July 2011 Mailbag

By Armchair General

Hello,

First I want to say that I love Armchair General and re-read each issue at least three times. Keep up the awesome work!

Now, I am very happy that a magazine about Military History and Strategy properly recognizes the problems with the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the U.S.’s awful foreign policy toward our potential REAL enemies.

Ralph Peters does an absolutely wonderful job explaining why the U.S. and NATO are really loosing the war in Afghanistan. In my opinion, the only real difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam is the fact that we actually had a good legitimate reason to fight, unlike Vietnam which was pointless and really was started over a lie.

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The Article in the May 2011 issue "Why Doctrine Doesn’t Work" explains very well that we are both facing a die hard enemy that will not give up unless they are destroyed and the fact that our leaders clearly don’t know anything about running a war. I do not even accept that U.S. Military generals are even making decisions over there. It is so obvious that we cannot win this war that it is seemingly impossible for the Military minds of the Greatest Military in history, cannot realize it.

This great article brings up two questions for me:
1. Why are our leaders so ignorant when they are clearly facing a lost cause?
2. Why don’t more American Citizens realize this and why are there not mass Anti-War Protests in the streets?

For me, the answer to number 2 is obvious, not enough people read Armchair General. This magazine is the only print publication I have ever read that points out the obvious: "We are losing in Afghanistan, and there is nothing we can do about it"

Thank You ACG and Ralph Peters for giving me some hope that the media just might realize that we have lost.

I look forward to many more great issues of Armchair General

Jacob Douglas

Dear Mr. Douglas,

Thanks very much for your email to Armchair General magazine and your comments about Ralph Peters Crisis Watch column. We really appreciate you taking the time to send us your comments and I will send a copy on to Ralph so he can read them also. I know Ralph will appreciate hearing your feedback on his column.

Thanks for reading Armchair General magazine!

Best Wishes,
Jerry Morelock
Editor in Chief, Armchair General Magazine

ACG,

I know that you are primarily a history magazine, but i was curious if the magazine was going to talk about the protests/revolutions in North Africa and Middle East? When all of these events started happening one of the first thoughts in my mind was an issue of ACG where the main article was about the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and how it lead to the countries/regimes of today … i wonder what’s going to happen now in those regions.

Nathaniel Eatwell

Nathaniel,

Thanks very much for your email to Armchair General. The Ottoman Empire article you are referring to is “Unleashing the Devils” by Ralph Peters (May 2010 ACG), and Ralph is addressing the current Middle East upheaval within the context of the “information revolution” in his Crisis Watch column in an upcoming issue.

Best Wishes,

Jerry Morelock
Editor in Chief, Armchair General Magazine

Gentlemen,

In your recent issue – Rommel Birth of a Legend, you feature an article about charisma and victory. Your first subject, Oliver Cromwell is list as "winking at the private celebration of a Catholic mass." As someone of Irish ancestry I find this statement highly offensive. While Cromwell was a leader who displayed charisma with his troops and was very skilled in the art of war he personally was an English Puritanical thug. When he arrived in Ireland he wanted to cleanse the Irish from it simply for being Irish and also Catholic. His sieges of Drogheda, Wexford and Clonmel were testaments to this end. He ruthlessly slaughtered the defenders of those cities and well as civilians. And he called these incidents the, "righteous judgment of God." After his success, the English Parliament seized two thirds of the Irish country and thrust out the Irish people to re-colonize. Saying Cromwell, "winked at a Catholic mass" is an affront to all people of Irish descent. Next I suppose you’ll say Henry VIII was charismatic for passing the Penal Codes!

Thanks,
Kevin Cook
Oak Lawn, Illinois