Letter: Total War

After I enlisted in the Army National Guard and trained under Viet Nam combat veterans, I read a book about World War II, titled "Total War." As a young man I thought all wars were total war. However total war is the bombing and destruction of civilian bomb making factories, with no regard to civilian loss of life. In Viet Nam we could have bombed North Viet Nam's cities into submission under this concept. In Afghanistan the U.S. could have bombed the Taliban into submission easily as they had no air force, no anti-aircraft missiles. The next war will also not be a total war. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan to break up Al-Qaeda and bring Osama bin Laden to justice. We invaded Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein. The wars should have stopped then, and the troops should have come home. There is no "nation building in the Middle East." Our service men and women sign up for limited wars.