The Insanities of War

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am not a pacifist, and I do not consider war to be completely or always insane. I think war is sometimes rational, as in the case of U.S. participation in World War II or the war on terrorism.

But one need not be a pacifist to look at some wartime incidents and say, “Jesus, this is friggin’ nuts!” This thread is for telling each other about some of these insane incidents.

I’m trying to talk about insanity, rather than just big blunders or misjudgements. Napoleon invading Russia was a big-time boo-boo, but probably not insane; it appeared to be the product of a rational calculation and came surprisingly close to working (he did take Moscow after all). I’m talking more about cases like where a shell-shocked soldier sits and says, “Fuck my shit” over and over again (Jay Shafritz, Words on War, p. 149). Granted, the line between blundering and insanity can get a little blurry. Was Francisco Lopez insane, or just incompetent, when he sent a fleet of canoes to attack Argentinian ironclads during the Triple Alliance War? Was Douglas MacArthur insane or just mistaken to order the malaria-ridden, half-starved men on the Bagac-Orion line in the Philippines to wait until their supplies were exhausted, and then launch an attack on Olongapo, sixty miles behind the Japanese lines in the face of Japan’s complete air, ground, and naval superiority? Was it a blunder, or just sheer insanity, for Saddam Hussein to deploy a vehicle column north of Baghdad in the Iraq war’s first days, for no apparent purpose other than to allow our B-52s to smash it to smithereens? I have to leave that to your judgment.

I have had the good fortune never to be exposed to the insanity of war in person. Doubtless those who have served will have better stories than the ones I have read. To proceed:

The most famous of all insane words today is surely the anonymous U.S. Army Ranger from Vietnam: “To save the village, it became necessary to destroy it.”

I recently read an interview with a US Air Force pilot in Vietnam, who was ordered to drop wampum mines in a completely useless (though extremely dangerous) spot, because the wampum was about to pass its use-by date. He was almost killed, but he did it.

Another recent interview with a German tank platoon leader from World War II has him planning an escape from the Roncey pocket, while his commanding officer intended to surrender. German army majors came to this lowly platoon leader and asked him if they could pretty please come with him.

In 1270, it came to Louis IX, King of France, that the best way to liberate Jerusalem would be to invade Tunisia. He invaded; Jerusalem did not fall, but the king did, struck by plague.

One night in early 2002, U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan acting on a false intelligence tip mistakenly attacked a friendly Northern Alliance outpost, killing several U.S. allies before the snafu was realized. In what he apparently thought was a defense of the troops, Donald Rumsfeld got on the air and announced that the attack was “not a mistake.” Friendly fire incidents are not insane, but a regrettable fact of modern warfare; however, an explanation that claims it was done on purpose strikes me as absolutely loony.

There was a popular belief among some American Indian tribes in the 1890s that Ghost Dance shirts would stop bullets. They didn’t.

2

The most insane date in the history of warfare: September 1, 1939. Hitler simply had to know he wasn’t going to win. His equipment was old, his industrial base was pretty weak, all he had was the initiative. When that was gone it was all over.

Insanity #2: Pickett’s Charge. Hey, let’s blitz fixed positions with single shot rifles through an open field. What were they thinking? Who knows.

We could go on and on and on, but I’ll stop there, because I’m flying tomorrow and I need some sleep.

3

Use hindsight to study the past not to judge it.

4

Charge of the Light Brigade…
nuff said.

5

The loading of combat support vessels and combat vessels from the UK before the Falkland’s War (Malvinas) became a “How Not To Do It” lesson in logistics. Many had to stop enroute, unload everything, and reload so that the bullets were not underneath the blankets, and thus inaccessible to the combat troops.

6

Danimal… what’s a “wampum mine”? I never heard of this.

I thought “wampum” was an old Hollywood Indian word for money.

7

Gotta disagree with your #1, Airman Doors. World War II was perfectly winnable for Hitler on September 1, 1939. All he had to do was take Poland and push for a negotiated peace. The war was probably still winnable up until June 22, 1941. Also, given the democracies’ past record, Hitler had good reason to think they would simply cave in to the rape of Poland as they had done before during the rape of Czechoslovakia. A miscalculation, probably, but not insanity.

Vlad, “wampum” was indeed a form of American Indian bead money, but in Vietnam-era military parlance it was a code name (like Sidewinder or Sparrow) for an aircraft armament, a cylinder filled with dozens of little round “toe-popper” mines that were supposed to be distributed over a wide area when the cylinder was dropped.

8

CBU-24 or some similar device.

9

All in all it is remarkable how few nations (in the post-Napoleonic era) surrender. I mean you just figure Jeff Davis in ‘63 or ol’ Adolph on '43 would have figured it out and hung up their spurs early and called it a day.

Of course the one nation that did in fact surrender was treated so badly it is easy to see why nobody else did it.

(Any guesses as to which major power came to the conclusion it was loosing a just decided to stack arms?)

10

Operation “Restore Hope” Somalia, circa 1992.

I am ordered to secure the inland side of the abandoned U.S. Embassy in wonderful city of Mogadishu.

I reach my objective and start taking sporadic small arms fire.

I radio back for permission to return fire.

I am denied permission to return fire, but am granted a flight of Cobra gunships to cover me.

WTF!? I can’t shoot back with the weapons I have, but I can have a flight of Cobras armed with 20mm gattling guns and Hellfire missiles!!?

Oh YEAH, silly me, it’s a “Humanitarian” mission…not a combat mission.

Tell the Rangers that died there it was a Humanitarian mission.
(Rangers, I salute you)
Stranger OUT

11

Mass charges in WWI. e.g.

12

From experience the most insane thing is how long, constant exposure to violence and the potential for violence changes the way you think.

While in the Marines in Vietnam in 1969 I kept a diary. This is how the entry for August 12th started.

“What a day. We had a six hour shot out by the road junction going to 22.”

Altogether there were at least 12-15 killed or badly wounded, counting both sides. At the end of the entry am I saying, “Too bad about so-and-so,” or “I hope X makes it?” Nope, I’m complaining about how we have to go out that night to set up as a blocking force for the ARVNs. The lose of sleep was more important at the time.

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For exquisite examples, check out Barbara Tuchman’s “The March of Folly.”

14

When I think about the insanity of war (for me, I think all war is insane, even if it is necessary) I think of the line from Apocalypse Now just before Martin Sheen offs Marlen Brando (paraphrased):

“We send our planes to bomb villages but we won’t allow our pilots to write FUCK on their planes because it’s considered obscene.”

That sums it up for me, I can’t find the words to describe my feelings beyond this.