Yep, Jon...
Khe Sanh and the A Shau were a couple of many attempts to coax the VC and / or the NVA -- the two were not synonymous nor always cooperating effectively -- into big battles. Never really worked. Fighting a European war in SEA.Originally Posted by jcustis
That's the real 'yep' from me. They hit a target of opportunity and will when they can. Too much ado about a very small fight that didn't come off nearly as bad as too many seem to think. It's war, doo doo occurs and the bad guys will continue to do that, they'll accrue more minor successes. Likely also will accrue a better outcome than they deserve due simply to the fact it's their turf...I'm not so sure that a mobile and fluid enemy such as the Taliban is too concerned with waging a war of COPs.
Pete's right, we do not do field fortifications at all well -- nor are we particularly good on defense. However, I don't think it's a good idea to train for defense other than superficially as we now do for a number of reasons -- not in our aggressive psyche and not least because 'environmental' concerns preclude real digging on most bases and posts. That digging is necessary if you want to train it properly. We don't have the patience to do it right and we fight hard enough to do an acceptable job defending most of the time.
Though we probably could stop building really stupid RPG targets:
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