Do Americans have what it takes to win at war?

One thing I keep hearing from those on the right is that our nation no longer has what it takes to win a war.

Journal columnist Mark Balzer wrote a few weeks ago that the last time the U.S. really won an armed conflict was World War II.

I think Mark forgot about the first Gulf War, but he does make a point that’s worth discussing.

Have we Americans become too soft to do what it takes to be victorious in this bloody, ruthless and oftentimes cruel business called war?

Looking back on our nation’s history post-World War II, we’ve definitely accumulated a mixed record in the arena of armed conflict.

Many Americans believe that we won the Korean Conflict but in reality that was a draw, with U.S. forces finishing the war at essentially the same spot at which they began.

Though the cost, more than 30,000 dead Americans, makes us wonder what today’s Americans are complaining about with our current war in Iraq, which has dragged on longer than Korea with only 4,000 U.S. deaths.

I guess that’s good news, unless you’re one of the Americans killed or maimed in Iraq or one of their loved ones.

We’ve had a number of small-scale conflicts, most of which we’ve won just because our troops are the best trained and best equipped in the world.

Some exceptions are Somalia (the movie Black Hawk down depicted our struggle there) and our military intervention in Beirut — remember when the Islamic suicide bomber crashed his bomb-laden vehicle into our Marine barracks? Typically, though, when the U.S. intervenes our troops are able to defeat any bad guys and restore order rather quickly. Grenada, Panama, the former Yugoslavia, Haiti — I rest my case.

Then there was Vietnam, in which we never lost a battle but managed to lose the war. I’m still trying to figure out what happened in Southeast Asia and how we were defeated by such a rudimentary and in almost every way inferior military force.

Vietnam was perhaps the first war in which our enemy focused on winning the war in the realm of U.S. public opinion rather than on the battlefield. Their strategy worked, although the united Vietnam that remained was nearly ruined because of the war that had killed tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese.

In Iraq, our enemy is trying something similar, although the situation is a little different. The Iraqis are perhaps more interested in killing each other than they are in killing Americans. Otherwise, there would be many more dead U.S. troops.

Those who argue that we didn’t have what it took to win in Vietnam and don’t have the stomach to win in Iraq are at least half right.

In Vietnam, the American people decided that the conflict was no longer worth the costs. We stayed the course in Vietnam for many years before deciding to pull out. It wasn’t an easy decision; in fact it tore the country apart.

Imagine how it must have felt to have served in Vietnam or to have lost a loved one there, only to watch as your nation pulled down the flag from the embassy in Saigon and in doing so, said that all the sacrifice was for nothing.

Now we have Iraq and the American people are again weighing their options.

The two wars are similar in a lot of ways. U.S. leaders said that if South Vietnam fell, communism would spread throughout the region.

That didn’t happen.

U.S. leaders are saying that if we pull out of Iraq, that country will descend into violence far worse than the current chaos. That’s scary to envision.

Our leaders are also telling us that a U.S. pullout would turn Iraq into the biggest terrorist training ground on the planet. They say we can either fight the war in Iraq or fight it right here in America.

I believe that George W. Bush is wrong about many things. Those who call him a moron can make a decent argument for their case.

But Bush’s take on the threat posed by radical Islam to the United States is in my opinion absolutely correct.

Radical Muslims hate Americans and all Westerners and they want to kill us.

The key word is “radical” because most Muslims are interested in the same things we are — getting to work on time, raising a family and paying the bills.

But the radical Muslims do hate us and they do want to slaughter us wholesale.

If 9-11 never happened, I’d dispel the notion that the Islamic fringe could do what it takes to wipe us out.

But these radicals have proven that they have the cruel desire, warped mindset and pure hatred necessary for them to carry out attacks on our nation that will result in mass destruction and mass casualties.

We can’t ignore these folks, as much as we want to.

I think it’s tough for Americans to understand this war or that there is this large group of people in the world who want to kill us.

I was thinking the other day how I personally have never been touched by war. I’ve never had to serve in the armed forces. I’ve never had to sit huddled in a foxhole on a frozen night in some far off place to defend our nation.

Because most Americans have never been touched by war, I think we have trouble imagining a world that’s anything but peaceful.

We also have a very short memory, as evidenced by 9-11. Sure, those who saw 9-11 from ground zero in New York City or who lost loved ones on that date will never forget it.

But for those of us who experienced it via media reports, it’s somewhat less real.

I am convinced, however, that the likes of Osama bin Laden want to attack our nation in such a way that 9-11 would seem like a mere scrape.

The threat in Vietnam was that once we pulled out, communism would be one step closer to taking over the world.

But we all knew that the communists would have a long ways to go before they would be able to inflict direct harm on our nation.

If we pull out of Iraq, I think the threat would be much more of a clear and present danger to our nation, especially its civilian population.

I hope I’m wrong about this because there are a growing number of Americans, including many of our troops, who want us to pull out of Iraq.

If we pulled out and the terrorists never strike our nation, that would be outstanding.

But I fear that an Iraq without U.S. troops would be seen as a victory for the insurgents — al-Qaida included. Iraq could become a new staging and planning area for terrorists to launch attacks against neighboring countries, Americans in other parts of the world and the mainland U.S.

Imagine if we pulled out and an anti-U.S. Iraq joined forces with a nuclear-capable Iran to at the very least fund terrorist attacks against the U.S.

I think it’s tough for Americans to see this terrorist threat as something real.

I was dropping my girlfriend off at Salt Lake City airport recently and I realized that greater scrutiny by airport security in checking my luggage is likely the only way that I’ve been impacted by the war on terror.

In other nations going to war means rationed food, curfews and not being able to get gasoline to fuel my vehicle. It means being drafted into the military and putting yourself in harm’s way.

For most of us, our nation’s current war means a few extra minutes waiting in line at the airport.

Some say that it took a military defeat as dramatic as Pearl Harbor to wake up the American people to the fact that our nation was threatened and we needed to take up arms to defend our way of life.

If you look back on our history, it’s usually taken something drastic for Americans to go to war. In World War I, it was the news that Germany was trying to persuade Mexico to invade us.

In the Civil War, the South’s assault on and capture of Fort Sumpter prompted Northerners to take up arms and, in many cases, sacrifice themselves.

If the threat is imminent, Americans (current generations included) are able to dig deep and do what it takes to win at war.

But I question if most Americans really see the threat that our nation is facing at this very instant from radical Islam.

I fear that we as a nation are going to require something more than hijacked airliners crashing into skyscrapers to convince us that this war is bigger and more threatening to our way of life than most of us can imagine.

An old friend of mine served in the Israeili army and was based along the West Bank. Israel understands the threat its neighbors pose and as a result every Israeli citizen is subject to that nation’s military draft.

My friend was only a teenager when he toted a heavy Galil assault rifle on patrol through hostile Palestinian towns.

He said that Israeli forces came under frequent attack by suicidal Muslim extremists. He said on one sunny day in the West Bank a terrorist threw a grenade onto the roof where he and another Israeli soldier were posted. The grenade failed to detonate. If it had, both soldiers would have been seriously wounded or killed.

My friend said that we Americans just do not understand the threat that radical Islam poses not just our nation, but the world.

He also said that radical Muslims were committed to doing everything to win this war, from sending in women and children wired with explosives to slaughtering hundreds of innocents just to make a point.

My friend said Americans and the West in general lack that commitment. He said in the war against radical Islam, we will lose.

I think my friend was wrong. But I do believe that Americans are going to have to be pushed to realize the enemy we’re facing.

It’s sad to think more Americans will have to die before our nation experiences the revelation of the true magnitude of this war.

It reminds me of the years before World War II when Britain and France thought they could use diplomacy to keep Hitler at bay.

The world learned the hard way that diplomacy didn’t stand a chance.

I fear in our war against radical Islam, Americans and our allies are in for the same rude awakening.

We may pull out of Iraq before the epiphany occurs but it does not matter. I believe we’ll still defeat radical Islam in the end, it will just take longer and cost many more lives.