It has often been said that generals must not be allowed to
decide on matters of war. This must have been unfair to the generals, and
lonely to be singled out and placed on what may be called a list of one.
But the generals can now cheer up because a lieutenant
colonel has made a strong case for soldiers of his rank to join them on that
list. He is Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters who wrote: “Here's how to take out North Korea 's
nukes,” an article that was published on August 9, 2017 in the New York Post.
Because Peters is depressed that “we've forgotten what war
means,” he wrote down the choices that America
has with regard to the dispute it is having with North Korea . The following are the
possible choices he mentions: “Do we kill our enemies ruthlessly or do we
minimize their casualties, exposing ourselves to a drawn-out mutual butchery?”
And so, he picks one. Talking about sparing civilian lives, he says this: “In
war there's no substitute for killing your enemy and those who support him. You
keep killing until the enemy quits unconditionally or lie there dead and
rotting.” This is a choice so harsh it would have warmed the heart of Attila
the Hun.
Ralph Peters now describes in detail how to implement the
policy that will get you there. He says the first thing to do entails the
evacuation of the military families in South Korea , as well as the
civilian Department of Defense employees and all nonessential contractors. He
promises that this will get the attention of North Korea more than “any amount
of sanctions or saber-rattling”.
Apparently Peters has wrapped himself so tightly in his
cocoon, he remains unaware that North Korea is taking the sanctions
orchestrated by Washington, and the saber-rattling that's coming from there
seriously enough to have loaded cruise missiles onto its massive fleet of
submarines, readying all units to go after America's naval assets that would
come too close to its shores … and do the other things.
Still, Peters goes on to say this: “Initially, we'd launch a
surprise air and naval campaign.” Surprise? Did he say surprise? The surprise
will be on him when the North Koreans will open with all they got, the moment
they detect a formation of warplanes approach them. Compounding his error, Peters
goes on to say this: “Pyongyang 's
nuclear and missile facilities and arsenals wouldn't be in the initial target
set.” He explains why he would do that: “First, we'd have to destroy its air
defenses, while degrading its military command, control and communications to
cripple any response.” Wow! What a tactical genius!
Does this colonel really believe that Pyongyang will wait for its command, control
and communications to be crippled before deciding to launch its nuclear
missiles against targets already chosen and programmed into the flight plan of
the missiles? If this is what Ralph Peters believes, it must be that his cocoon
has become the fantasy world in which he lives.
That's what made him ignore the responses that the North
Koreans will employ, to say this: “Then, rapidly, we'd go for the missile and
nuke infrastructure, wrecking bunkered sites, the dormitory facilities and
housing areas for the scientists, designers, technicians, skilled workers and
military cadres involved in their nuclear-weapons and missile programs.” All
that, apparently, while the North Korean generals will sit idle waiting for America to take
its run before they raise the white flag and surrender, having fired back not a
single shot.
At this point you begin to realize that maybe colonels are
not suited to join the list of generals after all. That's because at least, the
generals understand that the best war plans do not survive the first contact
with the enemy. For this reason, they prepare a plan B for when it becomes
necessary to use, even prepare an exist strategy for if things go very bad and
it becomes necessary to abort the mission. From the looks of it, Ralph Peters
seems to indicate that colonels have not reached that level of understanding.
Too bad for the lonely generals.
Perhaps someone has read the article before publication, and
told the colonel his plan will not work; the reason why he added the following
afterthought: “And then we need to be prepared to counter any North Korean
conventional blows against South
Korea .” The way he wants to do that, is to
call on China and ask it to
call North Korea and inform
it that if it fights back, this “will result in the devastation of North Korea 's
military and a painful form or regime change.” No kidding!