Police Action VS War

According to the Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary a Police Action is: a localized military action undertaken without formal declaration of War by regular armed forces against persons held to be violators of International peace and order.

Since the end of World War II, America has participated in several conflicts but has never Declared war. These are “Police Actions”.  They include; Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. A police Action is very different from a war. In a Police Action there is more of a concern to protect civilians. There is less concern for the safety of the men and women of our Armed Forces. There is less concern of winning. The real idea is to get people to the bargaining table.

A Police Action is a non-winable action. It is run by a bunch of politicians and a bunch of greedy businessmen trying to make as much money as fast as they can. In a “real” war, when a unit comes under attack they use whatever resources are available to them. In a Police Action, those resources are scaled back depending on where the firing is coming from. During WWII, if a unit was to receive fire from a town the town would be destroyed if necessary. This saved American lives. In Vietnam, a unit would be sent into the village to find those doing the shooting. This cost American lives. It is the same thing happening today. If a unit is receiving fire from a village they can not just call in artillery. The enemy know this and uses it to their advantage. Surround yourself with civilians and the dumb Americans can’t fire at you. You can take any combat fatality totals and cut them by at least one-third if the rules of war were to be implemented instead of the rules of “Police Action”. Saddam Hussein use to use civilians to protect himself and his properties. He knew we would not bomb one of his palaces if civilians were present.

Like any civilized human being, I am against war. Like most human-beings I also understand that sometimes wars are necessary. Like any reasonable human-being, I detest the thought of innocent people getting killed. However, I also understand that in order to save the lives of American Soldiers sometimes civilians must die. Our soldiers lives are not cheap and should not be considered as such. Every one of our soldiers are someones son, husband,father, brother, sister, mom, wife or sister. They are precious to all of us.

Everytime I hear the term “No Fire Zone” I know that we are going to sacrifice American lives. When we have these Police Actions where there aren’t any front lines, to say this is a “No Fire Zone” means our people can not protect themself.

Protesting against a “Police Action” while it is being carried out is wrong. We need to wait until this country is no longer participating in a Police Action and then demand that our Federal Representatives pass a new law saying no more Police Actions. Either Declare War or stay at home. The Brave men and Women of all of our Armed Services deserve better.

Stand up and be counted. Our Service Men and Women deserve our total support. Now we must give them our support and later, when all actions are over, we must demand that our representatives pass a bill on “No More Police Actions”