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2017-10-15 China-Japan-Koreas
The Book General Mattis Reads to Be Prepared for War With North Korea
[Politico] Last Monday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general with a legendary appetite for military history, ticked off a list of book recommendations to a crowd of U.S. Army leaders and supporters‐titles that might help them understand command, strategy and the ways war is evolving. But he kept coming back to one book in particular: T. R. Fehrenbach’s This Kind of War, a 54-year-old history of the Korean War that’s much better known in military than civilian quarters.

Fehrenbach, Mattis explained during his address to the Association of the United States Army’s Exposition on Building Readiness, reminds us of two essential truths about war: its "primitive, atavistic, and unrelenting nature" and the "absolutely fundamental" importance of boots on the ground, even in an age of drone attacks and cyberwarfare. "You may fly over a nation forever, you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life. But if you desire to defend it, if you desire to protect it, if you desire to keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground the way the Roman legions did: by putting your young men in the mud," Mattis said, quoting Fehrenbach. "I would only modify it today by saying, ’by putting your young men and women in the mud.’"

These citations were preludes to Mattis’s final punch. The last question he took from the audience finally addressed the concern on everyone’s mind: As Trump and Kim Jong Un exchange dire nuclear threats, "what can the U.S. military do to lessen the likelihood of conflict on the Korean Peninsula?"

"There’s a reason I recommended T.R. Fehrenbach’s book," Mattis replied, "that we all pull it out and read it one more time."
Posted by Besoeker 2017-10-15 08:09|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ]  Top
 File under: Commies 

#1 The biographies of Curtis LeMay and Edward Teller?
Posted by Glaviting Slamble7902 2017-10-15 09:00||   2017-10-15 09:00|| Front Page Top

#2 Robert A. Pape's Bombing To Win:Air Power and Coercion In War(1996)? The point being that there are some people you just can't reason with. Threats won't work. Bombing campaigns won't work. Only regime change at the point of a bayonet works...
Posted by magpie 2017-10-15 09:30||   2017-10-15 09:30|| Front Page Top

#3 "You may fly over a nation forever, you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life."

It's a start
Posted by Frank G 2017-10-15 09:54||   2017-10-15 09:54|| Front Page Top

#4 When he took over SecDef, Chaos said he would pay particular attention to rebuilding the Army and that that branch was in the worst condition.

The previous admin also read Fehrenbach, or knew from leftie instinct that professional ground forces were their principal enemy.

I've said for years that millions of Americans owning firearms is not a threat to would-be conquerors or dictators, but a hundred thousand plus former and retired NCOs who know how to stand up and supply armed forces, and the thousands of former and retired officers who know how to lead and minister to them, is.
Posted by TopRev 2017-10-15 14:58||   2017-10-15 14:58|| Front Page Top

#5 I read that book while still in high school ca. 1963, and was prepared to better understand what was going to happen very shortly in Viet Nam.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-10-15 16:58||   2017-10-15 16:58|| Front Page Top

#6 I've been shocked at whatever happened to the US Navy in the last 8 years.
Posted by Glolurong Bumble6930 2017-10-15 17:53||   2017-10-15 17:53|| Front Page Top

#7 Liberals sucked the life out of it to support 0bumholecare.
Posted by gorb 2017-10-15 18:20||   2017-10-15 18:20|| Front Page Top

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