If Only Those Arrogant Fuckers in the Bush Administration Had Listened to the Words of Douglas MacArthur

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly told an audience of West Point cadets on Friday that it would be unwise for the United States to ever fight another war like Iraq or Afghanistan, and that the chances of carrying out a change of government in that fashion again were slim.

“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it,” Mr. Gates told an assembly of Army cadets here.

It's not like that was a hidden bit of advice. MacArthur directly advised President Kennedy not to send troops to Vietnam and we all know how that little endeavor turned out. One senator in the early 1960s called Vietnam the second worst place to get into a land war in Asia-- the worst place being Afghanistan.

This wasn't esoteric or secret. Hell, even the writers of the movie "the Princess Bride knew it:

"Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is `never get involved in a land war in Asia'." -- Vizzini the Sicilian

But here we are, now in our third land war in Asia in the last sixty years. The current one is inexcusable and, as I said a while back, the time when this war could have been won passed because the Bush Administration failed to secure the initial successes on the battlefield.

So while I would recommend examining the heads of all of those Bush Administration fools and then putting them on pikes out in front of the EOB, Foggy Bottom and Fort Fumble, that would probably be against some sort of zoning ordinance.

I only hope that those people who are in their teens and twenties now are smart enough not to repeat the mistakes of the previous three generations and not put soldiers on the ground in Asia to prosecute a land war.

But I kind of doubt they'll be that smart.