Author Jeff Edwards
Ramsey Clark--George Clooney--Richard Gere
I think it's sort of a game. The
critics won't tell you what the game is called, so I've taken the liberty of
naming it myself. I call it the 'No Right Answer' game. It's easy to play, and
it must be a lot of fun because politicos and journalists can't stop playing it.
I'll teach you the rules.
No matter how the U.S. military is organized, it's the wrong force. Actually,
that's the only rule in this game. We don't really need any other rules, because
that one applies in all possible situations. Allow me to demonstrate...
Are you getting the hang of the game yet? It's easy; keeping old planes is
the wrong answer, but getting new planes is also the wrong answer. There is no
right answer, not ever.
Isn't that fun?It works everywhere. SO SMALL IS WRONG
The fun never stops when we play the 'No Right Answer' game. If we
centralize our military infrastructure, the experts tell us that we are
vulnerable to attack. We're inviting another Pearl Harbor.
If we leave our infrastructure unchanged, we are accused of becoming stagnant
in a dynamic world environment.
Even the lessons of history are not sacrosanct. When we learn from the
mistakes we made in past wars, we are accused of failing to adapt to emerging
realities. When we shift our eyes toward the future, the critics quickly tell us
that we've forgotten our history and we are therefore doomed to repeat it.
If we somehow manage to assimilate both past lessons and emerging threats,
we're informed that we lack focus.
Where does it come from: This default assumption that we are doing the
wrong thing, no matter what we happen to be doing? How did our military wind up
in a zero-sum game?
I can't think of a single point in history where our forces were of the
correct size, the correct composition, correctly deployed, and appropriately
trained all at the same time.
Pick a war, any war. (For that matter, pick any period of peace.) Then dig up
as many official and unofficial historical documents, reports, reconstruction's,
and commentaries as you can. For every unbiased account you uncover, you'll find
three commentaries by revisionist historians who cannot wait to tell you how
badly the U.S. military bungled things.
We really only have one defense against this sort of mudslinging.
Success. When we fight, we win, and that's got to count for something.
When asked to comment on Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. Army's Lieutenant
General Tom Kelly reportedly said, "Iraq went from the fourth-largest army in
the world, to the second-largest army in Iraq in 100 hours."
Then say, "Thank you."
I'm betting you won't even have to explain the reason. Our Service members
are not blind or stupid.
Two words -- that's all I ask.
"Thank you."
If that's too hard, if you can't bring yourself to acknowledge the
dedication, sincerity and sacrifice of your defenders, then I have a backup plan
for you.
Put on a uniform and show us how to do it right
Author Jeff Edwards
Click Here is a link to Jeff's website: CLICK HERE
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October--2005 If you would like to share this page with a friend or
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This article was written by retired Chief
Petty Officer and award winning novelist, Jeff Edwards.
America's military can win wars. We've done it in the past,
and I have absolute confidence that we'll continue to do it in the future. We've
won fights in which we possessed overwhelming technological superiority (Desert
Storm)
as well as conflicts in which we were the technical
underdogs (the American Revolution)
We've crossed swords with numerically superior foes, and
with militaries a fraction of the size of our own. We've battled on our own soil
(Civil War)
and on the soil of foreign lands(Iwo Jima)
On the sea
Under the sea
And in the skies
We've even engaged in a bit of cyber-combat, way out
there on the electronic frontier.
At one time or another, we've done battle under just
about every circumstance imaginable, armed with everything from muskets
to cruise missiles.
And, somehow, we've managed to do it all with the
wrong Army.
That's right, America has the wrong Army. I don't
know how it happened, but it did. We have the wrong Army. It's too small; it's
not deployed properly; it's inadequately trained, and it doesn't have the right
sort of logistical support. It's a shambles. I have no idea how those guys even
manage to fight.
Now, before my brothers and sisters of the OD
green persuasion get their fur up, I have another revelation for you We
also have the wrong Navy.
And if you want to get down to brass tacks, we've
got the wrong Air Force
The wrong Marine Corps
And the wrong Coast Guard
Don't believe me? Pick up a newspaper or
turn on your television.
In the past week, I've watched or read at least a
dozen commentaries on the strength, size, and deployment of our military forces.
All of our uniform services get called on the carpet for different reasons, but
our critics unanimously agree that we're doing pretty much everything wrong
Desert Storm Jet Fighter Plane
If the Air Force's
fighter jets are showing their age, critics will tell us that Air Force leaders
are mismanaging their assets, and endangering the safety of their personnel.
If the Air Force attempts to procure new fighter jets, they
are shopping for toys and that money could be spent better elsewhere.
When the Army
is small, it's TOO small. Then we start to hear phrases like 'over-extended' or
'spread too thin,' and the integrity of our national defense is called into
question.
When the Army is large, it's TOO large, and it's an
unnecessary drain on our economy. Terms like 'dead weight,' and 'dead wood' get
thrown around.
I know what you're thinking. We could build a medium-sized Army, and
everyone would be happy Think again!!! A medium-sized Army is too small to deal
with large-scale conflicts, and too large to keep military spending properly
muzzled. The nay sayers will attack any middle of the road solution anyway, on
the grounds that it lacks a coherent strategy.
LARGE IS WRONG
AND MEDIUM SIZE IS WRONG
Now you're starting to understand the game. Is this
fun, or what? No branch of the military is exempt
When the Navy builds aircraft carriers, we are told that we
really need small, fast multipurpose ships.
When the Navy builds small, fast multi-mission ships (AKA the
Arleigh Burke class), we're told that blue water ships are poorly suited for
littoral combat, and we really need brown water combat ships.
The Navy's answer, the Littoral Combat, isn't even off the
drawing boards yet, and the critics are already calling it pork barrel politics
and questioning the need.
If we decentralize our infrastructure, we're sloppy and
overbuilt, and the BRAC experts break out the calculators and start dismantling
what they call our excess physical capacity.
We can prevail on the field of battle, but we can't win a war of
words where the overriding assumption is that we are always in the wrong.
Revisionist Historians
To hear them tell it we could take
lessons in organization and leadership from the Keystone Cops.
In my opinion, it's hard to argue with that
kind of success, but critics weren't fazed by it. Because no matter how well we
fought, we did it with the wrong Army.
I'd like to close with an invitation to those journalists,
analysts, experts and politicians who sit up at night dreaming up new ways to
criticize our armed forces.
The next time you see a man or woman in uniform, stop for ten seconds
and reflect upon how much you owe that person, and his or her fellow Sailors,
Marines, Soldiers, and Airmen.
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They know what they're risking. They know what they're sacrificing.
They've weighed their wants, their needs, and their personal safety against the
needs of their nation, and made the decision to serve. They know that they
deserve our gratitude, even if they rarely receive it
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