'Why We Failed To Win A Decisive Victory'

Wars Are For Winning One of Codevilla’s harshest criticisms of American leaders is that although winning the majority of their battles, they continually lose wars. He cites numerous examples of instances where the US was capable in their ability to win the war but it was almost always inevitably loss due to leadership. Codevilla even discredits the US win in the Cold War as being the result of their Soviet enemy dying of “congenital disorders”. The US has often become involved in wars without a clear and concise objective for which they are trying to achieve. This evident in both Iraq and Afghanistan where a clear objective was not sought. US troops had decisively won the war, but were forced to occupy and policy the lands as a result of a lack of an exit strategy.
The issue of winning wars and defining victory is an issue Emile Simpson analyzes in her article “Why We Failed to Win a Decisive Victory in Afghanistan”. Simpson begins the article by defining what Western militaries consider victory by quoting Clausewitz, stating “we must render the enemy powerless: and that, in theory, is the
true aim of warfare.” Simpson makes a clear distinction between the initial war against the governments that began both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for which the US won decisive victories, and the counterinsurgency operations that took place while the US occupied the two territories. She states that when the conventional phase was over, the mission became indistinguishable from policing and enforcing the laws of the government. She claims that the mentality of needing to render the enemy powerless is the reason why successes in fighting terrorism are often mischaracterized as defeat considering completely eliminating all counterinsurgencies is nearly impossible.

Use Intelligence, Not Intelligence In this chapter Codevilla focuses on the obsession of American leaders with intelligence analysis.
The phrase “use intelligence, not intelligence” means success in international affairs depends on grasping a situations fundamentals, on telling friends from enemies, choosing the right objectives, deciding on war and peace, and executing reasonable strategies, not on specific intelligence from satellites or imagery. Codevilla claims that even when received, intelligence information is not always accurate. He uses the example of imagery of Russian bases in which intelligence analysts were unable to decipher whether their surface-to-air missile launchers were empty or stored and how exactly they may be fired. Codevilla believes that this type of intelligence is useless and irrelevant in decision making because quality is not always guaranteed and information can be
manipulated.
This is one point that I disagree with Codevilla on in regards to decision making. While I agree that American leaders should not be obsessed with intelligence and should be focused on the big picture, he should not discount the importance of intelligence overall. Although it is sometimes unreliable, intelligence can be the difference between the success and failure of a military operation. However, there has been an obsession with upper leadership on imagery. One joint tactical air controller referred to it as “predator porn” in regards to the imagery received from remotely piloted aircraft. Often upper leadership would direct the ground operators to attack targets they could see on the live feed, even if these targets were unrelated to the overall mission. This proved to be a hindrance in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Security for Our Side Codevilla tackles the issue of homeland in this chapter of his book. He makes the statement “Only the people not the police can ensure security. Mixing law and war perverts both”. With this statement, he draws attention to the vulnerabilities we as American citizens, face each day. Codevilla claims that no amount of security can stop an ordinary citizen from launching an attack on the general population. This is why the government must rely on the citizen to take action to protect themselves and the state as a whole. He refers to the case of the DC sniper, where it took law enforcement almost a month to catch him. According to Codevilla, instances such as these prove that the government cannot control everything. This is why the government and its population must have a unity of purpose. This is especially important presently with the threat of domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism has caused the government to react in a way that causes distrust amongst themselves and the state through intrusions of privacy. This blurs the line between the state and enemies of the state, causing confusion. Codevilla draws attention to an important aspect that often gets overlooked in counterterrorism which is the rights of the individual. Both terrorism and counterterrorism present the biggest threats to human rights. The ability for terrorists to blend in with the local populace and influence ordinary citizens makes it extremely difficult for states to combat acts of terrorism without violating human rights. States are under increased pressure to protect their citizens from terrorism but often find themselves resorting to intrusive tactics to do so. The information leaked by Edward Snowden on CIA operations shocked many Americans who felt as though their basic rights were violated. This led to distrust to between the government and its citizens which is exactly what Codevilla warns of. Finding the balance between human rights and countering terrorism is arguably one of the most challenging dilemmas facing states.

Conclusion Codevilla concludes his book with the final chapter entitled “Keep it Simple” in which he asserts that the US must go back to the basics of foreign policy. Currently, the US is overwhelmed with the issues and concerns of entire world when they must be focused internally. Codevilla concludes one of the previous chapters by stating “confusing your country’s interests with anybody else’s, imagining you can bear their burdens…guarantees you will end up harming all you touch.” It is very easy to see the frustration in many Americans when their taxpayer money is used to aid other states or to fight their battles for them.
The statement Codevilla made, is very relevant today considering the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan in which appeared that the US indeed harmed everything they touched. In sum, Codevilla believes the American leaders should execute foreign policy in a way that increases allegiance to the US. Overall, Codevilla’s book Advice to War Presidents was very well written and draws attention to very important issues. It is clearly evident that in the years since the US has become a major power, its leaders have strayed far away from the basics of foreign policy. It began with a global battle with Soviets for influence in a war which meant virtually nothing. Presently, it has become an unending global war against terrorists without a specific strategy. The US seems to have shifted their focus from the protection of their own interests to that of staying the world hegemon. Due to this thinking, they have drifted away from what is really important which is the welfare of their state. Instead of relying on complex international relations theories, American leaders must first focus on the reality of the situation and use common sense in decision making.