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Ghosts of Thermopylae

It’s been said by many people that the terrorists of today are fighting a different kind of war.

Bullshit.

This war is the same kind of war that’s been fought for 10,000 years. All military action, no matter the tools, techniques or players is designed to do one thing:

“ Make your enemy lose the will to resist”

Sometimes, you can do this by just showing up offshore with a Naval Task Force. Sometimes, it takes years of horrible fighting in near hand to hand conditions to get the other side to stop resisting. But no matter if it’s a long artillery barrage, naval blockade or medieval castle siege, the goal is the same, get the other side to give up and submit to negotiations.

For 10,000 years, all human warfare can be gauged by one simple metric. You are winning when the other side breaks ranks and runs. Therefore, all political action in concert with military action is designed support that one thing, “breaking the will”.

So, let’s take a look at the battlefield today. Some direct combatants, some indirect combatants, but make no mistake, the target they are aiming at is the same. Terrorists aren’t attacking factories or armies or navies at sea. They aren’t putting cities at siege or capturing ships in harbor.

They are attacking our spirits; they are attacking our will to resist.

Today we passed one of those asinine 'green eyeshades' metrics. U.S. death toll at 1,000 as forces battle al-Sadr

Let's be clear about this. Iraq is a battle, It's the world that is at war. When we have battlefields in this war as diverse as Bali, Morocco, Beslan, Madrid and yes, Manhattan it should be clear to all that there is no safe haven, no border, no ocean that we can hide behind for safety. There is no mountain range or river behind which we can hide, no philosophy we can adapt to make ourselves less a target.

I want every one who reads this to understand what I am about to say and let there be no mistake about what I am saying and that I'm not at all happy when I say it, but it needs to be said:

We will lose 100,000 soldiers,sailors and airmen before this war is over, maybe more.

This isn't a war in Iraq, it's a battle. It's a battle in which the enemy can't afford to lose and we can't afford to retreat. To allow the blasphemy of Democracy and the doctrine of human liberty into the domain of Islam belies the failures of their tyrannical leaders. Democracy is like a stake through the heart of the Jihadist tyrannies that have already destroyed the once proud and prosperous peoples of the middle east. These forces are now on their way to destroy the other 3/5ths of the earth if we let them win by giving into their will, by letting them break our spirits.

Iraq is just one battle, there will be many many others. Some of the battles in this war will be fought here at home and yes, many more of our "civilians " will die in this war. Our civilians, both left and right, democrats and republicans will die, not because killing them is militarily effective for the Jihadis, but simply because by killing us, the jihadis feel they can break our will to resist.

And that is what this whole thing comes down to. Will we, as free people, who want nothing more to live our lives and to be left alone, resist the forces of Jihadism?

But "What if"?

What if we retreat in this war, then what? Will the weak countries of the world continue to fight while America signs a separate peace with the mullahs? Shall we expect that Europe, already prostrate before the powers of tyranny, to fight on without us when they can't defend themselves even today? Can we expect the new children of Democracy, of which Russia is but one member, to fight on for liberty if we were to crawl back into our coccoon of consumer safety?

How shall we best lead the world?

I beleive the idea of "civilians" died in Guernica, Hamburg, London, Nanking, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was brought home again to me when our people died in downtown Manhattan. We are all targets, we are all combatants and the fastest way to get this war over with the least amount of death is to get busy fighting it. The more we wince, the more we shirk from the job at hand the more they rub their hands together and say to each other:

"one more day my fellow jihadi brothers, and their lines will surely break".

We determine the length of this war by the depth of our determination that it must be fought. If we decide to shirk, the war will grow longer and more deadly. If we fight with diligence and with force, it will end quicker and with less bloodshed for all.

Just as we recognize the "round number" metric of today at 1000 soldiers lost, we must also recognize that many, many more of us will not live to see the day when the whole world lives in freedom, but we must all dedicate ourselves to the cause that says that even for our enemies, it is a world that must be.

For without liberty and freedom, there will be no world at all.

The words echo up from our past:

Steel yourselves my friends. Stand up, grab your shields and swords and be prepared to meet the growing enemy, for tommorow we will all surely dine in Hades.

Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

Posted @ September 07, 2004 03:50 PM | History file

Posted by: Pale Infidel at September 7, 2004 09:56 PM