Editorial Opinion
Nebraska ‘Guard not ready’ headline comforts enemy
We can only guess the reaction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his feistiest World War II commander, Gen. George Patton, or of President Abraham Lincoln and his toughest Civil War commander, Gen. U. S. Grant, to a Wednesday morning headline on the front page of the Omaha World-Herald.

by Bob Hoig, Publisher
Midlands Business Journal

“Guard not ready for any surge.”
That was Major Gen. Roger Lempke, commander of the Nebraska National Guard, commenting on the front page of the Omaha World-Herald Wednesday morning about his problems with a possible new U.S. military strategy to use a troop “surge” to win the Iraq War.
(President Bush was scheduled to speak on the issue Wednesday evening after the Midlands Business Journal goes to press.)
Doubtless, military officials in wartime have had thoughts on the strategies of their leaders. One hopes they would comment privately to the President or his advisors before going public. It looks a little less political that way.
And, if in good conscience, they can’t wait before speaking out, they should resign, then call the reporters.
Active duty military leaders don’t shout our weaknesses from Page 1 – Vietnam War ethos to the contrary.
Among other things, it gives aid and comfort to our enemies.
This writer would have asked for body armor before presenting such a similar newspaper headline informing Patton or Grant what can’t be done – at least, in advance of their being briefed by the gloomy general in person.
Roosevelt and Lincoln might have responded diplomatically. Patton and Grant, or even SAC’s legendary Gen. Curtis LeMay, probably would not. All five might just have said: “Shut the hell up!”
There might be angles to this story that are not apparent. If so, we apologize to Major Gen. Lempke in advance.
Maybe he was misquoted or the lack of preparedness comment was off the record.
Or maybe he even mentioned to President Bush personally that the Nebraska Guard would need “six months to prepare,” as quoted in the World Herald. And maybe the President said, “Okay, put that on Page 1. We can use it to lull al Qaeda and the other terrorists.”
We suspect most Americans appreciate the mind-set of General Patton. Nasty George might have let it “slip” to Hitler and the German Army that it would take “at least six days” for him to relieve the U.S. forces trapped and being slaughtered in the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last great effort to turn the tide in World War II.
What Patton did was move an entire tank division 100 miles overnight through snow and bitter cold to reinforce encircled American troops and win the battle. For him, the possible was what had already been done; the impossible was what was next.
We live in un-heroic times, although there are plenty of individual heroes. Witness U.S. fighting men and women in the Iraq War, national guardsmen and women notably included in this group.
We had them in Vietnam too.
What is apparent now is that Vietnam sucked the will to win out of enough politicians and media people – not all, but enough – to make fighting any war to victory very hard for an American president.
Politics once were said to “end at the water’s edge.”
No more. The dreary pattern that worked for the communists in Vietnam is helping terrorists in Iraq.
American victories on the battlefield are followed immediately by anti-American, anti-war propaganda, foreign and domestic. First the most radical leftists attack. Then come the left-most factions in the Democratic Party, then the Democratic leadership, then many Congressional Democrats.
Finally, some Republicans join the “We can’t win” chorus.
The U.S. and its allies can win in Iraq. The most depressed among us need booster shots of Patton, Grant and Vince Lombardi.
We wish that General Lempke would have told the World-Herald on the issue of un-preparedness: “We are in a war. No comment for the duration.”


January 12, 2007
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