Video Roundup

Two videos for your enlightenment:

Rumsfeld called on the Carpet.

Darn good commentary (by that I mean spot on and a must see).

Although it was not the central or even a key part of this entirely on target opinion piece, I particularly liked the inclusion of Curtis LeMay in the pantheon of minor demons, I mean men, that have done much to destroy the fabric of what America was intended to be.

I wrote a piece back in 2004 that was not well received or understood in which I discussed the despicable influence of men like LeMay and the legacy that lives on in the Air Force and how that legacy is both flawed and immoral.

The short version is that men like LeMay expanded upon and continued the idea of total war using more effective technology. If Sherman is today burning in Hell (I am sure of it), then LeMay is right beside him. The notion of fighting a war from 20,000 feet, dropping bombs on civilian populations (firebombing in Europe and Japan) was perfectly acceptable to men like LeMay. Soldiers and Marines (and yes Senior Chief swabbies too it seems, here is to you SC Kern!!) fight and they die. That is part of the job. Armies ought to operate by a code, warfare is brutal and cannot be made less so but we simply do not kill civilians unless it absolutely cannot be helped. From its very birth the Air Force was ok with killing civilians. That is their legacy. The fact that the Air Force (a uniformed rather than military service – there is a difference) has any influence in military decision making is a large reason why the US is so ineffective in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

BTW - LeMay's obsession with strategic bombing was a key factor in the US' inability to field a robust tactical bombing capability during the start of the Vietnam War. It is simply unknown the cost in US lives can be attributed to his mass murdering proclivities and love with bombing from high altitude.