So I guess we’re kinda leaving Afghanistan now. They’ll be withdrawing 30,000 troops in mission “Reelect Obama”. So did we win? I never understand these modern conflicts. Seems like it would be so much easier if we just trashed a country and left and declared victory; it’s this trying to help the country out that’s so complicated and makes it hard to tell when you win.
Except, with how the Taliban sheltered al Qaeda, shouldn’t the win conditions be the total extinction of the Taliban? Shouldn’t they be gone forever without even the possibility of them being genetically resurrected and having rocket launchers put on them?
Of course, maybe this is part of that strategy. We’ll be all like, “We’re leaving Afghanistan now. Bye bye. Hope the Taliban don’t come back, but if they do, not our problem.” Then the Taliban will run in and be like, “Yay! We’ve chased out the Americans! The country is ours again!” Then the Americans troops will be like, “Ha! We were just hiding behind the bushes! Now we kill you! BANG BANG BANG!”
That’s strategery; I don’t know if Obama is up for something like that. That would take the mindset of winning, and the Democrats don’t really seem to have that. Like they kept complaining about Iraq taking away focus from Afghanistan, but as soon as focus went back to that country, all they wanted was to get out. And now Obama has started a new war in Libya that all the legal experts think is illegal. Why didn’t he get Congressional approval? Probably because then it would be a war and he’d have to try and win it instead of… whatever it is he’s doing now.
Really, it’s just irresponsible to ever put a Democrat in charge of the military. And the thing is, they don’t even want to be in charge; it’s just it comes along with being the domestic president. I think they’d much rather always have a Republican running the wars that they could keep complaining about while focusing solely on excessive spending at home. There’s an idea maybe they’d sign on to: We split up the presidency so that there is a separate war president who can always be a Republican. Then people can occasionally elect a Democrat president to just the domestic half when they want free stuff without worry of messing up the military.
And what exactly are our goals in the Middle East anyway? Do we really expect there to eventually be another country there than Israel that doesn’t act like it’s run by barbaric three-year-olds? I guess it could happen, but I think we’d have to be a stronger example than a country that just comes in and occupies until it decides it’s bored of it. And I think it would help if we had working space lasers and dinosaurs with rocket launchers because you don’t want to be on the opposite side of the country that has those.
Hmm… seemed to have entered this long, rambling post without an exit strategy. Eh, I’m bored; I’ll just end here.
Democrats are in charge. It’s time to turn tail and RUN! Wars are all messy and such! People get their feelings hurt when we shoot them in the face and Democrats are all about preserving people’s feelings! So we will leave and then the Taliban will take over and claim that they kicked our butts and our Men and Women who died there will be dishonored. But Democrats hate the military so that doesn’t matter as long as the Taliban feels good about themselves! Then the raping of women and the stoning of homos will commence and there shall be not one word from Gay Pride or NOW! Democrats are scum!
Lets just give Afghanistan and Iraq to Isreal
Winning! Eleventy!!1!!
Derbyshire says: “Rubble doesn’t cause trouble.”
I’m voting for Creighton Abrams for President.
I miss real leaders.
yeah but what about all that good Afghan weed?
whos gonna get the darn Green Buds?
Quick someone call Barney Frank and Ron Paul and have that new “POT” Bill amended so that the Afghan weed can be secured. You know for medical reasons….
Among other reservations, I am always extremely reluctant to advocate war for the simple reason that the patriotic Democrat of yesterday is the anti-war peace-nik of today. It’s the Lucy and the football thing.
Marko, I sincerely wish that Abrams could be in command in the Af-Pak theater. I think he may be the only one who could understand that you can fight a guerilla war forever unless you do something to seal the borders, and no amount of smart weapons, no matter how smart they are, are going to change that.
Japan had been one of the wold’s bad asses for centurys. Them Harry S. Truman commtted an act that is likely the last good thinga Democrat ever did. He nuked Japan. He nuked Japan and now the Japanese are good and civilized and get along with us.
Frank, Moon is a village in central Afghanistan, if you get my drift.
The war in Afghanistan is just a distraction for the real “kinetic military action” that needs fighting in Libya!
It’s worse than that. It’s completely irresponsible to put a guy who’s overmatched by the concept of an umbrella in charge of ANYthing. Not even riding a bike, fercryinoutloud.
We arewell beyond the point of no return with the Democrats. I find it stunning that the Copperheads were once a minority within that party, even more stunning that they once nominated men like Hancock and Cleveland.
Frank, please moderate my comment. WordPress, I assume, does not have respect for Civil War generals turned Democratic Presidential nominees.
Once we’re out of Afghanistan and Iraq I’d look for some massive cuts to the only part of the federal budget the Democrats seem willing to cut (besides the NASA budget)….the defense budget.
Democrats are all about appearance, not reality. Obama doesn’t actually want to be President, in the sense of doing the job – he just wants to have the prestige and political power that go with the office. Democrat wars (and kinetic military non-hostilities) are all about the dramatic gesture, and not so much about the follow-through. Who wants to actually fight a whole war? Send in a few bombers, a few drones, and – we’re done! Statement made. Next?
Obama’s concession speech …er…surrender speech could have been the exact one given by Hirohito when Japan was forced into signing an uncondiditional surrender of be annihilated. The high-pitched voice of the EMPEROR (sorry Obama’s only a small “m” messiah folks) rang out with talk of honor being won and weapons being laid down only to save the civilized world (from US aggression)
I swear Obama must have memorized his surrrender speech (that’s probably where he learned to bow so well.)
As far as his asinine “no boots on the ground so it isn’t war” would also apply to Pearl Harbor and the total bombing raid on Clark Field in the Phillipines the next morning?
“So Solly Mr. FDR, is not a date to live in infamy -not even war -no boots on ground!”
Maybe all those people with “Imagine Peace” signs on their cars are right. Let’s just get rid of our military and all sit around and “Imagine Peace”! Think of all the cool stuff the Federal Government could spend on the money we now give the military. Like we could finally pay teachers what they deserve (like 1,000,000 a year for 9 months work and 2 moths paid vacation), that would be super awesome! And like we could build a Mosque in every city in America! Especially the deep south!!! Then we could like give all the Arab countries like billions of dollars each plus we could start giving away all of our military equipment to the Taliban and other people who are poor and would appreciate F-22 and F-35 Fighters, Nuclear Submarines etc.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…Imagine Peace…Hmmmmmmmmmmm
@ussjimmycarter: That should be “Ohhmmmmmmmmm,” not “Hmmmmmmmmm.” “Hmmmmm” is used by people contemplating whether to buy the shotgun or the revolver for home defense. “Ohhmmmmmm” is used by smelly hippie peace-niks imagining that they can be “spiritual” without being “religious” and bring about “peace” by refusing to fight wars. Let’s see now, do I want to punch his stupid hippie face, or give him a musket to the junk? Hmmmmmmm….
@Crabby, you mean the same smelly folks that believed if they all chanted “No rain” at the same time at Woodstock it would actually stop raining?
If the US had been brighter, they’d have taken a lesson from their own past in the region.
Anyone recall this Ghadaffi fellow? I’m not talking about the crazy later day version we’re dealing with now mostly at the behest of English and French interests (French especially), but his Crazy younger self?
He got all uppity, they bombed ‘valid military targets’ around Tripoli and without targeting him, managed to kill some members of his family. After that, he was still an evil jackass dictator, but he didn’t piss off the US.
I call this strategy the ‘whack-a-mole’ strategy. It’s predicated on leveraging the West’s high-tech weaponry and ability to strike with surprise, from the air, and with remote guided weapons platforms meaning low risk to troops. And if you have to go in on the ground, you do it with overwhelming force. (Hi Saddam!)
And then you get the fark out of there. You don’t leave Marines and Army grunts standing on street corners or all the forces exposed any time they travel on the ground. You don’t keep paying for expensive politicans and problematic allies. You don’t do expensive rebuilding.
You do concentrate on military targets, but you blow them flat and kill the guys you are after. And you make quite clear you’ll do that to each and every other pissant who gets in your grille. And you won’t rebuild. You’ll just smash them. And if necessary, rinse repeat.
Net cost? Some smart bombs. A drone or two. Some fuel for the fighters. If you have to go in on land, a few week or month buildup and a very, very short war. Then GTFO.
Our problem is we know how to do BSU (Blowing Stuff Up), but not rebuilding. We know how to fight war, but not sort of half-war, half-peace, half-WTF?. We have tech advantages that are nullified largely by IEDs, ambushes, and urban fighting. We have expensive soldiers, not a willing sacrifical pawn in sandals and a robe.
We should hit hard, get out, and do it as many times as necessary and every time drop lots of PR that says ‘Go ahead, setup another bunch of aholes if you want. You know what comes with that.’ And reward countries who wise up, aren’t evil jackasses, and just fight with each other or somebody else. Give them some aid (no military, maybe a bit for the police and a bunch for their people). Help them out as the other side of the carrot-and-stick doctrine (but the smaller side).
Do this, and we’d be feared in some spots, but those spots we should be happy being feared. We’d be feared by those who wanted to harm us and a few innocents (which is sad but inevitable). We would not be hated for mismanaging the peace in a captured land. We would not be occupiers. We’d let the locals rebuild, only retaining final veto on what form it took.
But is anyone gutsy enough to articulate this foreign policy? I have my doubts.
I’ve said it before; Arm the women-folk before we leave!
I’m sure they know (and remember) who the biggest bullies and wife-beaters in the village were before we arrived to enforce a little temporary civilization.
If they want to keep their improved status they’ll have to fight for it, but I wouldn’t mind leaving them the tools they’ll need.
Time to come out from Afghanistan. No, never. But yes, it is time to enter Pakistan.
Obama will never understand, and yet he will get relected.
PS: final advice for the women-folk of Afghanistan –
“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is.”
– Josey Wales, (outlaw)
So many profound retorts in a row without so much as a wimper from a demagogue (democrat) that I can not believe my eyes.
4of7, I believe you may have made the most profound statement of all. Arm the women, however give them knives and daggers that they can hide until needed, and they likely will not have to wait long. Obama may have a point about bringing all the GI’s home at once, but he is clueless with what to do with them. I believe bring them home and give them the teaching jobs in the schools, because the record shows the complete failure of the public school system to teach. Fire the bumbs who are taking up space and let the veterans teach. They can also teach weapons so our future patriots are open minded and ready to go, instead of debilitated and demoralized by the way they are abused in the public schools today. This way we can save federal money by having weapons experts already trained before they become G.I.’s, and lower the cost of education in public schools by throwing out the non performers, which is most of them if not all of them. You know I am talking about the (what’s in it for me crowd), that ignored JFK’s ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country, (wine, bitch, complain, bleed it dry). And for you that disagree, as formerly said by another,”if the shoe fits”.
We are gonna need these trained kids sooner than later when Obama sells our technology and weapons to the Taliban and Al Qaeda in order to balance his spending spree.
Don L said:
Shouldn’t that read: “So solly, missa FD-ah, is no date to rive in iffamy, no even wah, no boots on glound.”?
#23 – Noreaster,
I hope our returning vets use The Substitute starring Tom Berenger as their training guide for their new careers in public education.
I wanted to include a link to a youtube clip from the movie, but the dialogue just wasn’t family friendly enough; so I found a quote instead:
“I’m in charge of this classroom. I’m the warrior chief, the merciless god who stirs anything in its path. You **** with me, and you will suffer my wrath.”