How can one tell the difference between a terrorist/militant and a civilian in the war in which we are participating? The enemy doesn’t seem to wear any distinctive uniform or insignia, so how can one tell them apart in the split second that is required to effectively conduct military operations?

I have yet to read where politicians caused an effective and successful outcome to any war or conflict. Wars and conflicts have been won by soldiers, generals and military machines. Take a look at [some of] the pictures of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, for example. There are no military people, there was no unconditional surrender and so forth. What happened later was the rise of you-know-who.

Look at the picture of the surrender of Germany and Japan, military surrendering to military. Look at the picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendering to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Yet we can see with Korea, [some photos show] only politicians and civilians.

Politicians are not trained in conducting war, unless, of course, they are Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan. They should just let the military do its thing. Civilian leaders who think they can be armchair quarterbacks and win a war fail to realize that it is "hard to drain a swamp when you are crotch-deep in alligators."

In war, there are no innocents. War is a dying business and it needs to be lethal, nasty, ugly and a place we don’t want to go; a nightmare. If we are going to dance around the battlefield to the tune of whatever is coming out of the world’s political headquarters, people will always look at war as a "necessary evil." We need to eradicate war, and we need to do it quickly, efficiently and without remorse.

David GonzalesKaiserslautern, Germany

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