Article

2004-09-04 Caucasus

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Dan Darling 2004-09-04 2:50:08 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 You wrote: "...expressed by an American officer in Vietnam: 'In order to save the village, we had to destroy it.' That expression was not made by an American officer, but by anti-American protesters.

Posted by Anonymous6313 2004-09-04 4:58:10 AM|| 2004-09-04 4:58:10 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 A6313: You wrote: "...expressed by an American officer in Vietnam: 'In order to save the village, we had to destroy it.' That expression was not made by an American officer, but by anti-American protesters.

Technically, it was said by an American officer. That American officer was John Kerry.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-09-04 5:10:07 AM|| [http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2004-09-04 5:10:07 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Whoops - what I wrote above was wrong. Mona Charen pins down the source, Peter Arnett, who made it up from whole cloth:

This is hardly Arnett's first slip. As it happens, Arnett makes an appearance in my book "Useful Idiots" for his reporting from Vietnam. Remember the phrase, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it"? It has become totemic. Arnett was the originator of the phrase. The trouble is, as first B.G. Burkett and then I discovered after a little investigation, the report was wrong. It wasn't the United States that destroyed Ben Tre (a town, not a village), but the Vietcong. And the soldier Arnett was most likely quoting remembers saying, "It was a shame the town was destroyed," not the fatuity Arnett made famous.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-09-04 5:20:05 AM|| [http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2004-09-04 5:20:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 You wrote: "...expressed by an American officer in Vietnam: 'In order to save the village, we had to destroy it.' That expression was not made by an American officer, but by anti-American protesters. Technically, it was said by an American officer. That American officer was John Kerry.

One of the truly stupid things Kerry said when he lied to the Fulbright committee in 1971 is one of the most annoying, was his use of the term harassment and interdiction fire.

I played military games against some artillery officers neat Fort Sill, and I learned that H&I fire is a time honored means of breaking an enemy's static defenses down; to break an enemy's will to fight by bringing under artillery fire points on a map the enemy uses to resupply, redeploy and maintain force coherence. Targets such as depots, supply points, supply routes, switchlines, headquarters and the like.

All of these are legitimate targets for artillerymen in war, but Kerry used the term quite glibly, trying his damnedest to make it sound as if US forces directed such fire against non-military targets, or to make it sound like gunfire was being used for the sole purpiose or harassment, presumably against non-military targets.

This needs to be addressed because when Kerry loses this election, Kerry's serial lies, will be used by domestic opponents of the military to try to alter the things our forces do to protect themselves and to hurt the enemy.

Heck, I may even try a page at my little site to 'Fisk' his spoutings on the subject at rkka.org

Anyways, hadda vent. But I consider this subject important.

Posted by badanov 2004-09-04 10:25:45 AM|| [http://www.rkka.org] 2004-09-04 10:25:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 All hail Rantburg U! I learn so much here not otherwise available to me in my sheltered little life. And I truly appreciate the gift of learning from you all, instead of the hard way.

Most sincerely, thank you.

Posted by trailing wife 2004-09-04 1:18:49 PM|| 2004-09-04 1:18:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 "H&I fire"

I'm not familiar with this term, badanov. Harrassment and Interdiction, maybe?

Posted by SteveS 2004-09-04 1:23:26 PM|| 2004-09-04 1:23:26 PM|| Front Page Top

18:51 GreatestJeneration
10:31 RJSchwarz
08:12 Frank G
08:09 Frank G
07:39 Col Flagg
07:25 Shipman
01:09 Zenster
01:07 Classical_Liberal
00:23 .com
00:13 UFO TROLL
00:06 lex
23:48 BigEd
23:43 badanov
23:40 lex
23:39 BigEd
23:34 lex
23:30 BombIranNow
23:29 lex
23:26 Mark Espinola
23:24 Alaska Paul
23:20 Classical_Liberal
23:19 Capt America
23:17 Capt America
23:09 lex