Comments on: The Marines as currently organized and equipped are about as relevant as the Army’s horse cavalry in the 1930s

By: Hoyos

Hoyos — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 14:20:46 +0000

In my totally non professional opinion: Gulf war one is the model for conventional war and I don’t think it’s mentioned enough.

Have limited reasonable war aims, establish air superiority as your first sine qua non priority, then shellack the enemy so he can’t “see”, can’t talk, can’t move, can’t resupply. The bombardment was so long and sustained chunks of the Iraqi Army couldn’t even get much real sleep for weeks on end, they were surrendering just to get some sleep.

It’s “expensive”, but costs a lot less than the blood of your own men.

May be wrong, but I feel like Gulf War One is studied less because of how well it went. The Iraqi Army is reinvented as some sort of paper tiger, and because there weren’t very many disastrous engagements there were fewer “heroes” and less drama.

But that’s ideal isn’t it? We had a limited reasonable war aim (“get the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait” vs. “turn Iraq into Ohio”), and sustained very few casualties while accomplishing our goals. Schwarzkopf even let much of the Iraqi military escape, as I understand it, he didn’t kill the enemy just to kill the enemy.

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 10:40:47 +0000

“Don’t punch down” is just something people say.

It’s stupid to punch up. Everybody punches down and then makes excuses.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 04:37:59 +0000

There’s a kind of joyful irony in the most gung-ho, hoo-rah branch of the U.S. military being the one whose greatest use in deployment is to beat up goatherds and take their lunch money.

By: Pseudo-Chrysostom

Pseudo-Chrysostom — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 01:39:11 +0000

>What is a better option that the author is proposing?

Implied by all the things he spoke of as very easy means of ruining their day.

By: Gavin Longmuir

Gavin Longmuir — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 14:32:55 +0000

So what’s new? Contested landings in WWII were bloody affairs — in the Pacific as well as in Europe.

The more important question is, What is a better option that the author is proposing?

Throughout history, the balance has swung between offence & defense. Defenders in a castle were supreme until the invention of gunpowder. Defenders in a trench were supreme until the invention of the tank. What we are seeing in the Ukraine is that modern man-portable weapons give defenders the ability to make things hard for attacking aircraft & armor.

It seems nations need some constructive fresh thinking about the circumstances in which they will attack, and the technology they will need.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 12:43:36 +0000

The first deployment of helicopter-borne troops in the Ia Drang valley in 1965, the subject of a book and movie, was a disaster. One battalion suffered 80% casualties (40% dead) and the other suffered 40% casualties (20% dead). The remnants had to walk out, because there was no safe LZ.