Playing By The Rules

This evening, Brian Williams and the NBC Nightly News released information that the U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan passed on an opportunity to attack the leaders of the Taliban who had all congregated in a funeral-type service last week.

For once, I applaud an action we have taken (or not taken in this instance). To those of you who think we should have taken the opportunity to strike, I ask: have you no respect for the dead?

OK, I understand some of you will point out that a suicide bomber took out several people at a similar gathering on the good-side of the fight. But just because they did it does not make it right for us to follow suit-- and believe me, I am all for 'and eye for an eye'... I even go beyond that and believe in 'The Chicago Way': he shoots you in the foot, you shoot him in the leg... he puts one of your men in the infirmary, you put one of his in the morgue. But you don't mess with people paying their respects for the dead.

Don't believe me? Take a quick look back to the American Civil War. Following the Union victory at Gettysburg, the Rebels were on the run-- but the Union leaders passed on the pursuit, to bury the casualties of the battle. They did the proper thing, and in the end the Gods of War smiled upon them with final victory.

By not attacking this memorial gathering, we have done the right thing. Call it a 'Conscientious Objection'. Just because you are present with the opportunity does not mean you have to take it.

And if you don't like my reasoning... then let's just say its more fun for us to hunt them down, instead of attacking when they're all just standing around-- I really don't know why else we'd pass on it.

However, we must understand that like in Vietnam, the rules of engagement, the rules of war, and the guidelines of the Geneva Convention are not in play with our opponents-- that is, they're not playing by them. And now, we have to decide how we are going to play this out.

Remember, the Brits lost the American Revolution by playing by the rules-- you know, marching in straight lines, not breaking ranks-- while our untrained militiamen picked them off one by one guerilla-style. How soon we forget.

So the first question to be answered is: Are we in a war?

I'm not talking about declaring war on abstracts. No more declring war on terrorism-- that fight is going about as well as our 'war' on drugs. If we are going to be at war, we need to define a specific target, get Congressional approval for said war, and go to town on our sworn enemies.

Right now the American public has no idea what the heck we are doing in the Middle East. We declared war on terrorism, we overthrew a government in Iraq, we've redecorated the typography landscape of several nations, and we've declared "Mission Accomplished".

Did the President not understand that 12-letter word on the banner behind him? "Mission Accomplished" means we have succeeded in our task at hand, and we can move on. But we haven't moved on. We are still fighting in the same spaces, against the same people. Something is amiss in the 'strategery'.

So, let us declare war on a specific target. Declare war against the Taliban. Declare war against Al-Queda. Declare war against Osama bin Laden... better yet, don't declare against him-- declaring against one person is not a good idea, because it gives him way too much attention, and will pretty much turn him into a martyr. Stick with groups.

Then, we must understand that beginning back in the Vietnam Conflict, the rules of war changed-- the goalposts moved. Sticking with traditional military techniques is not going to work against people who refuse to acknowledge the same set of rules. There was no coin flip, nobody to penalize sides for infractions... well, maybe The Hague, but I don't think they are getting involved in this one. I think the Gods of War are waiting for us to accept the change, make the tradition to the new way of fighting, and when we do-- and we go all in on this war, we will be rewarded with victory.

We need to live by former-President Bush's words, even if he didn't: "This [shall] not be another Vietnam. [This] time we are going all the way." No more policing. No more pussyfooting. We need to strike, and strike with confidence, authority, and the full power of the U.S. Military. No more half-hearting it.

"Do or do not. There is no try."