No kamikazes for these Marines, just Afghan killers lurking

CHAPEL HILL -- My heart goes out to the 2nd Marine Division (my unit in World War II) when I see the plunging mountains honeycombed with caves in Afghanistan and the winding dirt roads mined with explosives. I think back to my experiences and empathize with what they must experience.

I think back to Tinian, assigned to search a cave for Japanese communication equipment.

What we found was a Japanese soldier who peppered us with shrapnel from a lobbed hand grenade.

I think back to a patrol in Saipan to flush the enemy from a thick cane field. A Japanese soldier loomed out of nowhere with a pistol (which misfired) and a knife. The heat that day was blistering, and I had just drunk some water. I still had my canteen in my hand, and I kept hitting him on the head while he slashed with his knife, cutting my fingers. My sergeant shot him dead. We searched and found a wallet with pictures of a young woman with babe in arms. It was not a good day.

I think back to Okinawa where we shared foxholes, one Marine on the alert, the other asleep. At night, the Navy would shoot flares high in the air, parachuting slowly down, illuminating the area. The heavy shell of one such flare fell into our foxhole, crushing the knee of my buddy. Friendly fire from the skies?

And then we were sent to occupy Nagasaki.

The Marines in Afghanistan will fight a different war. The Taliban will not stand and fight. No massed kamikaze raids at dawn.

They will ambush, riddle the roads with explosives; unseen, fading into the populace, but always near, always lurking for the kill.

The body bags will come home in ever-increasing numbers. We will grow war-weary. Afghanistan might well become President Obama's Vietnam.

Should we cut and run? No. But there are steps to be taken.

•First, stop the drones, whose bombs fall on friend and foe alike, alienating the countryside. Five hundred dollars compensation per head is no balm for the loss of loved ones, only aggravating the pain and sorrow. Nor will increased body counts of al-Qaida leadership deter fanaticism. We must offer more than guided missiles. Change will not come at the point of a bayonet or the drop of a bomb. We must win not the countryside, but the minds and hearts of the countrymen.

•Second, poppies are the cash crop of Afghanistan and the financial life blood of the Taliban. Our practice is to spray poison on the growing crops, leaving the farmer prostrate, angry and vengeful.

Why not buy the poppies and put them to medicinal or other use? Surely we can outbid the Taliban, and, if we pay a fair price, the farmers will look on us as manna from heaven.

•Third, during World War II, the Navy recruited experienced construction workers to serve as "seabees." Their task was to go in when the invasion was over and repair the airfields and restore the damage done during the fighting.

Why not try this again? Recruit construction workers at union wages for stints of six months or a year to build roads, irrigation canals, hospitals and schools. The Marines can stand guard, semper fidelis.

•Fourth, along with the seabees, recruit doctors, nurses, health givers of all kinds redeeming any debts incurred during their education. Let them be medical practitioners without borders.

To win this war, we must attack its cause and drain the swamp, while keeping the mosquitoes at bay.

Far be it from a one-time long ago lowly lieutenant to tell how to wage a war, but the current course leads only to disaster and the deaths of gallant Marines.