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| A column of the U.S. 1st Marine Division move through Chinese lines during their breakout from the Chosin Reservoir |
Thanks American Mercenary. Once again you took me to school. Appreciate the knowledge.
The quote...
“In July, 1950, one news commentator rather plaintively remarked that warfare had not changed so much, after all. For some reason, ground troops still seemed to be necessary, in spite of the atom bomb. And oddly and unfortunately, to this gentleman, man still seemed to be an important ingredient in battle. Troops were still getting killed, in pain and fury and dust and filth. What happened to the widely-heralded pushbutton warfare where skilled, immaculate technicians who never suffered the misery and ignominy of basic training blew each other to kingdom come like gentlemen?Airpower. Push button warfare. Nuclear warfare.
In this unconsciously plaintive cry lies the buried a great deal of the truth why the United States was almost defeated.
Nothing had happened to pushbutton warfare; its emergence was at hand. Horrible weapons that could destroy every city on Earth were at hand—at too many hands. But, pushbutton warfare meant Armageddon, and Armageddon, hopefully, will never be an end of national policy.Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud. ”
― T.R. Fehrenbach
All variations on the theme that land forces aren't needed. Historians and the children/grandchildren of the "technology mafia" will either ridicule this type thinking--if you're lucky...or curse you for your arrogance if you're not.
Wow, its almost as if learning history would be much more useful to our leaders than playing politics and learning about business models and shit, huh? The jerks
ReplyDeletejerks? more like idiots. i almost believe that they hold our history in contempt. its like they are unaware of reality and live in a fantasy world.
DeleteYou had me till Hiroshima.
ReplyDeleteBecause there, boots on the ground weren't required, except to accept the enemy surrender.
I call the concept population abuse.
The Spanish Government fell and its replacement withdrew from Afghanistan within two months, 3 days after terrorists killed 191 people.
People say "strategic bombing" failed in Korea and Vietnam, but the simple fact is it wasnt tried.
More than half a million Germans and more than half a million Japanese were killed by bombers during the second world war, uncounted more were "dehoused"
How many Vietnamese civillians in Ho Chi Minh City were killed? How many were dehomed?
hiroshima does apply. read the real history about the end of WW2. it wasn't the bomb that did the deed. it was the idea of Russia sending troops into Japan to "aid" in its surrender. history would have plaid out much differently if the Japanese didn't surrender. but yeah. the threat of boot on ground is what actually did it. not airpower.
DeleteThey knew they'd get a better peace from us than Stalin, and for that matter some factions still wanted to fight and even tried to capture the Emperor to prevent peace
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ReplyDelete"if you want to go only by wing size and not weight i'll play that game. guess what dummy? you went off F-35A stats you ignorant bastard."
ReplyDeleteYep, in Korea air power was tactically effective but not strategically because Truman refused to let logistics targets in China be bombed. Essentially air power is what kept the US 8th army from being beaten out of korea completely and its strategic restraint is what made the war unwinnable.
Vietnam is not much different, the real logistics targets were not in underdeveloped rural Vietnam. Bombing was never gonna have so much damage on the war effort, so we tried damaging moral and willpower.
Also is vietnam the jungle topography played a huge part in blunting air power. Aside from CAS troops called in when they were confronted by the enemy finding where the enemy was and bombing them was extremely difficult in vietnam completely regardless of how many bombs were dropped. The jungle was just so thick it made targeting ineffective.
The only lesson Vietnam serves is that quantity is not a substitute for accuracy. A lesson we took to heart seeing as how right after the smart bomb pushes came around.