Run, Forrest, Run

Paresh Nath (UAE)

Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun
--Army of Darkness (1992)

The race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong
--Ecclesiastes, 9:11

Mama says they was magic shoes.
They could take me anywhere
--Forrest Gump (1994)
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By all MSM reports, General Stanley A. McChrystal is the Man With a Plan (instead of the hired assassin he actually is.)

Most press indicates the war in Afghanistan is reverting to Square One, and we will now kick ass and take names. No more of the screw up it has actually become. Been there, done that. General McChrystal will be the New Spartan Messiah, a savior ushering in that smell of victory.

The warm and fuzzy McChrystal stories invariably note that the General runs 10 miles before he begins each busy day, spreading democracy like Neufchatel on toast. (Not too thick, mind, or Afghanistan couldn't propagate the stifling Sharia snatch-and-catch marriage laws perpetuated by U.S. tax dollars.)

But why is the running even mentioned? We had a Joggin' President in Bush, and that didn't seem to help matters much. (As an aside, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked on NPR what she would title Bush's autobiography, to which she answered without a blink, "Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.")

Could Generals Washington, Knox, Scott, Lee, Grant, Pershing, Eisenhower, Patton, Creighton Abrams or Powell run even half a mile? When did jogging ability equate with the fitness of a Theatre Army level Commander?

Ranger wonders if any of the Taliban leaders ever jog, or can even run a mile. Even so, they can hump their gear and traverse their terrain as their wars with the Greeks, British, Russians and Americans clearly indicate.

General McChrystal can run like Forrest Gump, but that is not going to alter the outcome of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) in Afghanistan. The Taliban leaders are going to persist a lot longer than Runnin' McChrystal. It is not the hare that wins the UW/GW war, but rather, the turtle.

Physicality is not the measure of how one wins wars. Advertising campaigns keep us thinking that the Army of One and the "General-Corporal" idea will keep us Army Strong. It was with General David Petraeus that the idea of physical fitness = success was first pressed upon us.

The Rangers and Special Forces may be able to march 40 miles with a ruck and full battle rattle, with minimum rest breaks. But the Vietcong were skinny little malnourished, malaria-ridden fighters, and they held their own.

Just ask Generals Washington, Sam Houston or Giap. Even Mao Zedong, to keep the spirit of Counterinsurgency thinking alive.