The Next Afghan War

Americans scream for vengeance at an, as yet, unseen and unknown enemy. These are trying times that require patience and resolve. We are perceived by much of the world to be a nation of easy living people with no stomach for "real war." As a nation, we Americans, are slow to anger. However, once angered we show a great thirst for revenge and destruction. The Japanese found out these factoids to their own demise. Somewhere along my meanderings, I read that one should never underestimate the inherent violence of the nineteen year old American male.

In a discussion with a friend of mine who has worked at the Center of Military History, I asked him when the British moved back into India after the Sepoy Rebellion of 1854 were not they particularly destructive? He replied that after defeating the rebellion at Lucknow and seeing how the Sepoys had massacred thousands of British women and children, the Honorable East India Company (John Company) and British Army troops would hang the Hindus and cut off the heads of the Moslems. Indeed, after the rebellion the ring leaders were tied to the muzzle of cannons and roundshot was fired. In these ways, the rebels could not reach their own nirvana. Sometimes the old ways are perhaps the best ways.

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