In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it.
Robert M. GatesRead
If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.
Interpretation
Military strength alone is insufficient for success in complex environments like Afghanistan.
The quote highlights the lessons learned from the Soviet Union's military intervention in Afghanistan, indicating that purely relying on military power without understanding the sociopolitical landscape and the complexities of the region leads to failure. It suggests the importance of comprehensive strategy and engagement beyond just military force in achieving success, especially in challenging territories with deep-rooted issues.
In practice
During a presentation on military strategy, you might use this quote to illustrate the importance of understanding the regional dynamics.
In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it.
No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.
I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice.
I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming.
If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.'
There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility.
The American Revolution was carried out in the name of the people, and it was supposedly 'We, the people,' who created the government that Americans still live under.
The March on Washington was a defining moment in the history of this country and a great example of our nation truly living up to its creed.
My father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma Death Railway, built by a quarter of a million slave labourers in 1943. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died.
If we trace the history of any nation backwards into the past, we come at last to a period of myths and traditions which eventually fade away into impenetrable darkness.
Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensively.
Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
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