The big headline in the local (Hanover, PA) paper reads:
The subheading reads: “The day the war turned . . .”
OK, is it just me or does running into some expected resistance and taking some expected and light casualties not seem like such a big damn deal? So, we had to fight some scrappy little camel jockeys in bypassed urban centers. That’s why we brought along the British Army. Who better knows how to fight scrappy little ideological fighters in urban areas? They’ve been battling in Northern Ireland since the start of the modern “troubles” in the 1960s. Turn the Limeys loose, the towel heads don’t stand a chance.
Lessee, in late 1944 a totally unexpected German onslaught was unleashed in the Ardennes forest. Multiple SS and Panzer divisions plowed through thin lines of combat troops and quickly caused havoc among rear-echelon troops (cooks, mechanics, and the like). Despite complete air superiority, close air support was unavailable for the first several days of the assault due to bad weather – snow and low cloud cover. Regardess, in a matter of days, our poorly supplied and equipped troops stood their ground in pockets, slowly fought their way to encirclement of the German thrust and began the destruction of the last strong elements of the Wehrmact and the eventual march to victory in the spring of 1945.
Sound familiar? Right up to the “poorly supplied and equipped troops” part I think it does. Oh yeah, except for the “totally unexpected German onslaught” bit. We have moved hundreds of miles through enemy territory with neglible losses. We have spared the lives of tens of thousands of the enemy through our own restraint. We are about to engage the remainder of the enemy’s top notch forces – kindly coming out to battle us at their severe disadvantage – while cowardly units of suicidal terrorists roam our flanks and rear scoring minor successes from time to time but inevitably being wiped out before they can threaten again. All of this was expected and planned for and our equipment is still in complete working order with no lack of supplies. In addition, we are currently landing and unloading tons of humanitarian relief supplies to ease the suffering of civilians – and all this while combat still rages at the front.
Oh yeah, I think we ought to just throw up our hands right now. Naturally we can never stand against a bunch of sand monkeys with decades old technology fighting because some terrorist bastard has a gun to their head. Yep, no hope, no hope at all.
As my own personal idol says, “I hate you all. And if any of you truly cared about me you’d all kill yourselves.”