Army boss in Taliban attacks warning

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

Funny thing is I wrote a paper while taking college courses(University of Maryland) in the military this was a few months before the Iraq War III in 2003.The paper compared The Vietnam War with the then current War in Afghanistan and then still "hypothetical" war in Iraq.

I had to use as part of my sources two people with expert knowledge about the Vietnam War so I interviewed by father and my 1st cousin one removed who went to the USMC War College.They both (and myself) predicted that unless it was expressly planned for both Afghanistan and Iraq would deteriorate into a difficult counter-insurgency.

So does that make me smarter than most current generals and politicians?

Of course these where college courses so no officers present in undergraduate courses as they already have their B.S. or B.A.

That was the only paper I actually enjoyed writing and presenting.

The US military (and other military powers for that matter, it's not just a US thing) has a nasty habit of forgetting lessons learnt in one war just in time to fight the next. There were quite a few hard lessons learnt in Korea that didn't get carried over to Vietnam, I don't know why, perhaps each generation of general thinks that the laws of the previous are outdated, when in fact while the weaponry may have changed, the warfare is still the same. I saw this cartoon once, I think for those of us interested in history it rings so very true:

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Oberon

don't know why, perhaps each generation of general thinks that the laws of the previous are outdated, when in fact while the weaponry may have changed, the warfare is still the same.

Precisely! 'Every general fights his last battle'; and if your actually good, your enemy reads your book and 'plays up'. Scipio read and met Hannibal(ZAMA); Wellington knew Napoleon's tactics completely by Waterloo; "he's a pounder after all" and Montgomery had undoubtedly read his Rommel: Infantry in the Attack, from compiled Potsdam lectures between the wars, and had his picture in his wartime command caravan. The rules of war never change; example: Ol' Boney's Maneuver sur les Derriéres translated to von Richthofen's "no tricks flying, get on his six and very close".(Rotte Fleiger) The Spandau equipped blood red Albatross III might have supplanted a French Napoleon 12-pounder equipped brigade as to speed, elevation and firepower, but the rules are the same. Oddly enough, Zama, El Alemain and Waterloo were won by competent military lifers who faced more highly regarded opponents who expected to win...but did not. The victors went on to become highly regarded in their turn after their history-altering encounters.