The Cost of War and the Price of Victory

Today, I did venture out into the blogosphere for a very brief time and read a post dealing with the "Cost of War" over at Texas Fred. In his article Fred concentrated on the effectiveness of the "Hellfire Missile" and its use by the predator drones. A very lethal combination and one that saves American lives, but unfortunately this is not a decisive weapon. I've always thought that wars were fought to win and not obtain some type of draw. Being an old history teacher I have read about the early years of the "War for Southern Independence" in that bloody conflict the early generals selected by Lincoln would fight a battle and then retire back to the safety of Washington D.C. which quickly became the most fortified city in the world. Then after a few months they would venture out again and they repeated this over and over. Finally Lincoln put U S Grant in charge. Grant quickly realized the futility of the tactics used by his predecessors and chartered a new course. Although Grant's early battles were bloody he continued to throw men into the lines, his losses were astronomical even by the standards of those days. Grant, however knew the cost of war and in the end he did achieve the final victory. I'm sure Grant felt the sting of his losses, but he nevertheless pushed on. It does seem that many times in history "the cost of war is the price of victory". by Ron Russell

This is Victory

And This is Defeat