TWO DIFFERENT DECEMBER 21STS/22NDS

During December 21-22, 2004, according to Centcom:

A preliminary investigation indicates that the explosion at the U.S. Army dining facility at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Marez in Mosul on Tuesday was likely caused by an improvised explosive device worn by a suicide attacker. . .

. . .“Insurgents are desperate to create the perception that elections are not possible,” said General Casey. “We will not allow terrorist violence to stop progress toward elections.”

Updated information establishes that 22 people were killed in the attack, including 14 U.S. service members, four U.S. civilian contractors, three members of the Iraqi Security Forces, and one unidentified non-US person. . .

Let's take a moment and consider another December 21-22 -- this one sixty years ago, at a small town in Belgium, vs. another group of desperate fighters:

. . . The withdrawal of CCB, 7th Armored Division, last night from St. Vith was expensive. So far we are missing at least one half of Clarke's force. Of course many of them will show up, but they will be minus weapons, ammunition, blankets and rations as well as at a low physical level. *I don't think we can prevent a complete break-through if another all-out attack comes against CCB tonight* [italics (between asterisks, LWJ) supplied] due largely to the fact that our original three infantry battalions have at present melted to the equivalent of only two very tired battalions.

It was about an hour before noon. Hasbrouck had not yet sent his message to Ridgway when word came of the German advance against the north flank of CCB, 7th Armored, in the Rodt sector. General Hasbrouck now had a postscript to add, one bringing tenseness and urgency to the precise military form and phraseology of the main text.

P.S. A strong attack has just developed against Clarke again. He is being outflanked and is retiring west another 2,000 yards refusing both flanks. I am throwing in my last chips to halt him. Hoge has just reported an attack. In my opinion if we don't get out of here and up north of the 82d before night, we will not have a 7th Armored Division left. RWH. . .

Wars usually begin over "small things". The murder of an obscure (to Americans) archduke and his wife in June 1914 was the immediate catalyst for WWI, which meanderingly led eventually to thousands of Americans dying in the Argonne forest in France in late 1918.

Similarly, Clarke, Hasbrouck, Hoge and their men found themselves fighting against a powerful enemy determined to take St Vith, because they found themselves fighting in a larger war that had started over Germany's local attack on Poland in 1939. After that attack, the British and French did not offer to make peace as Hitler had expected, leading Hitler to feel the need to attack western Europe -- before he felt he could "safely" continue Germany's march eastwards. His victory in the west in the spring of 1940 (although, notably, he did not defeat Britain as we all know) led the Japanese to consider Europe's possessions in the Pacific to be "up for grabs". So Tokyo started to consider seriously going after places such as Dutch-controlled Indonesia and British Malaya. But to do that, the Japanese knew that they had to eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

All because of Hitler's overweening desire for German "lebensraum" in eastern Europe.

Similarly, the immediate catalyst for the current struggle were the actions of 19 enemy agents, who attacked New York and Washington by suicidally crashing our own planes into our own skyscrapers, and killed nearly 3,000 non-combatants. Those attacks stemmed from that enemy's desire for its own version of "lebensraum" -- to chase us from the Middle East, to humble us, and eventually to bring us to our knees. Like those men who found themselves in Belgium in a bitter December 1944 owing indirectly to a German attack on Poland over five years previously, we would not be in Iraq today in the manner in which we are, I believe fervently -- and I know I am not alone in this -- had there been no attacks on New York and Washington, slightly more than three years ago.

And let's not forget this: those September 11, 2001 attacks were actions FAR MORE directly and personally aimed at Americans than ANYTHING the Central Powers of 1914-1918 (led by imperial Germany) or the Axis Powers of WWII (Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy) did to get America to jump into either WWI or WWII. Remember, even the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was a military action, aimed not at U.S. civilians directly, but at the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Good grief, did I ever think I would ever find myself offering such backhanded "praise" for the Japanese militarists? Such is the horrific nature of the current enemy.

We hear asked a great deal, "Is Iraq worth it" or "Is Afghanistan worth it"? But that doesn't strike me as really the right sort of question. After all, was "St Vith really worth it" either?  ¶ by Robert, Thursday, December 23, 2004