A few questions and comments for thought from a Vietnam Veteran:

You state “History has shown us that an ideological battle cannot be won by force alone.” Does you statement mean that the Civil War and World War II were not ideological battles? Force did win both of those wars.

You state “The threat of force existed, but no bomb brought down the Berlin Wall, it fell to the sheer will of people determined to adopt something better.” You should have stated no bomb delivered brought down the Berlin Wall. The Army’s “Big 5”, M1 Abrams tank, M2 Bradley Fighting vehicle, AH-64 Apache helicopter, UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, and MIM-104 Patriot surface to air missile system, developed during the 80’s proved to the Soviet Union we were prepared to deliver the bombs if necessary. The US did not have to deliver the bomb just convince the Soviet Union we could and that help bring down the Berlin Wall.

You state “Millennials owe it to the men who served in Vietnam not to send our generation of soldiers into a war they can’t win.” The question is could the US have won the war in Vietnam if we would have let the Army invade North Vietnam? Strategically that would have changed the outcome, however, the US did not have the political will to allow that. Millennials owe it to the men who served in Vietnam to have the political will to win the war they send soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to fight.

You state “Whenever we send American men and women to fight and die overseas we owe it to them to make sure they are entering a fight they can win for a cause which is morally and politically just.” Is stopping ISIS morally and politically just or should we just stand by and allow them to behead innocent people, burn innocent people, rape innocent women and girls, and oppress innocent people? We have to power to stop them, but it seems the political will is weak.

You state “The rules are different now. War is fought differently, and ideologies are even more extreme.” This the same argument the Bush Administration War Council used to develop the strategy for the War on Terror and the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques used to interrogate unlawful insurgents and prisoners. The reality is war has not changed since Sun Tzu describe warfare in the Art of War. The only thing that has changed is individuals believing warfare has changed.

These are a few of the questions your article generated with me.