Iraq war hero books: basically are about fighting against small arms

[PlanetJosh]

The 2003 Iraq war that is. And the current Afghan war too. All the hero books praising U.S. troops fighting in the two wars involve fighting an enemy with limited weapons. The Iraq enemy had mostly machine guns, RPGs and IEDs. I think IEDs (roadside bombs) fall into the small arms category. Anyone want to refute this go ahead and post more advanced weapons used by them. I doubt if any are enough to make any difference in my point.

So this is nothing new to say the American military got into a stalemate against some Arabs with small arms. Seems a little awkward for the hero books to dance around that image. A typical counter argument to this is that the U.S. didn't send in enough troops to wipe out the enemy army/terrorists for good.

Or in a similar counter argument also used by conservatives: after the Surge in Iraq the U.S. reduced the number of troops to where it is now which is not enough to stop ISIS or other rebels in Iraq. Which means according to the righties it must be fault of the current White House Administration. Which is probably what most of those books say or at least imply.

 

[dainthomas]

There's something to be said for throwing the hammer down so hard the enemy has no more will to fight. I forget who said it, but there's a quote out there that basically says "war sucks, and the sooner you can end it the better".

 

[Sonikku]

There's something to be said for throwing the hammer down so hard the enemy has no more will to fight. I forget who said it, but there's a quote out there that basically says "war sucks, and the sooner you can end it the better".

Might better a dropped a few hydrogen bombs and made it better sooner.

 

[Jaskalas]

There's something to be said for throwing the hammer down so hard the enemy has no more will to fight. I forget who said it, but there's a quote out there that basically says "war sucks, and the sooner you can end it the better".

-William Tecumseh Sherman
"War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want."
"War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is the sooner it will be over."

 

[trenchfoot]

The lessons of our experience in Vietnam got lost as the newer generations think they know better than the ones before them. So too will our lessons learned in the Middle East follow the same fate.

Then again, the HARD lessons learned are learned by our combat troops and not those policy makers/life takers who will never ever let a good lesson painfully learned by our heroic troops affect their ideology and personal agendas.

We have two opposing agendas that get created when we send our troops into conflicts that, as far as our policy makers are concerned, must have crippling Rules of Engagement attached to the mission that adheres to the political goals of said policy maker, which will always supersede the primary mission of our troops: Kill the enemy before they kill you.

Our policy makers would rather have many more of our troops killed and maimed rather than have their political agendas compromised. Especially when, as our previous administration found to their embarrassment and demise, they send in our troops with a false sense of purpose and arrogantly ignorant expectations.

So instead of carpet/fire bombing our enemies and their civilian populations into submission like the days of old, we have to instead "win their hearts and minds" paid for with the extra blood and maimings it takes to do things that way.

Ergo, we have to fight our enemies at their level of technology/expertise in order to appear benevolent and caring toward their civilians and the rest of the world, yet absolutely and deceptively ruthless and overpowering in actual combat.

It doesn't help that our enemies decided to level the playing field by using our own ROE against us via waging war amongst their own civilian population. Which brings us to your observation that small arms and light infantry tactics have to be used. This in order to not violate our politically motivated ROE.

Ok, wanted to post more, but the boss showed up, must get to work.