops, and regulars, and also the effect of feckless governmental leadership on the effort to win a war. 

As we say, read the whole thing.  The French struggle to hold on to their colony was by no means a hopeless cause.  They controlled most of the country and population, and when they could set things up correctly, they could deliver devastating defeats to the Vietminh (precursors to the North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas encountered by Americans).  Their Foreign Legion and Paratroop divisions could aggressively outfight the Vietminh if employed properly.

The battle of Dien Bien Phu was supposedly that setup, but, due largely to lackadaisical prosecution of the battle by senior French leadership, the battle turned into a loss for the French, even though it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Vietminh, a la the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War (which really was a Pyrrhic loss for the Viet Cong, not a Pyrrhic victory).  Perception often matters more than facts. 

Besides education and admiration of the heroics on both sides in that war, the point of me bringing this up is that it is the attitude of the country's populations and leadership that prosecutes the war that has as much to do with victory as the efforts of the local commanders and troops.  We went into Afghanistan and Iraq with focussed purposes and succeeded spectacularly in attaining our goals in both cases.  However, we then lost focus to what our purpose was and our efforts in those countries became less effective.  It took George Bush's willpower and General Petraeus' Surge strategy to refocus American efforts and secure the situation we desired in Iraq, and to finally attain all of our goals. 

We now have a feckless leader, supposedly focussed on Afghanistan, but actually having no desire and no clue how to prosecute that war, and a population that is now seriously questioning our involvement.  Our troops perform well regardless, but that alone will not secure victory.

I'll just give one large quote near the end:

So ended the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. History has ruled the French defeat inevitable, which demeans the sacrifices made by the soldiers on each side. The Viets won thanks to the unstinting efforts of their army. And even so, the decision hung in the balance. With better command and support, the base could have held out and possibly set the ground for a sensible peace like that allowed by Britain’s victory in the 1950s Malayan Emergency. The war, moreover, needn’t have ended because Dien Bien Phu was overrun. The severe losses forced upon the Viet-Minh made their victory pyrrhic. The Viet-Minh were in no position during the height of the monsoon to move their shattered units to threaten Hanoi. Just as conditions on the ground had not changed much after de Lattre’s 1951 victories, so they hadn’t in summer 1954. What had changed was France’s willingness to continue the fight—politics, not combat, decided the war. Ho’s strategy had proved far more adept than Giap’s tactics.

The article itself does address Afghanistan and also goes on to discuss the ferocity of the French paratroopers efforts in the Battle of Algiers.  Do read!

It's OK Jarheads, Buffs Gotcher Back

Waging war the Strategic Air Command way.  Real men launch nuclear weapons.  When the nuclear arm of the Air Force has an exercise, the point of the exercise is to launch all the birds as fast as possible, called MITO (minimum interval take off), before the incoming Soviet nuke vaporizes the base.  I think the goal is to get them airborne in ten minutes after the alarm is raised.  Once the birds are launched, the hard-working maintenance men can go back to their shops and play spades for the rest of the exercise.  Grueling.  Anyway, this video shows a launch of 'alert' birds from Minot AFB.  If the flag drops, these planes will fly to their target, nuking a path before them with SRAM (Short Range Attack Missiles), and launch their cruise missiles or nuke bombs on the soon-to-be-dust enemy target.  Listen to the comments.  They call it the 'Elephant Walk' as the lumbering B-52s roll to the runway.  After a little while the video is boring.  But if you stick it out to the end, someone makes the key, awesome comment,

"Now that's American airpower right there ladies and gentlemen.   No other country in the world can do what you just saw".   Tru Dat!

Time to go play some spades.

Welcome New Blogger

After months of secret evaluation, the RTP&GG Star Chamber has deemed commenter KP worthy of Blogger status.  KP, the position is yours if you choose to accept it.  Have ToeJamm send me your e-mail address, and I'll give you posting permission.

Bud-D

Transportation Is Important

I have been a delivery driver for 4 years. I make up to 30 deliveries a day in SE Portland. It is frustrating to be stopped at lights for thirty seconds while there is no traffic crossing. This happens a couple times every delivery (approx.). That would mean that I could possibly spend up to 30 mins (30 secs x 2 times per trip x 30 deliveries) of unnecessary idle time on the road. This is a stress that I just accept because I figure there is no other way around it. It is “the luck of the draw”. Or is it?

Recently, I got a traffic violation on the corner of NE Grand and NE Broadway. I was not working at the time. The citation that I received was for rolling through a right turn at a red light. I am not arguing against my violation and I will pay my fine. What caught my eye was how the “high-speed camera and sensor device” recorded my violation. The citation that was sent to me gave me a long list of information regarding my violation. If our state has the ability to put this sort of sophisticated radar system in to enforcw law, why can’t we put it in to our outdated traffic light system? Is it more important to give petty citations to hard working citizens than to have fluid traffic?

Portland is the heart of this state and traffic is the blood flow of our economy. Every Portlander is frustrated about our congestion. If we invest the money to have a sophisticated traffic system that is not based on “ticking clocks” but rather who is at the light, it would increase traffic flow. For instance, the light could turn green for cars, and when the cars are all through, would immediately turn for other traffic. A sophisticated radar or camera, with sophisticated programming, could easily maximize car flow.

I know the State is near broke, but surely this sort of traffic control would pay for itself, especially if it was applied to major traffic arteries of Portland first. Not only would cars not have to spend unnecessary time at lights, they would save gas, brake pads, and other vehicle maintenance costs that bog down our disposable income. Surely the customers would be happy for a timely delivery!

Obamacare To Cost Twice As Much As Originally Forecasted

Looks like Obamacare is going to cost twice as much as forecasted:

President Obama's national health care law will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to a new projection released today by the Congressional Budget Office, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.

This is not surprising since there were all kinds of budget gimmicks behind the original forecast. The sad thing is that the likely Republican candidate for president implemented and steadfastly stands by the precursor to Obamacare. Romney does say that he will repeal Obamacare, but his actions and past comments make it appear that he might not do what he says. Obamacare will help to compound the looming debt crisis.

Looks like February was the highest monthly increase in the national debt:

The federal government's budget deficit grew by $222.5 billion in February, the largest one-month increase in history. Economists are forecasting the deficit for the year will be the biggest imbalance on record.

Keep this figure in mind when you hear politicians claiming that reducing the deficit by a couple hundred million or billion over ten years or even in a year is some big accomplishment. How will the government repay all of this debt? If you know history then it is not to guess.

Inflation won't be a major concern in the near future according to the Federal Reserve:

A little is all right. That’s the message Federal Reserve Chairman

Ben S. Bernanke has been giving out recently when asked about the evidence of inflation in the U.S. recovery. Sometimes Bernanke doesn’t even go that far. He simply says he doesn’t see inflation. The Fed chairman recently described the prospects for price increases across the board as “subdued.”

The laws of nature and more specifically the laws economics, human nature, and mathematics don't apply to people living today. We are special.

Just a Taste

If you have a couple minutes, read some of this. This is the crap that I have to read for my business ethics class.

http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter1.pdf

The President Commands

I have been coming across some headlines that reveals the type of country that America is rapidly becoming: "Obama fires GM CEO", "Obama Lowers Mortgage Fees for 3 Million Homeowners", "Obama: Health insurers, not churches, must provide birth control coverage(poll)". When did the president gain this authority? The amount of power that the president and the government in general have/will have makes you step back and look at how far America has moved away from the country as it was founded, and makes you look at America's future through a different prism. History has shown that when any one man or any single entity has this level of power-- whether it is led by people on your side of the political spectrum or not, freedom rapidly gives way to its opposite.

It is easy to dismiss this threat with the notion that it is being created with the best of intentions; but as Hayek pointed out his book The Road To Serfdom, the good intentions of well-meaning socialist end up creating a system that paves the way for a totalitarian political system.

I'm Feeling the Pinch

I am feeling my first direct effect of governmental internet regulation. My favorite website to check the point spreads for sports games has been seized by the federal government. Bodog.com was an internet gambling site for sports and some other cool stuff like: what kind of dog will the president get for the White House?

Check out Bodog.com and view the crackdown.

Andrew Breitbart: Murdered?

I'm gonna drop a little conspiracy theory bomb. I heard this theory on "Ground Zero".

Andrew Breitbart died on March 1st, 2012. Andrew Breitbart was a conservative journalist who organized the undercover video of ACORN and was also the lead investigative journalist who brought down Andrew Weiner in his sex scandal. Breitbart has created several independent news channells and all of them are highly critical of big government. "Three of the four major candidates in the GOP primaries expressed their sorrow upon hearing the news."-Wikipedia.
In less than 24 hours of his death, officials had declared him to have died from "natural causes". But is this true?

"Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Breitbart claimed he had damning videos of Barack Obama, and planned to relese them before the general election."- yahoo news.

Was he being silenced? Why did it take less than 24 hours for his death to be declared natural? He hadn't even had an autopsy. Potassium, if injected in to the blood stream, can cause a sudden heart attack. A lot of the time it is hard to detect (groundzero radio). It took 6 days to declare what the causes of Whitney Houston were.

This case is reminiscent of when Putin had his critics shut down:

Media-Most, Russia's only independent national media network, has been the subject of government investigations for a series of alleged offenses, ranging from breacho of privacy to embezzlement.

Today's operations was the second government action against Media-Most in three months.

In June (2000), Media-Most owner Vladimir Gusinsky was arrested on charges of defrauding the government. Though he was released four days later, international concern arose that the arrest was retaliation for Media-Most's criticism of Kremlin policies.

Today, Media-Most lawyer Pavel Astakhov told reporters police action was aimed at keeping the company quiet.

"An investigator...said he can confiscate any documents he considers necessary," Askahov said. "There is only one goal--to paralyze the activity of Media-Most and the mass meda that are part of the holding."- pbs.org

Watch out, big brother is watching.