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Council Member
120mm --- Are you referring to the Sunni insurgency, or the Shia militia groups? For me it's much harder to discover why any Iraqis are actually fighting with us rather than the converse, actually. Nationalism, religious zeal, collateral damage, a cultural history in the west of Iraq predicated on tribal revenge, an honor culture, and lots and lots of unemployed, military-age males with a modicum of military training and plenty of weaponry. Is it so hard to figure out? I think if one goes back to the Peninsular War, one would find many parallels.
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Council Member
As my own thoughts unravel on the subject, it seems more and more likely that John Dalmas was right. War is Fun(tm) and that is why men fight it.
You center-punched me with that comment. Thanks, I needed that. I'm also reading "Gone For Soldiers" by Jeff Shaara, and a CSI proceedings article on the Mexican-American War and am impressed by the parallels.
I'm also wondering about Saddam Hussein's solution to the Iraq problem and wondering how to do that without doing that, if you get my drift....
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Council Member
I think we shouldn't get confused between motivation for leaders vs. followers in this.
Followers might fight for any number of reasons. But they need leadership, armament, some sort of training, logistical support, and community support in order to sustain any kind of struggle. War being "fun", or seen as honorable, or a crucible of manhood, or any of the other stuff that gets sold in USMC commercials is not really a sustaining motivation IMO, and not one that makes a middle-aged retired officer, probably with a family to support, risk his life and that family day in and day out.
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defining terms
Can someone please define the term "win" as used in the original posting?
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