West Point Colonel Questions Petraeus's Strategy

[glockmail]

Who cares, let the Air Force handle it.

That's a very valid point. When you have such a huge superiority in long range air power, I don't think that anyone could wage a "large scale war" against us. Just think of any major battle would have been in WW2 if we had just the AF technology that we have today. In Europe, we would have simply annihilated all German factories, bridges and fuel depots, leaving their army unsupplied and useless. We would have sunk all German and Japanese battleships within hours. In the Pacific theater, we would have simply ignored the string of islands leading up to Japan and attacked her head-on.

[Gaffer]

That's exactly why we won't be fighting any large scale war in the near future. Our air power gives us the capability to destroy a countries fighting force and allow our troops to move in within weeks. We took down iraq with THREE divisions. As you said we can by pass out lying areas and go straight for the juggler. Even fanatical troops have to have command and control.

[glockmail]

That's exactly what we did to Iraq, twice now. I remember in GW1 we took out their communications first, and had free reighn to decimate any battlre groups present. I especially remeber the tank kills, where the much touted Republican Guard had tanks bunkered in for weeks, and our AF would locate them, then our tank guys would simply pop out over a hill and take them out before they could aim their guns.

[Sitarro]

That's exactly why we won't be fighting any large scale war in the near future. Our air power gives us the capability to destroy a countries fighting force and allow our troops to move in within weeks. We took down iraq with THREE divisions. As you said we can by pass out lying areas and go straight for the juggler. Even fanatical troops have to have command and control.

With the advances in unmanned aircraft technology, satellite technology, etc., much of the military will be obsolete in a decade ....... kind of what happened to thousands of draftsmen when CAD appeared.... only a handful were needed to do the work of many.

Unmanned aircraft will be able to easily out maneuver anything with a human in it, G forces don't have the same effect on a Radio Controlled aircraft. The Russians, with their cute, air show fighters will be destroyed as an after thought by a generation that has been raised on video games. Add StarWars technology to this and voila, serious ass kicking of most large scaled threats.

[glockmail]

With the advances in unmanned aircraft technology, satellite technology, etc., much of the military will be obsolete in a decade ....... kind of what happened to thousands of draftsmen when CAD appeared.... only a handful were needed to do the work of many.

Unmanned aircraft will be able to easily out maneuver anything with a human in it, G forces don't have the same effect on a Radio Controlled aircraft. The Russians, with their cute, air show fighters will be destroyed as an after thought by a generation that has been raised on video games. Add StarWars technology to this and voila, serious ass kicking of most large scaled threats.

Heck, I envision insect size micro-fighters that would fly-crawl their way right into some dictator's bed at night and inject him with deadly poison, effectivly cutting the head off the snake on the first day of a conflict. Or even nano-sized machines that work their way into communications equipment and disable it, or get under the skin of soldiers and cause temporary paralysis or convulsions.

[Sitarro]

Heck, I envision insect size micro-fighters that would fly-crawl their way right into some dictator's bed at night and inject him with deadly poison, effectivly cutting the head off the snake on the first day of a conflict. Or even nano-sized machines that work their way into communications equipment and disable it, or get under the skin of soldiers and cause temporary paralysis or convulsions.

Weren't the Israelis working on using cockroaches for something?

[glockmail]

Weren't the Israelis working on using cockroaches for something?

As I recall someone was putting little cameras on them. Maybe maineman knows, since he's a needle-dick-bug-fucker.

[rppearso]

That's a very valid point. When you have such a huge superiority in long range air power, I don't think that anyone could wage a "large scale war" against us. Just think of any major battle would have been in WW2 if we had just the AF technology that we have today. In Europe, we would have simply annihilated all German factories, bridges and fuel depots, leaving their army unsupplied and useless. We would have sunk all German and Japanese battleships within hours. In the Pacific theater, we would have simply ignored the string of islands leading up to Japan and attacked her head-on.

I think you ment to say the germans would have been kicking our asses and bombing our factories, I think you just typoed considering most of the core technology we have came from german scientists and engineers, our own scientists and engineers did alot as well but the germans catupulted us way ahead.

[glockmail]

I think you ment to say the germans would have been kicking our asses and bombing our factories, I think you just typoed considering most of the core technology we have came from german scientists and engineers, our own scientists and engineers did alot as well but the germans catupulted us way ahead.

You may have your calendar set wrong. It's 2008, not 1941.

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/

[Pale Rider]

It shouldn't be that all we can do is fight one kind of a war or another. We should be able to quickly adapt to ANY kind of a war.

[Nukeman]

It shouldn't be that all we can do is fight one kind of a war or another. We should be able to quickly adapt to ANY kind of a war.

Actually Pale we have the ability to wage "ANY" type of war that is needed, we can adapt and we can win any war that is put in front of us. The problem is all the damn shackles they put on our soldiers and the limitations imposed on the military to carry our operations.

Get rid of all the journalist in the field limit news coverage and kick the shit out of whoever we are fighting. Level the freaking cities that are hiding the terrorist. Start at one side and level the whole fucking thing. The problem is we have too many people in the public who think war is "moral" or can be safe for everyone not fighting. It is a freaking war with casualties unfortunately we are restrained from unleashing our full force to deal with the problems....

[rppearso]

You may have your calendar set wrong. It's 2008, not 1941.

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/

Nice try at being a brazen smart ass, but your reference was to WW2 which occured in the 1940s so it would have been the germans that had the technology you speak of not us. They had thoes pesky people you hate so much (myself included) called scientists and engineers who give its military technological superiority.

[Nukeman]

Nice try at being a brazen smart ass, but your reference was to WW2 which occured in the 1940s so it would have been the germans that had the technology you speak of not us. They had thoes pesky people you hate so much (myself included) called scientists and engineers who give its military technological superiority.

Hey dip shit try reading comprehension 101 some time. He said that if WE had the technology we have today in WWII than we could have annihilated the Germans in about a week....

Just think of any major battle would have been in WW2 if we had just the AF technology that we have today. In Europe, we would have simply annihilated all German factories, bridges and fuel depots, leaving their army unsupplied and useless

Here I posted the quote and even bolded the part your superior brain missed. God I hope you never work on any of the inventions that I may need in the future!!!

[rppearso]

Hey dip shit try reading comprehension 101 some time. He said that if WE had the technology we have today in WWII than we could have annihilated the Germans in about a week....


Here I posted the quote and even bolded the part your superior brain missed. God I hope you never work on any of the inventions that I may need in the future!!!

I dident miss it, I simply stated reality, if iraq had US technology they would have won the war but thats not reality.

[glockmail]

Nice try at being a brazen smart ass, but your reference was to WW2 which occured in the 1940s so it would have been the germans that had the technology you speak of not us. They had thoes pesky people you hate so much (myself included) called scientists and engineers who give its military technological superiority.

I'm dissapointed in myself for not impressing on you that I am a brazen smart ass, not simply trying for it. And yes, the german mind has a higher capacity to advance technology. Being from German ancestry myself, I can attest to that.

But the subject matter here is the need (or not) for the US to fight a large scale war now and in the future, not an acedemic review of what could have happened in 1940.