Total War

A few months ago a beautiful and very intelligent woman told me her philosophy on fighting the wars against the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and anyone who dared to attack the United States. Her philosophy was “nuke and pave”. I found this to be pretty extreme at first. I also saw the merit in this strategy. I began to do a little digging to find out about this strategy. It wasn’t long before I found out that it was actually a verifiable military strategy. This is called Total War. Total War is more than a strategy or a philosophy; it is complete commitment to the eradication of the enemy. That means that every available resource is utilized in the war effort including all civilians and civilian assets. These resources are put to one use and one use only; annihilate the enemy and all of its resources which include all civilian and military personnel and all of the physical assets in the land. It does not differentiate between government and civilian buildings or companies or people. It destroys all. Most importantly, it kills the will of the enemy to fight and dissuades any other potential enemies or aspiring despots from attempting to wage war.

Total War has been a military strategy since its earliest known occurrence in the 8^th century BC. The best modern example of total war is World War II. The Total War effort was seen in both the theatre of war and at home. It the front lines you saw navies and air forces and of course the armies mobilize like none had before. At the home front people saw every one making an effort. Women rolled up their sleeves and became “Rosie the Riveter” and built our war planes. Also at the home front most resources were o being rationed. Any and all available resources were being diverted to the European and Pacific theatres. This led   to the culmination of the war in far off Japan with the flights of the Enola Gay and the Bockscar and the dropping of the atomic bombs. Fat Man and Little Boy vaporized the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively, thus ensuring the end of the war and victory for the allies.

Knowledge of this has been falling out of memory for too long. If this was still fresh in the memories of terrorists or despots like Saddam Hussein and countries who would aid those who attempt to hurt us there would be far fewer attacks on the USA. Total War is the answer and the best deterrent. You attack our embassies, we destroy your country. You attack the USS Cole, we destroy your country. You attack our Marines in Beirut, we destroy your country. You take our people hostage and hold them for 444 days, we destroy your country. I’m looking at you Ahmadinejad, Karzai, Zardari, Qaddafi, and any others who dare attempt to harm our nation by hostile measure or by harboring terrorists. Diplomacy in these matters is futile. Diplomacy is for Eunuchs and capons. Nuke and pave and peace will follow.

Hugo