If We're Going To Fight A War ...

Here we go again.

Once more, American military and treasure are being expended to defang a tyrant -- this time against our Old Friend, Libya's Khadafi.

The people of Libya have risen up: they had the Lion on the ropes for a few days, until he unleashed his "supporters" to crush uprisings in the eastern area of the country, especially in the city of Benghazi.

Khadafi's spearhead is composed of a cadre of his fellow tribesmen, supported by mercenaries imported from Mali, Chad, Upper Volta, and other land-locked African nations. This cadre of Yes-Men, fanatics, and hired guns are being paid handsomely, in Oil and Natural Gas Money, for their tastes and talent to commit unmitigated bloodshed against Libyan civilians caught in the No Man's Land between forces loyal to The Colonel and the rebels.

These are the guys who, as of Sunday, are feeling the effects from the Steel Rain coming down upon their columns and tanks from cruise missiles and jets flown by a coalition of pilots under the authority of UN Resolution 1973.

(NOTE: The Arab League is trying to weasel out of the UN resolution even as you read this! Stay tuned ... )

The resolution sets up a "No-Fly Zone" in Eastern Libya, ostensibly to protect innocent non-combatants living there.

Of course, US assets are playing a Key Role in the planning and implementation of the Bombing Campaign.

And to get the Lion's undivided attention, a coalition pilot (probably a Brit) dropped a 2,000 pound Calling Card into Khadafi's Compound -- to let him know we're all Pretty Serious this time.

I've picked up alot of Serious Hand-Wringing about the conduct of this Little War as of late.

Most of the angst centers on the role of the mission -- as ill-defined as it really is: who can say with any sense of accuracy exactly who-is-who among the rebels -- and the rest about using coalition air strength to gain control of the ground situation. Excellent starting points!

First point: ill-defined mission.

We really ought to learn all we can about exactly who comprises the rebel forces trying to depose The Colonel. All of the interviews I've heard so far tend to paint these guys as either under-paid, or out-of-work professionals.

For more than 30 years, we hear, Khadafi stood in their way of being able to experience the Great Libyan Dream.

For all I know, they're all just Al Queda In Drag. For all I know, they're awaiting their moment to declare an "Islamic Republic of Libya".

At this particular point in-time, my suspicions are probably just as good as the CIA's.

It's up to Barack to sell the Congress -- vested by the Constitution with all war-making authority -- on the fact that we actually have clear objectives in this war, and that we have an Exit Strategy. Americans just will not tolerate another Mess like the ones we encountered in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Second Point: use of air power.

Since the Days of The Iron Curtain, US military planners have developed  and perfected air-attack strategies to take out mechanized forces on the ground.

When massed, tanks are most-certainly potent spearheads capable of breaking through defensive parameters. When massed together, though, an enemy tank column forms an attractive target -- especially in cases in which the tank column lacks adequate air support.

This is the reason why any soldier -- on the offensive or defensive -- wants his or her forces to "own the skies."

Here's a bit of battlefield history ...

The Nazi Wehrmacht demonstrated the advantages of massed armor on several occasions during WW II.

As most folks over the age of 60 know, Germans used their Panzers to smash through Poland, Belgium, France, Eastern Poland, and, ultimately, through western Russia in what is called the Blitzkreig.

The only thing that saved the Russians in those grim times was this: the Winter of 1941-- it was one of the coldest on record.

The Nazis made it as far as the outskirts of Moscow before their soldiers, their armored cars, their machine guns, their mechanized equipment,  and, especially, their tanks, were frozen solid by week-after-week of sub-Zero temperature.

Despite the fact that the Germans had advanced too rapidly and too far ahead of their supply lines, they probably would have succeeded in crushing Moscow and the Russians the following Spring -- except for a pair of factors:

First, the Soviets placed the T-34 and KV-1 tanks into full production. Both of these behemoths were more than a match for the Panzers --in sheer terms of firepower, maneuverability, and armor protection.

Next, the Russians delivered an all-out effort to manufacture another pair of excellent tank-killers: the Sturmovik and Pe-2 airships, designed specifically to attack armored brigades.

Although it wasn't as decisive, the Russian SB-RK dive bomber was also an important weapon against massed armor, raining down havoc on Panzers during Germany's attempt to break out of Encirclement during the Watershed Battle of WW II -- Stalingrad.

A year later (July, 1943) Soviet air assets shot up German Panzers like Swiss Cheeese during the largest tank engagement ever fought -- the Battle of Kursk. This was a defeat  -- suffered due to the lack of any effective air support -- from which the Nazis would never recover.

The Battle of Kursk proved to be the decisive turning point of the war.

I mention all of the above for one reason: at least German and Russian tanks had lots of room to maneuver, and forests in which to hide, while planning or actually engaging in battle.

It's awfully hard to spot tanks among the trees -- as we learned the Hard Way during the days leading up to the Battle of the Bulge. Add cloud cover and the problem grows exponentially.

Libya, however, is All Sand Sahara, with cobalt skies. Sure, there's a wadi here and there, but nothing within which to hide tanks.

Rommels' Afrika Corps found this out at the hands Montgomery some 70 years ago.

Tanks just do not have a place to hide in such a barren landscape -- to say nothing about what gritty sand can do to a tank's mechanical components, cannon rifling, and drive train.

If The Colonel orders his tanks to "dig in," they become Sitting Ducks, easily bombed from the air. Khadafi ought to have learned this lesson by the way our Air Force chewed up Saddam's Republican Guard's tanks during Desert Storm One.

In any event, to "dig in" takes away a tank's main asset: it's mobility.

If Khadafi orders the tanks into cities, once again they surrender their mobility. They will become easy targets for another invention from WW II, the Molotov Cocktail.

Nothing like a few thousand flaming gasoline bombs raining down upon the tanks to ruin The Colonel's Day, I say!

But let's get back to Obama and what he owes to the Congress and the American People with regard to this Libyan Operation.

In two simple, single syllable words, Barack owes us "The Truth."

Because ...  If We're Going To Fight Another Damn War, We Damn Well Know What It's All About!