This is in response to rednote's comment on my blog, "They've gone and done it again". It was too long for comments, and I'm sure it will only provoke more comments anyway, so here it is:

Your comment had very little to do with the blog you posted it in, but it touched a nerve anyway so I'm writing another blog to address it. That entire discussion was about conventional militaries, and the people who try to convince me there are other militaries out there who could take on the U.S. military and pose a threat to the nation. Who said anything about the wars we're fighting now or the enemies we're fighting against?

I'll use your words to strengthen my point: "Thinking that you can win this war by fighting it the same way we have fought in the past is both egotistical and foolish." Thanks for the tip. I don't think that, nor have I ever. So your point was... what again?

You call them our most powerful enemy. All I can do is laugh. They're certainly the most determined (though I daresay it only seems that way because they're the only ones currently trying to fight us), but our military is basically crushing them with one hand while covering a yawn with the other. I've dropped deuces more powerful than they are.

You say they don't fear or respect us. We don't care. We're not trying to make them fear or respect us, they bleed and die just the same whether they fear us or not. And they do both of those things in excess every time they poke their heads out to try their luck at actually fighting us, to the literal definition of the word fight.

Still, I agree that we're wasting TREMENDOUS amounts of time and money chasing them around the desert, and worse, that's the idea. They know they can't do any "real" damage to us, and so they're content to just keep us there spending billions of dollars to hunt them for as long as they can hide from us, like a giant leech sucking the blood from our economy.

Any strategist worth his salt will tell you that's precisely how you fight an enemy that you cannot defeat in combat: You harass them enough to keep them engaged, and then hide from them long enough for them to exhaust their resources looking for you. In the old days, you'd be waiting for them to run out of food and water. Supply lines back then were also much more difficult to maintain, and much more vulnerable to attack. Today, supply lines are virtually untouchable and inexhaustible, and so the resource you wait for them to consume is money.

It doesn't matter that we could slaughter them like cattle all day long with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our back. It doesn't matter that they use 200 men to ambush a single platoon of roughly 30 Americans, and the result is nearly 100 of them dead or wounded, and what did they do to that platoon? They wounded one man. The didn't manage to kill a single one. But it doesn't matter how ridiculously we outclass them in combat, because that's not their objective. The only reason they stick their neck out at ALL is to stop us from simply completing our mission and leaving, because then we wouldn't be wasting our money there anymore.

The current wars are not military, if they were they would have been over in a matter of months and we wouldn't have even broken a sweat. No, these wars are political, and our objectives are absurd. We're trying to change the way they've been doing business for millenia. A noble cause to be sure, but a daunting one, even for a nation with virtually limitless resources like the U.S. If the other superpowers were helping, then it wouldn't be so retarded, but they're not. At least, not enough to make a difference. The U.S. can't do it alone, and we're making fools of ourselves for trying.

But making fools of the military? I think not. See, the military has done everything it has set out to do, with scarcely an obstacle that could be genuinely called a challenge. The politicians haven't been quite so successful in their efforts, which would be the ones you very correctly refer to as foolish. Go to my submissions and read "Kaustic for President" if you want to know what I think the politicians should do. But all of this has absolutely nothing to do with the blog I wrote. That was me ranting about this guy, and people in general, who try to compare other militaries to the U.S. and suggest that they could go head to head with us in combat.

The simple fact is, there's not a force on earth that can stand head to head with the U.S. military. Yes, decentralized paramilitary groups utilizing hit-and-run tactics is an effective strategy against an overwhelmingly superior enemy. It's probably the ONLY effective strategy, any tactician with half a brain can tell you this, and what a surprise, somebody over on the terrorists side obviously knows this as well. Somebody must have read "Warfare for Beginners." Doesn't change the fact that they don't have a prayer of actually fighting the U.S. military, because make no mistake, they're not. They're fighting the U.S. budget office. This requires them to occasionally engage us in combat, and that's very unfortunate for them since it very, very frequently results in tremendous losses on their end. Luckily they have no shortage of men ready and willing to commit suicide for the cause. 

As for Bin Laden, you're right. Wouldn't you know it? It turns out the greatest war machine on earth, which was built with the design and purpose of grinding opposing militaries into the dust, is not in fact the greatest hide and seek machine on earth, and was not in fact built with the design or purpose of locating one man among the ~6 billion on the planet, especially one smart enough to stay off the grid (which really isn't that hard). I know, I'm as shocked as you are. But I'm also content knowing that the guy is going to spend out the rest of his life living in holes and getting pale because if he tries to step into the sunlight, he's going to have a hellfire missile fired up his ass. As far as I'm concerned, that's a better fate for him than simply dying.

And the latest example of his global influence? A botched bombing attempt on Christmas, conducted by a single wide-eyed teenager who was hurriedly recruited and sloppily trained, and it took him over a month to sneak out an audio tape claiming responsibility. Compare this to the well-trained, well-coordinated, highly motivated and devoted team that hijacked the plains on 9/11, for which he immediately claimed responsibility the same day. Bravo, buddy. You and your boys can just keep right on preaching world domination from caves, it looks like it's working out beautifully for you. Before you make your next home movie though, you should go outside and get a tan. If you're lucky it'll be from the sun and not the napalm. 

SO, to sum up, you're absolutely right, our POLITICIANS are making fools of themselves with the crap they're trying to pull in the middle east. Our MILITARY, however, is getting bored with the lame excuse for combat that passes for battle in the terrorists eyes. Look, we're not warmongers, we're not over there cheering for a fight with an enemy who can do a better job of killing us, far from it. All I'm saying is, if you're going to send us from our homes for years at a time, the least you could do is give us a better job to do than the metaphorical equivalent of babysitting a bunch of mean-spirited kids while the politicians try to teach their parents how to raise them properly.