Way back, at the height of the Vietnam War, our government was releasing some very impressive body count numbers of the enemy killed by our bombing and in ground combat. I remember being somewhat surprised by the very high numbers reported in the media. Some of our heavy bombing did kill a lot of NVA, and there were some ground combat engagements that were not typical and involved large forces on both sides, so there were instances of high casualties. But for the most part, ground combat involved fire fights that, although brutal, did not raise the body count to the level reported in the media.
So, taking one of those early, prehistoric Texas Instrument calculators (they were a marvel, compared to the abacus and the slide rule, remember the slide rule?), I punched-in the numbers reported by the news media and discovered that, at least according to what was reported, we had killed the entire population of North Vietnam! I double checked my findings, and the TI calculator did not lie, so who was not telling the truth, and if it was a lie, why tell such a lie? Later it was uncovered that those inflated numbers were the product of the Friday night "Saigon Follies" press conferences and news reporting by reporters in Saigon who never left the hotel bar to report on the war. Of course, they did not dream up those numbers. Those numbers were given to them by the starched uniformed and spit-shined booted, MACV headquarters element, those Army, Marine, Air Force, and Navy Officers who also never saw any combat (although they all somehow managed to earn a Combat Infantry Badge or a Combat Action Ribbon!). Whatever the case, the numbers were obviously fabricated. You can't kill the entire population of a country and still be fighting their soldiers! Where were these NVA troops coming from, China?
The sad story of the Vietnam War has long been over, more like 40 plus years! But apparently we still have people in Washington, in our government, with the same mind set. We haven't learned anything from history! They say that history repeats itself. If that is the case, then our war against ISIS is not going to end well. At least not unless we change our mind set, our tactics, and reporting!
Just this morning, I saw an article on the front page of the newspaper that we have killed around 500 ISIS fighters per week in the last three months for a total of around 7000. Since our war against ISIS began in "earnest" a little over a year ago (that's when we started bombing them and convinced our allies to join in on the fight), our bombing has killed around 25,000 ISIS fighters, if we are to believe the reported figures. At the same time, our intelligence reports that there are a total of about 20,000 to 25,000 ISIS/ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq.
I am not very good at math, but even I don't need a calculator this time to put the numbers together. In short, we have killed the entire ISIS/ISIL fighting force if we are to believe the reported bombing casualty numbers. But if that is so, who is still murdering and creating havoc in the region? Who is holding all of that territory and key cities in Iraq? Street gangs? Something is just not right. Once again, like some 40 years earlier, the reporting on the war is just not believable. We have fallen into the same trap. Those in the rear echelon, sometimes hundreds of miles away, are the ones who are shaping the news of the war to be released to the public. It is a small wonder that Pentagon announced that a new medal, decoration for combat, will be awarded to drone operators. This decoration will be ranked higher in precedence than the Bronze Star! For those who are unfamiliar, the order of precedence for combat medals for valor begin somewhere around the Commendation Medal with a "V" device with the Air Medal with "V" device next higher in precedence. These two are just below the Purple Heart which is awarded for wounds received in combat. The Bronze Star with a "V" device is our fourth highest award for valor, just below the Silver Star. So now, a drone operator sitting hundreds of miles away from danger, can receive a decoration that is higher than a Bronze Star!
I have all the respect and admiration for those who operate drones and they deserve recognition for their outstanding work. It requires exceptional high degree of technical skill to operate the drones successfully and decorations should be awarded when it is earned. But to award a medal to someone who sits in an air-conditioned building hundreds of miles away from danger, a medal higher in precedence than a bronze star just doesn't make sense. The poor grunt who is in the thick of it, facing all sorts of physical discomfort and actual physical danger of being killed or maimed, rarely if ever receives a medal. More than likely it will just be a good conduct medal (if he stays out of trouble) and campaign ribbon....oh yeah, today everyone also gets the National Defense Medal as well as the Medal for War on Global Terrorism, but so does the drone operator!
My beef is not with this business of new medal or drone operators, I just got side-tracked. My main concern is that we seem to have slipped right into the same mold that we were during the Vietnam War. The vocabulary is a bit different, and there are a lot more medals and ribbons being awarded (mostly to keep troops happy!), but we are doing exactly the same thing. Reporting inflated body count numbers to the media and all sorts of other "successes" that are really questionable! This all ties-in with everything else our government has been telling the public, not just the war on ISIS. How about the Iran Nuclear Deal that I have been ranting about or the recent "prisoner" exchange. Everything seems to be inflated to make the administration look good. Never mind that it is not true, the sentiment appears to be that as long as the public swallows it, it will be happy!
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