War in an area may end, but war in general never seems to end. Even with Reagan, we went to war in Grenada, though he took credit for ending the Cold War (credit was really due to the USSR).
It was Eisenhower who pointed out the Military-Industrial Complex. Alas, the money and weapons of war. A greedy behemoth that must be fed.
Give credit specifically to Gorbachev. According to Britannica:
“The Cold War truly began to break down during the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev, who changed the more totalitarian aspects of the Soviet government and tried to democratize its political system.”
I'll call bull here. While Gorby might have been ready, it was RR publicly calling them out that brought them together to end the cold war. He provided the path... and the guts to get it done.
Call what you want but a line from RR ended the USSR. No one is that powerful!
Here is the complete entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica that was fact checked by their staff:
“The Cold War came to a close gradually. The unity in the communist bloc was unraveling throughout the 1960s and ’70s as a split occurred between China and the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Japan and certain Western countries were becoming more economically independent. Increasingly complex international relationships developed as a result, and smaller countries became more resistant to superpower cajoling.
The Cold War truly began to break down during the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev, who changed the more totalitarian aspects of the Soviet government and tried to democratize its political system. Communist regimes began to collapse in eastern Europe, and democratic governments rose in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, followed by the reunification of West and East Germany under NATO auspices. Gorbachev’s reforms meanwhile weakened his own communist party and allowed power to shift to the constituent governments of the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, giving rise to 15 newly independent nations, including a Russia with an anticommunist leader.“
Wars with our real enemies are fought through proxy nations now. Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine... this is so that oligarchs can continue to remain in power while feeding the machine. If the U.S. ever went to war directly with Iran, China or Russia, it would signal a battle of a different kind and it would be the end to end all ends.
I agree. Putin thinks we are at war with him and Ukraine is just a sandbox. I heard over the BBC news that China made a wise comment about the importance of dialogue between Countries (Russia and Ukraine) to resolve conflict…my optimistic interpretation.
Both China and Russia are good at making wise comments; just like everyone one else though, that wisdom tends to be contradicted by observable behavior. They can say the same for us; and do.
How oh How do I UNSUBSCRIBE TO YOUR “Understandably.com” newsletter/blog. You offer no option at the bottom of your writing to UNSUBSCRIBE…only offer me to pay for a subscription.
I want to unsubscribe. If I ever did want to pay for your opinions, but had no way to unsubscribe, well I would think this is an undesirable publication.
Please unsubscribe me from all further comments from “Understandably by Bill Murphy, Jr.
Sorry you had trouble. Every single newsletter I send has an unsubscribe link. I wish I could mak it more prominent in fact but the system I'm on (substack) doesn't allow this. However I have manually unsubscribed you so you won't get another one again.
Hoarding workers will amount to another price inflation binge for consumers. All those raises, benefits, perks and incentives used to retain employees will be paid for by raising prices, not cutting into profits and big wig bonuses.
The psychological marketing tool of "unboxing" is rather silly. You still get the same product no matter how religious the opening becomes. It's nothing more than another form of control over the mindless consumer.
I would call it the “passive aggressive” war! War is never a good thing and we must never fight in the same manner if we were to directly engage in war again.
I don’t think the internet has been around that long! And , as you could see from the link, today they actually have digital versions newspapers, books and even encyclopedias. Go figure.
Timing is everything and politicians do their upmost best to do and say things when they will get the most mileage. RR had 20 years to read those historical tea leaves and many advisers to read them for him. Don’t forget a good speechwriter!
Darrell, I respect the content that Bill Murphy puts out daily too much to get into an argument. Let's just conclude that you and I see things through a different lens. It's America, that's allowed here.
How can you argue about facts? I just don’t understand that. Sure, we can see things differently but I at least shared something factual. Blue is blue.
It ended with a disaster withdrawal from Afghanistan that left Americans behind, left extremely expensive military equipment and intelligence behind, left that country in turmoil, and emboldened the enemy we went over there to defeat.
My guy and I were attempting to create a personal battle plan after his recent diagnosis with a service connected disease. So many unknowns. He was a retired naval officer. Before autumn was official, he’d retire early from a civilian career. The world stage suddenly took a backseat. As a naval reservist a decade earlier, he’d called Bupers and volunteered for the impending Gulf War, announcing he was no. 6 on list to do so. Our youngest was in 2nd grade. No words - except I’d throw one heck of a going away party if he were recalled to active duty. Peel the calendar back five decades, and he was a young aviator ship-bound for Vietnam. In many ways, the veterans of WWII were his blueprint to try to leave the world a better place. Today’s focus is Ukraine and increasing world tensions. How will any of this end? Because the world consists of imperfect human beings, we will hope for peace and understanding, then turn and face a much more complicated reality.
Colin Powell in one of his early books I read pre 9/11 stated a lesson he learned as a lieutenant in Vietnam, was to have an exit strategy before going to war. Decades later he continued to be a good soldier, as Secretary of Defense, and follow orders from his superiors, facilitating entering 2 wars that broke his earlier lesson of no clear exit strategy. I respect Powell, but have mixed feelings about his legacy.
His superior, President Bush Jr., lied to us about WMD’s and starting the Iran war. He also was wrong/lied to us about “Mission Accomplished”, that the war in Iran, was over. I think that twisting (or making up) the facts to justify a war (Iran) may be a war crime. I blame the guy who has a ‘buck stops here’ label.
Most wars are born in the ending of the prior war. I suspect your observation that Afghanistan war is not over is correct. Our government predicts that Isis in Afghanistan will be able to strike abroad in 6 months time.
The book “Charlie Wilson’s War” was about the US fighting by proxy, the USSR in Afghanistan. It took the Russians a long time to realize they didn’t have an exit strategy. The book cautioned against abandoning our anti USSR allies. This suggested that our abandonment and lack of fulfilling our promises to the Afghan people may have lead to the rise of Isis and contributed to 9/11. On the other hand maybe we wouldn’t have been able to build a nation back then either.
Afghanistan can not be compared to the war in Ukraine. They had a functioning county before the Russian Invasion.
Don’t ignore history at the risk of it repeating itself. I suspect the majority of your readers agree with the ignore history part.
I respect General Powell. He did what he had to do at the time. He is also one of the few republicans I could see myself voting for - in a time far, far away from today. General,Powell cared about the important stuff, an approach that likely kept him 9n the sidelines.
Endings are overly hyped or at least over-rated concepts when it comes to things matter on a grand level. Children's stories are known for having the happily ever after ending; but does that child like expectation carry over into a reality that it doesn't fit?
Serving through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I often wondered if we (as a nation/or even better as a coalition of nations) would stay long enough to make the sacrifices really worth it. I also thought about the duality that the longer we stayed the greater the sacrifices would add up. But in contrast I in turn think about how long we stayed in Japan and Germany after WWII. Spoiler Alert - we're still there now; but for some reason we thought we could change the way of life in Iraq & Afghanistan in a single generation of our virtuous presence.
As a young Marine I learned about Commander's Intent, and desired End States: When we are done doing this what do we want to people, place, or problem to look like. There came a time where a school of thought emerged that said we needed to get away from End State thinking because imposing our will to achieve and endstate that exists in our own minds is unrealistic and ultimately leads to bad decison making. This school of thought doesn't seem to have stuck; I assume because it didn't offer an alternative that allowed for unity of effort towards a common goal.
I recently read a quote from a fictional character that went something along the lines of; 'The fight isn't over until you decide you've won.' (please forgive the innacuracy, along with my inability to attribute the specific book but it was in Robin Hobb's Assassin's Aprentice Trilogy) My point in bringint that quote up is that end states are just temporary way points in history. In so many ways, the End of WWI led directly to WWII, and the end of WWII led to the Cold War, which in turn ended in such a way that we ended up with the balance (or imbalance) of power that led to Terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars.
Instead of "How will this end?", I would prefer to ask "What will this lead us into?"
Nicely said. When one door closes another opens; what’s behind is a mystery until that point. You can also say be careful what you wish for, or you pay for what you get.
Thanks for sharing a well thought out concept. I need to check out that trilogy!
I do like Terry Goodkind very much. I totally binged the first 5-6 (maybe 7?) books in the series; then I was taken away from it for a while (nothing bad just life demands) and have been so hesitant to start again for 2 reasons. Mostly because it really drew me in, it was very hard to put down each of those books so picking them up again is a bit intimidating when I have a lot of other great things that occupy my time these days. The other reason is because I've lost my place in the series; and I know I'll probably just start back at the beginning when I feel like I can commit to it again.
Just reading these rules has me all kinds of excited and wanting to pick it back up again. Thank you!
Twenty years ago I was at Fort Campbell, KY preparing to deploy to Kuwait/Iraq with a combat support hospital. It was our final week of preparation and I only knew a couple of folks who were from the hospital where I was permanently assigned at Fort Stewart, GA. We then spent several days traveling by busses, planes and more busses to our Camp Udari base for a short period before moving on in to Iraq by tactical vehicles and helicopters. We saw many wounded soldiers, mostly marines who had been caught in ambush. By the time we got to Iraq we had mainly Iraqi civilians who had been injured — most by their own countrymen.
I honestly don’t think about that time very often but since you wanted to know where we were I thought I would write this. It was not political for me at all — it was about service and my promise to protect and defend. We spent a great deal of time running for bunkers in the middle of the night during scud alerts and donning full chemical protective gear — those of you who know realize how much fun that is. I tell this because, even as nurses “in the rear” we were not in a “safe” place. We saw plenty of suffering and suffered some ourselves.
If anything, it did make me hate war but I also believe that there are worse things - like living in fear or watching the suffering of others whom we might help.
War in an area may end, but war in general never seems to end. Even with Reagan, we went to war in Grenada, though he took credit for ending the Cold War (credit was really due to the USSR).
It was Eisenhower who pointed out the Military-Industrial Complex. Alas, the money and weapons of war. A greedy behemoth that must be fed.
Give credit specifically to Gorbachev. According to Britannica:
“The Cold War truly began to break down during the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev, who changed the more totalitarian aspects of the Soviet government and tried to democratize its political system.”
I'll call bull here. While Gorby might have been ready, it was RR publicly calling them out that brought them together to end the cold war. He provided the path... and the guts to get it done.
Call what you want but a line from RR ended the USSR. No one is that powerful!
Here is the complete entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica that was fact checked by their staff:
“The Cold War came to a close gradually. The unity in the communist bloc was unraveling throughout the 1960s and ’70s as a split occurred between China and the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Japan and certain Western countries were becoming more economically independent. Increasingly complex international relationships developed as a result, and smaller countries became more resistant to superpower cajoling.
The Cold War truly began to break down during the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev, who changed the more totalitarian aspects of the Soviet government and tried to democratize its political system. Communist regimes began to collapse in eastern Europe, and democratic governments rose in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, followed by the reunification of West and East Germany under NATO auspices. Gorbachev’s reforms meanwhile weakened his own communist party and allowed power to shift to the constituent governments of the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, giving rise to 15 newly independent nations, including a Russia with an anticommunist leader.“
https://www.britannica.com/question/How-did-the-Cold-War-end
Wars with our real enemies are fought through proxy nations now. Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine... this is so that oligarchs can continue to remain in power while feeding the machine. If the U.S. ever went to war directly with Iran, China or Russia, it would signal a battle of a different kind and it would be the end to end all ends.
I agree. Putin thinks we are at war with him and Ukraine is just a sandbox. I heard over the BBC news that China made a wise comment about the importance of dialogue between Countries (Russia and Ukraine) to resolve conflict…my optimistic interpretation.
Both China and Russia are good at making wise comments; just like everyone one else though, that wisdom tends to be contradicted by observable behavior. They can say the same for us; and do.
How oh How do I UNSUBSCRIBE TO YOUR “Understandably.com” newsletter/blog. You offer no option at the bottom of your writing to UNSUBSCRIBE…only offer me to pay for a subscription.
I want to unsubscribe. If I ever did want to pay for your opinions, but had no way to unsubscribe, well I would think this is an undesirable publication.
Please unsubscribe me from all further comments from “Understandably by Bill Murphy, Jr.
Sorry you had trouble. Every single newsletter I send has an unsubscribe link. I wish I could mak it more prominent in fact but the system I'm on (substack) doesn't allow this. However I have manually unsubscribed you so you won't get another one again.
Hoarding workers will amount to another price inflation binge for consumers. All those raises, benefits, perks and incentives used to retain employees will be paid for by raising prices, not cutting into profits and big wig bonuses.
The psychological marketing tool of "unboxing" is rather silly. You still get the same product no matter how religious the opening becomes. It's nothing more than another form of control over the mindless consumer.
I would call it the “passive aggressive” war! War is never a good thing and we must never fight in the same manner if we were to directly engage in war again.
Haven't read or heard from encyclopedias in like 100 years. Good for you...hail Gorby.
It couldn't and most likely wouldn't have ended without both of them.
I don’t think the internet has been around that long! And , as you could see from the link, today they actually have digital versions newspapers, books and even encyclopedias. Go figure.
Timing is everything and politicians do their upmost best to do and say things when they will get the most mileage. RR had 20 years to read those historical tea leaves and many advisers to read them for him. Don’t forget a good speechwriter!
Darrell, I respect the content that Bill Murphy puts out daily too much to get into an argument. Let's just conclude that you and I see things through a different lens. It's America, that's allowed here.
How can you argue about facts? I just don’t understand that. Sure, we can see things differently but I at least shared something factual. Blue is blue.
It ended with a disaster withdrawal from Afghanistan that left Americans behind, left extremely expensive military equipment and intelligence behind, left that country in turmoil, and emboldened the enemy we went over there to defeat.
The Iraq War was 1500 miles and several years away for the Afghan ending.
Left Americans behind? Who?
All wars leave expensive military equipment behind. It costs more to bring it back.
It took Russia 20 years to figure out they couldn’t win.
That country was already in turmoil.
TFG initiated the pullout before he left office.
March 20 1991
I was a USAF Lieutenant adjusting to the "end" of Desert Storm.
March 20, 2003
I was a civilian running a small company, having just gotten profitable and hired my replacement.
Fake intel led to fake ending - there are probably still no WMD in Iraq.
Brilliance!! Thanks for sharing
My guy and I were attempting to create a personal battle plan after his recent diagnosis with a service connected disease. So many unknowns. He was a retired naval officer. Before autumn was official, he’d retire early from a civilian career. The world stage suddenly took a backseat. As a naval reservist a decade earlier, he’d called Bupers and volunteered for the impending Gulf War, announcing he was no. 6 on list to do so. Our youngest was in 2nd grade. No words - except I’d throw one heck of a going away party if he were recalled to active duty. Peel the calendar back five decades, and he was a young aviator ship-bound for Vietnam. In many ways, the veterans of WWII were his blueprint to try to leave the world a better place. Today’s focus is Ukraine and increasing world tensions. How will any of this end? Because the world consists of imperfect human beings, we will hope for peace and understanding, then turn and face a much more complicated reality.
Colin Powell in one of his early books I read pre 9/11 stated a lesson he learned as a lieutenant in Vietnam, was to have an exit strategy before going to war. Decades later he continued to be a good soldier, as Secretary of Defense, and follow orders from his superiors, facilitating entering 2 wars that broke his earlier lesson of no clear exit strategy. I respect Powell, but have mixed feelings about his legacy.
His superior, President Bush Jr., lied to us about WMD’s and starting the Iran war. He also was wrong/lied to us about “Mission Accomplished”, that the war in Iran, was over. I think that twisting (or making up) the facts to justify a war (Iran) may be a war crime. I blame the guy who has a ‘buck stops here’ label.
Most wars are born in the ending of the prior war. I suspect your observation that Afghanistan war is not over is correct. Our government predicts that Isis in Afghanistan will be able to strike abroad in 6 months time.
The book “Charlie Wilson’s War” was about the US fighting by proxy, the USSR in Afghanistan. It took the Russians a long time to realize they didn’t have an exit strategy. The book cautioned against abandoning our anti USSR allies. This suggested that our abandonment and lack of fulfilling our promises to the Afghan people may have lead to the rise of Isis and contributed to 9/11. On the other hand maybe we wouldn’t have been able to build a nation back then either.
Afghanistan can not be compared to the war in Ukraine. They had a functioning county before the Russian Invasion.
Don’t ignore history at the risk of it repeating itself. I suspect the majority of your readers agree with the ignore history part.
I respect General Powell. He did what he had to do at the time. He is also one of the few republicans I could see myself voting for - in a time far, far away from today. General,Powell cared about the important stuff, an approach that likely kept him 9n the sidelines.
Endings are overly hyped or at least over-rated concepts when it comes to things matter on a grand level. Children's stories are known for having the happily ever after ending; but does that child like expectation carry over into a reality that it doesn't fit?
Serving through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I often wondered if we (as a nation/or even better as a coalition of nations) would stay long enough to make the sacrifices really worth it. I also thought about the duality that the longer we stayed the greater the sacrifices would add up. But in contrast I in turn think about how long we stayed in Japan and Germany after WWII. Spoiler Alert - we're still there now; but for some reason we thought we could change the way of life in Iraq & Afghanistan in a single generation of our virtuous presence.
As a young Marine I learned about Commander's Intent, and desired End States: When we are done doing this what do we want to people, place, or problem to look like. There came a time where a school of thought emerged that said we needed to get away from End State thinking because imposing our will to achieve and endstate that exists in our own minds is unrealistic and ultimately leads to bad decison making. This school of thought doesn't seem to have stuck; I assume because it didn't offer an alternative that allowed for unity of effort towards a common goal.
I recently read a quote from a fictional character that went something along the lines of; 'The fight isn't over until you decide you've won.' (please forgive the innacuracy, along with my inability to attribute the specific book but it was in Robin Hobb's Assassin's Aprentice Trilogy) My point in bringint that quote up is that end states are just temporary way points in history. In so many ways, the End of WWI led directly to WWII, and the end of WWII led to the Cold War, which in turn ended in such a way that we ended up with the balance (or imbalance) of power that led to Terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars.
Instead of "How will this end?", I would prefer to ask "What will this lead us into?"
Nicely said. When one door closes another opens; what’s behind is a mystery until that point. You can also say be careful what you wish for, or you pay for what you get.
Thanks for sharing a well thought out concept. I need to check out that trilogy!
You might like these “rules” and the series of books they are from written by Terry Goodkind:
1. People are stupid. They believe things mainly because they either want them to be true or fear them to be true. (Wizard's First Rule)
2. Harm can result from good intention. (Stone of Tears)
3. Passion rules reason. (Blood of the Fold)
4. There is Magic in sincere Forgiveness, both in forgiveness received and given. (Temple of the Winds)
5. Mind people's actions over words. (Soul of the Fire)
6. Only allow reason to rule you. (Faith of the Fallen)
7. Life is the future not the past. (Pillars of Creation)
8. Deserve victory. (Naked Empire)
9. Contradictions cannot exist. (Chainfire)
10. Ignoring truth is betraying yourself. (Phantom)
11. Embrace life, Strength without hate.(Confessor)
12. Truth cannot be destroyed. (Omen Machine)
13. There have always been those who hate, and there always will be. (Severed Souls)
14. In this world everyone must die. None of us has any choice in that. Our choice is how we wish to live. (Warheart)
I do like Terry Goodkind very much. I totally binged the first 5-6 (maybe 7?) books in the series; then I was taken away from it for a while (nothing bad just life demands) and have been so hesitant to start again for 2 reasons. Mostly because it really drew me in, it was very hard to put down each of those books so picking them up again is a bit intimidating when I have a lot of other great things that occupy my time these days. The other reason is because I've lost my place in the series; and I know I'll probably just start back at the beginning when I feel like I can commit to it again.
Just reading these rules has me all kinds of excited and wanting to pick it back up again. Thank you!
I hear you. It’s easy to pick right up. I know because I had to wait for many when the series was coming out. Love the library!
Thank you sir, for your service and for sharing here.
Twenty years ago I was at Fort Campbell, KY preparing to deploy to Kuwait/Iraq with a combat support hospital. It was our final week of preparation and I only knew a couple of folks who were from the hospital where I was permanently assigned at Fort Stewart, GA. We then spent several days traveling by busses, planes and more busses to our Camp Udari base for a short period before moving on in to Iraq by tactical vehicles and helicopters. We saw many wounded soldiers, mostly marines who had been caught in ambush. By the time we got to Iraq we had mainly Iraqi civilians who had been injured — most by their own countrymen.
I honestly don’t think about that time very often but since you wanted to know where we were I thought I would write this. It was not political for me at all — it was about service and my promise to protect and defend. We spent a great deal of time running for bunkers in the middle of the night during scud alerts and donning full chemical protective gear — those of you who know realize how much fun that is. I tell this because, even as nurses “in the rear” we were not in a “safe” place. We saw plenty of suffering and suffered some ourselves.
If anything, it did make me hate war but I also believe that there are worse things - like living in fear or watching the suffering of others whom we might help.
Dola
Your light shines through…
Thanks for this.
Thank you for your service and for sharing here.