re: OT: Syrian Refugees

quote:

---

History has proven you can't not defeat an army wit air power alone

---

I know we had troops stationed in the South Pacific, but we pretty much defeated Japan with "Air Power", didn't we? No actual boots on the ground in Japan.

I guess you missed the whole "Island Hopping Campaign" in your history classes. But, yes you are partially correct in the fact that we used nuclear bombs to bring Japan to it's knees. I highly doubt we will ever do that again.

Unfortunately, no. I thought we were fighting in the South Pacific Islands but never had troops in places such as Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima.

quote:

---

I thought we were fighting in the South Pacific Islands but never had troops in places such as Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima.

---

Maybe I misunderstood because you said "stationed" in your original post, which is different than fighting.

I ask, however, did the troops fighting on the South Pacific Islands count less than if we had to put them on Honshu? Does that not make them "boots on the ground"? Additionally, we did have ground troops on the main islands after the war serving in an occupation capacity.

The war in the Pacific was as much a ground war as it was a sea and air war. We also had ground troops throughout Southeast Asia, including China and Burma (which were mainly British areas of interest and ground fighting).

No war has ever been won, or ever will be won, with air power alone. Unfortunately, air power does not hold ground. What air power does do, when utilized properly, is support a ground war. When utilized improperly, it serves as a recruiting tool for the persons whom we are using it against.

Air power can do certain things alone. If your goal is to kill a guy or a couple of guys it might work. Punishment for some type of crime or attack. Forcing an existing government to come to terms. Limited and narrow goals.

If you are trying to destroy a large, territory holding government and wrest power from them permanently, you typically need to combine that with a ground force of some type. In this case, the ground force doesn't have to be US but it will have to be somebody. Options:

Assad: He is a bad guy but maybe he is the lesser of two evils. Probably easiest.
Ba'athist Military Leadership: Maybe additional pressure from the world, including Russia can lead to the military ousting Assad but retaining the rest of the power structure
Free Syrian Rebels: Would be nice, but it sure seems like that ship sailed long ago when Obama left them hanging. Also would demand some western ground and air support at the very least.
Arab militaries: Peacekeeping forces from the Arab countries seems far fetched and Iran would probably not be impressed.
Coalition: US, Russian, European, etc. Hard to see it happening without a US commitment.