By PLS
US military public affairs officers (and the people they speak for) often sound simultaneously whiney and amazed when they report that their opponents in Iraq—be they insurgents or militia or Al Qaeda or whatever—change tactics and weapons at least as deftly as American forces do.
Given the fairly broad distribution of intelligence in the human population, why are they so surprised?
A contributing fallacy, it seems to me, is that optimistically denigrating the enemy comes all too naturally to the war-fighting trade. There's the fool-the-enemy matter of bluffing, off course. And, when risking your life (or asking others to do so) it’s nice to feel confident about succeeding and living to tell the tale. When confidence is built on severely underrating the enemy, however, it induces a form of fool’s courage. Over-confidence is one reason why wars get lost.
Recently there was an intriguing bit of show and tell involving allegedly Iran-supplied explosive devices that are very good at destroying Humvees and the like. The demo was probably designed to fuel some sort of war fever against Iraq’s neighbor, but the WaPo has reminded us that there’s a good (as in very convincing) reason why so many Americans are dying on the road. Too many of them are forced to travel in vehicles that still aren’t properly armored. And the enemy, not being stupid, has noticed.
Imagine! We’re over three years into this war and the troops still aren’t equipped or protected for the job they’re supposed to do. No wonder the Pentagon is trying to deflect the public’s anger onto Iran. Seems to me we should direct more fury at our own war-mongers, those in the White House and the Pentagon and the thoughtless think tanks and the conservative media parrots, the whole totally interlocked neo-con coterie that deceived the American public into rooting for an unnecessary and unjustified war.
Am I asking for too much? Well, this war has now lasted about as as long as World War II, which the US entered in a badly under-equipped condition. In no time at all, back then, US industry was turning out ships, tanks, planes, etc., by the hundreds. Flash forward. In double the time the Bush administration hasn't managed to produce enough armor for a few thousand Humvees. So, no. It's the Bush administration that hasn't been asking for enough protection for the fighters the rest of us are supposed to be supporting so uncritically.
Our clever enemies do what an intelligent analyst would expect them to do; they acquire and plant ever more effective explosive devices, whatever the provenance. Meanwhile, our own government sends American soldiers into battle so poorly equipped that many die who might have survived.