Knowing is Half the Battle
By Lars Dalseide
Posted On September 07, 2005

G.I. Joe cartoons from the eighties always ended the same way. A character, say Joe, stops a child from making a mistake and tells him/her how something could have gone wrong. The child says, "That's good to know," to which Joe replies, "And knowing is half the battle." Apparently, the same holds true for operations in Iraq.

Experts and pundits collectively assert that President Bush lacked an exit strategy. He didn’t know long the war would last, how we would win, and what to do after winning. Vital ingredients when creating an exit strategy – or so we’re told. After all, every competent commander knows exactly what to expect when it comes to the ways of war. Doesn't he?

Abraham Lincoln, for example, had the perfect exit strategy for the Civil War. He knew the Confederacy would attack Fort Sumter, that Grant would win the war in one year after McClellan, Pope, and Burnside bumbled it for three, and that Lee would surrender at Appomattox. President Lincoln even knew about his assassination. Accepting death was a bold, yet brilliant, maneuver. Sure, the political career was over, but it spared his legacy any potential complications surrounding Reconstruction while solidifying his place in presidential mythology.

Another commander with perfect exit strategy was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Much like Lincoln, Roosevelt knew exactly what was coming down the road. He knew the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor, that Marshall and Eisenhower would drive Hitler to suicide in four years, and the war would end once Japan endured Oppenheimer's legacy. He took another page from Lincoln's playbook and avoided post war entanglements by dying days before the German surrender.

Those wondering if they missed that week in history can rest easy. Neither Lincoln nor Roosevelt knew the enemy’s plans. They did not know how the war would end, how the defeated would react, or what recovery meant. Nevertheless, experts ignore those facts and giddily scamper off to fill their scrapbooks with denouncements of the effort abroad.

Whether veterans to hostile fire or not, the distorted assertions emanating from these bargain-basement phenoms suggest a limited grasp for the nature of war. As a member of the not crowd, I struggle to appreciate the fortitude necessary to function in such insanity. What I can appreciate, however, is that war does not occur in a vacuum. It is a fluid, frenzied event.

While the President, the Chiefs, and leaders on the ground obviously begin with a plan, everything goes out the window once the bullets begin to fly. Experts, who react as if War is a simple round of Risk or Stratego, disregard what history so readily demonstrates. That War travels a constant path. Tempers flair, accusations soar, troops mount, and chaos ensues. Those who adapt, improvise and find a way through the chaos earn the banner of victor. Those believing to hold the perfect plan from the word go earn the banner of defeat.

So put yourself in the President’s shoes. What was the right exit strategy for Iraq? Was it a strategy that guaranteed no American casualties, no cries of abuse from the conquered, and no drain upon the economy? If your answer is yes, then get ready for the experts. Because your only choice is to nuke the desert, wait for fallout to dissipate, and start buying beachfront in Basra.

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