The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.
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Ah, the age old question.
Shall we cut off the leg to save the patient or shall we let the disease devour the patient, mutate and move into the general population? And then from there to the wide wide world of people who can't bring themselves to believe that yes, stonings, hangings and honor killings do exist along side bombings and chemical weapons attacks.
The issue, Dear Hearts, isn't if we can win, but if we are tough enough to win. To say to the world, "Like it or not we are your best chance at being free so you are just going to have to suck it up and let us do the work."
Yes, Dear Europeans, Asians and Africans and whatever Muslim group that is being bombed at this moment by another Muslim group, life is hard. Sometimes you just have to let someone else die for your freedom.
We haven't been able to answer this question since 1979 and Carter's surrender. Bush had the right idea but wasn't willing to clear out the problems at home. So he did a partial on Iraq which is now scabbing over with the infection bleeding through from Iran while Obama is acting as if he will not do anything drastic about the poison in Afghanistan besides trying to get the Russians to act as traffic cops.
Even Biden could see this coming, although his timing was off a bit.
In the meantime the military is telling Obama what the price is and what they need. I pray that twenty years from now some Jihad Johnny is not saying the equivalent of this:
Q: How could the Americans have won the war?
A: Cut the Ho Chi Minh trail inside Laos. If Johnson had granted [Gen. William] Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war.
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And I also pray that if Obama doesn't give them what they need and let the military fight the war then some Generals tell him to fight his own war, the military quits.
We don't need another wall erected as a memento to the stupidity of god damn politicians.
Portions of the above are part of a comment I made in TalkLeft.
Now if you could just convince Canadians. Our soldiers believe in the mission. But not the old people. I get in trouble everytime I speak about Afghanistan. People don't understand the war, and why we're there. The word Taliban means very little to them. And they're not too concerned about what would happen in that strange country if we withdraw. Those people are not stupid. Many of them did important work before they retired. It's simply that proper informations (like what I read here) are not given. Also the last election in that country revealed that the Afghanistan women are not well treated by their Government.It was very disappointing. People ask what are we fighting for if things don't get better for the women. It's a good question.
ReplyDeleteYes it is a good question. I think I'll blog on it tomorow AM.
ReplyDeleteJim
Great! Because I really don't know the answer. I usually explain that it will take a while for some men anywhere (not just in Afghanistan) to treat women with full respect.
ReplyDeleteForgot to say good-night. So I'll wish you a good day. Take care.:-)
ReplyDelete