Averting quagmires

By Steve Gust

Recently, I forgot an axiom in journalism, “Make sure you make yourself clear.”

The letter writer on this page took issue with a column that I wrote a month or so ago. I said that Russia should declare victory and leave Ukraine. It’s actually a good way for a nation that is losing, to quit a war before it gets worse for them.

Steve Gust

For the record, I don’t like Putin and I think what Russia is doing to Ukraine is barbaric. My greatest interest in that conflict is to see it end. There has been more than enough blood spilled.

If Putin was smart, he’d announce to the world that he had obtained a promise from Ukraine not to join NATO. He could add that it was the only thing he sought all along and now that he had it, his army could go back home. The end result would be that the war would be over and nobody else would have to be hurt or killed.

I remember the first time I heard the saying about one side declaring victory, whether it was actually true or not. I had an Oklahoma history teacher in college discuss the Seminole Nation Indian wars with the U.S. in Florida. The Seminole Tribe didn’t willingly participate in the American ordered Indian Removal Act. The Seminoles bitterly fought against the American Army in fierce guerilla fashion.

There were three major U.S and Seminole conflicts in Florida, which ran from 1816 to 1858. Eventually the Americans, at a very heavy cost, removed many Seminoles to Indian Territory. But the army never could get all of them.

I wonder if lessons from those conflicts were ever taught at West Point? If not, then it was a real pity. Over the 42 years of fighting in Florida, the much better equipped American Army, with many more men, could never quite completely impose their will on the Seminole Nation.

Had we learned lessons from that war, we might not have ventured into conflicts that turned into quagmires

Steve Gust, may be reached for comment at news@edmondpaper.com.)