A commenter over at Belmont pointed me to this terrific article on winning. This is exactly correct. Our leaders either don't know how to win or don't think its important. Read this article right now.

desert rat said...
There is a piece by the "Style" Editor, over at the WaPo.
Usually, I'd skip over the "Style", but what Henry Allen has to say in Winning's Everything" is insightful.

I'd say that 'cause the fellow agrees with me.
Bet he didn't even know.

6:21 AM

Winning's

Everything"In war, we have to win," said Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.

This was on television about 20 years ago, a PBS series about the war in Vietnam. Giap was sitting behind a desk, as I recall, a picture of lethal ease. He seemed amused to think he knew something that the Americans still hadn't figured out. He added: "Absolutely have to win."

For me, a former Marine corporal who'd heard some Viet Cong rounds go past at Chu Lai, Giap spoke and the heavens opened -- a truth seizure, eureka. I finally had a useful, practical explanation for why we had lost after the best and brightest promised we were going to win. And nowadays, thanks to Giap, I have a theory, no more than that, about why winning is so elusive in Iraq.

I suspect that the people who run our wars, particularly the best and brightest, know when we fight a war that:

We have to be fighting for freedom and national security.

We have to get the will of the country behind the war.

We have to maintain a strong economy to pay for the war.

Reference Article