How to not win wars

Several years ago the Tar Heels lost to Duke in the ACC Tournament. During the regular season they split. I figured out why the Tar Heels lost in the final game to Duke.

Coach Dean Smith told his team at half time, “Okay men, I’m going to talk to Coach K. I will tell him that we are not going to finish this game until we know how many goals Duke is going to score in the second half. We are down by 2. We need clear intelligence on Duke’s plans so we will know how many goals to score. There was entirely too much pushing and shoving in the first half. I am going to let Coach K know that his team must stop that.”

“But Coach, we have been training all year to tangle with the Blue Devils.” 

“This is a new day and these are different rules. If Duke doesn’t like it, they can find someone else to play with. I will talk to the ref. We need an exit strategy. When the game is over, we need to know how we are going home without getting mobbed by these Cameron Crazies. If the ref can’t give me an exit strategy, we are not finishing this game.”

This isn’t exactly why the Tar Heels lost to the Blue Devils. But it illustrates why America, despite having overwhelming technological, material, and training advantages, has problems dealing with international crises.

We lost in Vietnam. The Viet Cong had no timeline for victory and no limit on its casualties. Our politicians and news anchors did. Remember Nixon’s secret plan to end that war?

In 1996 Saddam Hussein had Bill Clinton figured out. He played Bill like a yo-yo. Saddam let us lob million-dollar cruise missiles at $50,000 targets in southern Iraq. We did not even attempt to stop his slaughter of Kurds in northern Iraq — abandoning those who had been working with us for years.

President Clinton considered sending troops to Zaire. Reports from Fort Bragg treated us to the spectacle of parents complaining that Thanksgiving and Christmas was no time to send the 82nd Airborne to Africa. What an embarrassment to their brave sons and daughters.

Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden each set public deadlines and exit strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Trump let the Taliban have the run of Afghanistan if the Taliban promised not to kill a single American soldier. They took him up on that deal.

In early January 2021, the president ordered his generals to get everybody out of Afghanistan within weeks. His generals refused. Biden refused to follow the advice of his generals in August 2021 with disastrous results, abandoning hundreds of thousands of Afghans who had worked with us for 25 years. In his second term President Trump is completing the abandonment of Afghans and other allies.

Setting public deadlines, exit strategies, and casualty limits is a time-honored way to lose wars.

I believe there is a different strategy for successful struggle. In 991 AD a hard-pressed Anglo-Saxon, facing an onslaught of Danes at the Battle of Maldon Bridge, sung:

Hearts shall be bolder,
Harder be purpose,
More proud the spirit
As our power lessens.
Minds shall not falter
Nor mood waiver
Though doom come
And dark conquer.

Do you remember Churchill’s speech to Parliament after Dunkirk in the dark days of 1940?

https://youtu.be/s_LncVnecLA?is=aRcRjvTbZZlD0AR7  

Do you remember King Henry V rallying his outnumbered archers before the Battle of Agincourt? 

https://youtu.be/A-yZNMWFqvM?is=LrBkHOpHW_a2xBxP

Would America be able to celebrate its 250th year of independence if the founding mothers and fathers had demanded that victory be completed by 1777? Would a quota on casualties and a budget limit have helped?

Two soldiers from Fort Bragg recently died — one in Jordan, one in Iraq. The principle goal of the War on Iran is to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. With these weapons, Iran could kill millions of innocent people. American soldiers are willing to lay down their lives in defense for millions of others. They should not die in service of fanciful excursions. Threats to commit war crimes don’t work against regimes that don’t care how many of their people die.

Artificial deadlines set by the president, the Congress, both Democrat and Republican, and by the press serve only those regimes willing to endure as long as it takes.

Note: The author never served overseas during his brief stint with the Marine Corps 1968-1970. He enlisted after Defense Secretary McNamara had privately told President Johnson that the Vietnam War could not be won (as we found out decades later).

Paul "Skip" Stam served 16 years in the NC House, the last 10 years as the GOP leader or speaker pro tem.