The Die is Cast

As the allies planned the invasion of Europe in the spring of 1944, the most important actor in the preparations was General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the West. After many discussions, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agreed that Ike was the man for the job.

The planning for the invasion was done over many months, and as June 1944 approached, preparations neared completion. Everything that could be conceived of by the minds of military strategists and logisticians was built into the process, and, as the days dwindled, Ike was satisfied that all that could be done had been completed.

In the days prior to the ideal tides for a landing in Normandy approached, foul weather intervened and the possibility arose that the entire invasion might have to be postponed for two weeks, a horrible prospect. But the boats and ships were loaded and the guns prepared. Allied soldiers took their places aboard ships in English harbors. Would the signal to attack come?

Eisenhower was the man who would decide. The best weather experts in the allied forces were consulted, and they suggested that it was possible that a minor break in the storm pounding the French coast might occur and that the winds and rain might abate sufficiently for the invasion to take place. The eyes of the staff, all of the subordinate commanders who would lead their units into battle, and all the naval and air support groups were focused on one man, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the most powerful man in the world at that moment.

After much deliberation and soul searching, Ike decided; the invasion of the European Continent would take place on the morning of June 6, 1944. The most crucial decision ever made by a commander in World War II had been made. In that instant, Eisenhower went from being the most powerful man in the world to an anxious bystander. It would be months before he would be called again to make earth shattering decisions.

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush assumed a similar position in world affairs as that of General Eisenhower in 1944. He ordered that plans for the invasion of Iraq to begin. He sought and received pledges of military aid from a coalition of nations.

The build up to the attack was no secret nor was there a paucity of advice, much of it public. The U.S. Army Chief of Staff testified before Congress that a force of a magnitude larger than being assembled would be required to satisfactorily occupy the country. Leaders of many nations protested the proposed war as morally wrong and legally suspect. A minority of Americans, but still a huge number, opposed the war for a wide variety of reasons. But the president sold most Americans, much of the media, and a majority of both Houses of Congress on the need to topple the Iraqi government.

At the moment of decision to invade Iraq, George W. Bush was the single most important leader in the world and certainly the most powerful person on the planet. While the vast majority of nations in Europe, old Europe, our oldest allies almost begged America not to attack, and while a huge number of Americans – admittedly a minority – pleaded that Iraq did not pose a threat to the United States, the president pondered and made his decision. He unleashed the forces of the coalition into Iraq.

The decision by General Eisenhower was one that had to be made sooner or later if the war was to terminate as the allies had agreed. When he made the determination to invade, he delegated his power and the rest is history.

When President George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, he delegated his power to an extraordinary military coalition and within weeks, for all the world it looked is if success had been achieved. But it was not to be nearly as easy as it appeared. Everything to win the war had been perfectly planned, but little thought and scant resources had been given to the occupation and the aftermath.

Franklin Roosevelt committed the nation to destroying the Axis powers. A grand coalition was assembled and total war, including asking the citizens of all the nations of the allies for great sacrifice, was prepared for and waged. The war would be fought and the allies would occupy the losing nations for as long as it took to assure a lasting peace. With sound advice, FDR delegated his authority to Eisenhower to make the fateful decision upon which victory hung and the war would be waged to the finish.

Through bad advice, poor intelligence, and poor use of staff, the United States believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it threatened America and its allies, that it was cooperating against us with those who had attacked us on 9/11, that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators, that democracy could be imposed on the three major and many minor tribal and sectarian groups, that we had sufficient forces to occupy the newly freed nation, and that we would be out of there in relatively short order.

Ike’s decision was essential. The nation’s resources – blood and treasure – were cast in Normandy and the rest is history. When I walk in the Roosevelt Memorial and the World War II Memorial and read the words of FDR and Ike, I give thanks for their having been. Plans are under way for a personal memorial to President Eisenhower, and I hope I live long enough to see it completed.

President Bush has not yet won his great wager of soldiers, marines, flyers, their equipment, and the national prestige. I do not think he will. I hope that I am wrong.

Blog on!

Wild Bill