Yet Another Small Rant on the Apparent Lack of Basic Higher Elevated Brain Functions Among the American Masses

One of my favorite past times I've recently found myself occupying lately is reading comments on news sites. Although I do read MSNBC (not my only source of news by the way. I am actually quite enamored with Al Jazeera and BBC.), I do enjoy reading the small spins that MSNBC injects into their stories. I find it is at least a somewhat decent news organization, but I digress. MSNBC is really quite nice as a way to see into the minds of various groups of people through the comments section and all I can say is "really guys?"

Case in point: There was an article today about how the US was pulling a naval ship away from Libya and the NATO operations were to assume full command of the military intervention. The top three comments posted right under the article dealt with essentially a time table for American involvement, more specifically "If America is to be involved, we should have a precise timeline of how long it will take!!!"

At this point I would like to issue a challenge for the masses: for anyone out there who is able to predict (not just guess, but actually be able to provide reasoning for the selected time) how long this war or any future armed conflict will last, I would like to recommend you join the military or the government. I will also pay out a total of one MILLION USD to said individual.

With that being said people, let's think for a minute shall we? War is tricky. War is deadly. War is dynamic. War has made fools out of many brilliant men and tacticians in the past, just as it will many more in the future. There is simply no possible way to determine accurately how long it would take to win a war, even if the odds are heavily in the favor of one side. Case in point, look at the American Revolution as an example. The British thoroughly expected to wipe the floor with the American colonies. They were THE world power with an empire stretching over 25% of the Earth's landmass, a highly trained and experienced Regular Army, the best Navy at the time and way more resources than the Colonies could only think of. Yet they still lost.

Even just based on sheer numbers it is impossible to predict. Training, education level of the troops, tactile abilities, adaptations to unique environments, all of these play key roles in determining the QUALITY of a State's (State as in government) that is not easily quantifiable. Even then, these are only advantages and does not equate to victory.

In a tired conclusion (as I cranked this out at midnight), I would like to pose another challenge to the American masses. Before you speak, before you say the first thing you feel in your gut, stop, ponder your thoughts. We need to begin our own critical assessments of our thoughts. We need to learn to think before we speak. It's not thought provoking, beneficial, or even possible to believe that anyone can put an articulate and meaningful answer to the question "How long will we be at war?" Rommel stated that war is nothing but chaos. Chaos follows its own rules.