RECIPE FOR DISASTER

During the Vietnam War when the Johnson Administration tried to micro-manage the air campaign over North Vietnam.  The following article from Wikipedia is very consistent with what I personally observed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rolling_Thunder

Washington dictated which targets would be struck, the day and hour of the attack, the number and types of aircraft and the tonnages and types of ordnance utilized, and sometimes even the direction of the attack.[27] Airstrikes were strictly forbidden within 30 nautical miles (60 km) of Hanoi and within ten nautical miles (19 km) of the port of Haiphong. A thirty-mile buffer zone also extended along the length of the Chinese frontier. According to Air Force historian Earl Tilford:

Targeting bore little resemblance to reality in that the sequence of attacks was uncoordinated and the targets were approved randomly – even illogically. The North’s airfields, which, according to any rational targeting policy, should have been hit first in the campaign, were also off-limits.[28]

There was also little consultation between Johnson and the military chiefs during the target selection process. Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Army General Earl G. Wheeler, was not present for most of the critical discussions of 1965 and participated only occasionally thereafter.[30]

The United States had the ability to quickly destroy the North Vietnamese Air Defense system and to also destroy its fuel supplies.  Instead we sent in our aircrews to take on trivial targets while being restricted to specific routes.  This insanity resulted in our aircrews getting hammered by the deadly combination of radar controlled anti-aircraft batteries, surface to air missile sites and high performance Migs flown out of conveniently off-limits airfields.

When Richard Nixon got tired of playing the game and ordered B52s over the North, the North Vietnamese folded like a cheap umbrella and signed the peace treaty. The Viet Cong were barely involved because they had been destroyed during the Tet Offensive.

I have often wondered how many thousands of lives were lost because of micro-management of the Vietnam War by incompetent and politically motivated people in Washington.

One would think that lessons were learned from this, but no!  President Obama is going to personally micro-manage our airstrikes, if any, in Syria:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/388306/report-obama-requiring-personal-signoff-syria-bombing-targets-andrew-johnson

So the real strategy to defeat ISIS is for Obama to personally directly our military efforts.  Since he has provided such brilliant leadership for the last six years what could possibly go wrong?  Have you thrown up yet?

TDM