What the Heck was I Thinking!?

Reading about the ISG report and the many blogs that have commented on it, it struck me that asymmetrical warfare has been waged against us since we first demonstrated that we could kick some serious a$$ in World War II. I’ve looked at Captain’s Quarters, Michelle Malkin, Dr. Sanity, and Wizbang blog, which finally pointed me to Townhall.com::Will we ever win another war?::By Ben Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro made this comment in the body of his post:

This is because the very definition of war has changed. Each modern war is now more of a battle than a war. Tearing out the enemy’s motivating ideology by the roots is no longer a nation-centric task.

This is true asymmetrical warfare - changing the playing field and the rules to minimize the strength of the opponent and emphasize the opponent’s weakness. And, what is our weakness? We conduct war only with the permission of the populace. If the general public loses faith in the goals, grows weary of the effort (real or apparent), or comes to view the situation as not a war but a police matter, then the moral authority on which the military must depend evaporates.
This situation calls into question the role of the “loyal” opposition party and the information services (the press). Should their role be one of slanting the news (on which basis people form opinions about the war), or strict neutrality? What about the misuse of the press by the opponents? How should that be dealt with? If we’re at war with Islamo-fascists, then how should we view a press service that wittingly passes biased “news” to further the terrorists’ propaganda war?
Too many people still view this as not really a war.
As Mr. Shapiro ends his post:

Will
America ever win another war? Only if we combine our Cold War vigilance
with our World War II ruthlessness. We cannot afford to lose in Iraq
and Afghanistan — and a stalemate is a loss. We cannot ignore
demographic trends in the name of multiculturalism — diversity will
only survive in countries that can resist the long-term onslaught of
fundamentalist Islam. This will be a long, hard slog, as former Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld put it. In today’s world, true victory always is.

(h/t Wizbang Blog)

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Captain Ed of Captain’s Quarters blog posts on the ISG report. He has a few comments (and actually, at least two posts) on the topic. Here’s one of his comments - Like I said, it’s hard to get a read on his views of the ISG report:

Once again, the report is not entirely worthless, and some of the recommendations regarding internal Iraqi policy make a lot of sense. The rest is pure utopian nonsense, and its implementation would signal a collapse of American will in the Middle East and the beginning of the end of our protection for Israel. Our other allies in the region and elsewhere would see our retreat and reconsider their own strategic alliances with the US. It will set back American foreign policy thirty years. The White House should reject these recommendations forcefully and quickly.

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