[paraclete]

Something about returning to the Philippines, VJ Day and all that, becoming the protem Emperor of Japan, turning back the tide in Korea, little things like that, not much really, but guaranteed to give a meglomanic the right combination of complexes to conquer the world.

You see I think he thought he did it all with the brillance of a commander thought he could never be wrong

[tomder55]

This from 'Plain Speaking 'an oral biography of Truman' by Merle Miller...

Miller:

Mr. President, I know why you fired MacArthur, but if you don't mind I'd like to hear it in your own words.

Truman:

I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. That's the answer to that. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a b*tch, although he was, but that's not against the laws for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. That's why when a good one comes along like General [George] Marshall, why you've got to hang onto them, and I did...

Miller:

Mr. President, how can you explain a man like that?

Truman:

I've given it a lot of thought, and I have finally concluded... decided that there were times when he.. . well, I'm afraid when he wasn't right in the head. And there never was anyone around to him to keep in line. He didn't have anyone on his staff who wasn't an a$$ kisser.

And that is the problem with most Generals. They are political actors instead of military leaders. Take returning to the Philippines. The correct strategy in the Pacific was to bypass the Philippines and cut off the Japanese troops there from their base of supplies. Instead Mac wasted time ,and American troops in some of the most brutal fighting in the Pacific theater retaking Manila. The US had to run 2 simultaneous campaigns in the Pacific to placate his ego .

[paraclete]

All you are doing Tom is agreeing with me Macarthur was arsehole

[tomder55]

Yes we agree on that ,and if it wasn't for the good leadership of Adm. Nimitz at CinCPac, God knows how the Pacific theatre would've turned out. But as I said, good generalship is a rarity here .
When the Army of the Potamac was led by poor Generals like McClellan,Burnsides ,Hooker ,it wasn't because the war was wrong. Lincoln had to wait over 2 years to find a General who understood what it would take to win the war . Marshall and Ike fired dozens of field leaders during the European theatre of WWII . When the US struggled in the Africa campaign we did not conclude that the war was the wrong war to fight ;or that we took our eyes off the prize by fighting in North Africa because ,after all ,we were not attacked at Pearl Harbor by Tunisia .
Even that idiot Obama understands that we need to leave some troops in Afghanistan after his premature withdrawal .

[paraclete]

His withdrawal is not premature, you have accomplished all you are going to accomplish without a million men in the field, but with the forces you are prepared to commit this is as far as you go. You won WWII for three reasons, massive manpower, massive logistics and massive fire power, none is present in Afghanistan. You could bomb Afghanistan into submission but who are you going to bomb, rocks and mountains? 100,000 men aren't even enough to move out of their bases for more than a short time, there are no set piece battles to fight, no enemy other than a few ragtag militants, and yet half the population is your enemy.

You have made the same mistake the British made, the same mistake the Russians made

[paraclete]

yes we agree on that ,and if it wasn't for the good leadership of Adm. Nimitz at CinCPac, God knows how the Pacific theatre would've turned out. But as I said, good generalship is a rarity here .
When the Army of the Potamac was led by poor Generals like McClellan,Burnsides ,Hooker ,it wasn't because the war was wrong. Lincoln had to wait over 2 years to find a General who understood what it would take to win the war . Marshall and Ike fired dozens of field leaders during the European theatre of WWII . When the US struggled in the Africa campaign we did not conclude that the war was the wrong war to fight ;or that we took our eyes off the prize by fighting in North Africa because ,after all ,we were not attacked at Pearl Harbor by Tunisia .
Even that idiot Obama understands that we need to leave some troops in Afghanistan after his premature withdrawal .

You forget Tom, the Union in Lincoln's day was opposed by the best general of the era, but even he was prone to the God complex and poor subordinates. Your civil war definitely was the wrong war to fight but you did well in WWII, but you had right on your side. You initially did well in Afghanistan, you had right on your side, but some of your other conflicts, not so much