Soap Box

I remember when I first started hearing about Vietnam, a place nobody had ever been and few people even knew where it was, but by the time we learned to pronounce the name, America had slipped enough troops in through the back door, under the auspices of being "military advisers" that most Americans began to realize that we were getting involved in something more than an advisory capacity.

Of course we all know the rest about the long bloody war where desk bound politicians set the rules of engagement and America, sensing the politician's unwillingness to let our military win and dragging the war out, demonstrated in the streets and the anti war sentiment grew to a fever pitch and opportunistic pacifist candidates fanned the flames and started making bids for office from the White House on down.

Scars from the Vietnam war are still plentiful and visible decades after it's conclusion and it would seem that America should have learned the folly of fighting a war with no intentions of an outright victory, but that certainly is not the case, America has not actually won a war since World War II and that has nothing to do with the capability and willingness of our military.

Politicians, fearing offending their bases commission polls, walk a fine line between doing what is right for the nation and maintaining the good will of their voters, the military's opinion be hanged.

The war against ISIS is starting out just as Vietnam did, send in equipment and advisors holding the actual combat at arm's length to maintain a politician's most prized possession, plausible deniability.

Obama has vehemently declared that there will be no combat troops in the war against ISIS, but he also told us we could keep our own doctors and insurance plans.

The day of seriously harming ISIS with air strikes alone is long gone and the whole time that they were parading through the desert caravan style and could have been decimated by air attacks, destroying much of their equipment and inflicting heavy personnel casualties Obama threatened, procrastinated, preened and postured but not one America bomb fell on an ISIS convoy until they had had a chance to disperse among the population where it is impossible to inflict heavy casualties without massive collateral damage.

So where do we go from here?

It's obvious that if this war is to be won, ground troops will have to be sent in and the longer it is delayed the stronger this ISIS scourge grows, attracting fanatic young jihadists from around the world to not only fight in their cause but to return to their nations of origin fully educated in the finer points of terrorism and urban warfare.

ISIS has to be wiped out completely; the head cut off, the roots dug out, their ranks destroyed and equipment demolished to protect the homeland.

Obama has a habit of showing up at a gun fight with a butter knife a day late and a dollar short and this time the results of his folly could well manifest itself on the streets of America and our hapless Commander-in-Chief is in way over the heads of himself and the gaggle of academics and political hacks he surrounds himself with.

He is approaching a deadly enemy in a piecemeal fashion dribbling in a few more troops, dropping some bombs and doing a lot of talking without the intention to overwhelm our enemy and bring home a victory.

Meanwhile, ISIS grows stronger and more deadly by the day, bolder and more belligerent well aware of the weakness of our president, his inexperience and his proclivity to put politics above victory.

If America is going to war we need to go in with everything we've got, destroy whatever enemy we are facing, accepting nothing less than absolute victory, on our terms, and bring our troops back home.

We need the strongest, best equipped military on the planet with capable, combat seasoned officers and the best tools of war that American industry and technology can supply, standing ready to defend our nations interests wherever they are threatened.

We need a no nonsense domestic terrorism policy, allowing the people enforcing it the latitude they need to dig out the terrorists before they have time to act.

Obama can't blame this one on Bush or anybody else, ISIS is his own creation, he even gave them a timetable of troop withdrawal in Iraq allowing them to prepare for the day when they could march across the land raping and pillaging, taking back territory that was hard won with American blood.

America doesn't need another Vietnam, going to war without both barrels blazing is the height of folly, it emboldens our enemies and accomplishes nothing but a bloody protracted war that can last for decades.

ISIS doesn't need to be contained or crippled or harassed, it needs to be destroyed down to the last fanatical, beheading, baby-killing SOB who stands with them.

Nobody wants to see American troops sent back into war, but the sad fact is that if ISIS is to be dealt with, nobody else is going to do it and we can face them in their backyard now or later on in the streets of America, because this one would definitely follow us home.

That's a sad fact, but a fact nevertheless.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem. 

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels