Democrats Never Meant What They Said About Afghanistan

NRO ^ | SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 | Jim Geraghty

[RobinMasters]

An astonishingly honest assessment — one that I fear is accurate — from the lefty blog Hullabaloo:

Escalation is a bad idea. The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides they called for withdrawal from Iraq. Nobody asked too many questions sat the time, including me. But none of us should forget that it was a political strategy, not a serious foreign policy.

There have been many campaign promises "adjusted" since the election. There is no reason that the administration should feel any more bound to what they said about this than all the other committments [sic] it has blithely turned aside in the interest of "pragmatism."

The average Democrat doesn't like fighting wars. They don't like using military force. They don't just dislike collateral damage and civilian casualties and flag-draped coffins; they cringe at the concept of combat with citizens of another country, even when the president has declared:

Al Qaeda and its allies — the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks — are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban — or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged — that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.

[geo40xyz]

'Democrats Never Meant What They Said' What in the hell is NEW???

[the OlLine Rebel]

“The average Democrat doesn’t like fighting wars. They don’t like using military force. They don’t just dislike collateral damage and civilian casualties and flag-draped coffins; they cringe at the concept of combat with citizens of another country”

Mostly it’s because they themselves don’t want to fight, period. The Hippies didn’t want to be drafted because they didn’t want to risk their own butts.

But give them real power over the military, and I guarantee their attitude will change. They’ll LOVE the military, and will love to use it against their own citizens.

[muawiyah]

Democrats lie all the time. Nothing new there.

However, this concerns Afghanistan. If we pull out AlQaida and every other nutcase Moslem group will move back in and it's just going to end up with the US being attacked again, and this time even more thousands will die.

I think it would be much better for the Democrats to back off their BS because there's really no guarantee that all the people who will be killed are Democrats (which, of course, would make it all right as long as property damage was kept within reasonable bounds).

[angkor]

Personally I’ve believed that we should have aggressively attacked western Pakistan since shortly after 9/11.

Also the Afghan opium business - which is largely run from Pakistan to the profit or terrorists - needs to be destroyed, probably just by buying up the entire annual opium crop at 25 percent above the price offered by Pakistani and Iranian heroin manufacturers.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I agree with you.

Look how fast the left jumped on the bandwagon against Hitler when suddenly it was “Uncle Joe” being invaded.

It all depends on who they get to use the military on.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yup, and they never forgave Hitler for betraying Stalin. Hence the irony of them “hating” FASCISM when that is exactly what THEY have already put in place in this country. Before that (and the embarrassment caused by death camps), they instinctively knew communists and fascists were just steps away from each other; cousins. And they were correct.

Now, they have the gaul to accuse people who love freedom of being “fascists”.

[darkside321]

And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban...

---

sorry to tell you but there is not so much difference as you may think between the so called Afghan “government” and the taliban. both want the power and both don´t care how much people will get killed as long as they get what they want. to think the the “democratic” (with is a total joke because most people in afghanistan do not even know what democracy is nor do they whant it) electect government is an ally you couldn´t be more wrong. they are the same.

[Sherman Logan]

Personally I’ve believed that we should have aggressively attacked western Pakistan since shortly after 9/11.

Excellent strategy.

Let's attack a nuclear-armed country of 175M people with a military of 1.5M.

That's about half the size of our military, and you may have heard we have other commitments around the world.

I have no doubt we could conquer and rule Pakistan if we decided to. I just don't see why we would want to. Doing so would not permanently inconvenience the jihadis. They'd just displace to some other location and egg us on to attack it.

[NativeNewYorker]

[Vendome]

No Kidding. I have so many friends on the left and relatives who just shrug their shoulders. Iraq Bad! Afghanistan Good!

‘Cept for the part they don't like war at all not even in their own defense. They will say it too!

Sad really. Let's see, you like breathing but you don't want to use an army to obliterate the very people who want to end your breathing? Well that makes sense, if you want to offer yourself up as an offering to allah or any other god, be my guest.

Me, I intend on staying on this planet as long as possible. I like it here and I like most of the people. Some of them, though, we have a difference of opinion that is just unresolvable through peaceful means.

I would rather they leave me alone but, they won't, so feel the pain, mr. aggressor. I have no intention of giving in.

Ever.

[rcrngroup]

But give them real power over the military, and I guarantee their attitude will change. They’ll LOVE the military, and will love to use it against their own citizens.

Which unfortunately is where we are at RIGHT NOW with the socialist-fascist-commie pig 0bozo & his demoRAT thugs & minions. Their idea of military is to use it against patriotic American citizens and to capitulate & appease to commies in N Korea, Venezuala, Cuba, Nicauraga (spelling ?), and Uzzlim tyranny in Iran, Saudi Arabia & Libya, among others. Soon, very soon, we need to retake back our country by force from 0bozo & his fellow RAT bastards.

[pburgh01]

Afghanistan went sour when we started to do exactly what we were told not to do, put alot of boots on the ground and appear as an invading army. A small counter insurgency was working. When the Taliban saw the election going to swing to the Feckless One they began to act up and agitate across the border. Obama has really stepped in it, like the OP says, the Democrats talk out of their butt and say anything contrarian to get elected. Obama will not stick 250k more soldiers there, he simply won't. He will fire this General and claim he is going to stabilize without escalation..or some other meaningless slogan pumped out by the resident fags in his administration. The sheeple will buy it and a slow pullout is going to happen. No way he risks Vietnam 1968.

[TexasFreeper2009]

The minute we stop attacking them there, THEY WILL ATTACK US HERE.

It is either their civilians or ours, it is THAT simple.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Personally, I have believed we should of made a glass parking lot out of the entire muslum world after 9-11, starting with the Palestinians celebrating the 9-11 attacks in the streets.

[darkside321]

No Kidding. I have so many friends on the left and relatives who just shrug their shoulders. Iraq Bad! Afghanistan Good!

---

well i do think that both wars just don´t make sense, at least any more. neither the country of Iraq nor Afghanistan was a dirrect threat to the US or the “western” world in generall. while i do agree that it was the right decision to engage in afghanistan in the beginning it was all lost as soon “we” started the so called nation building. this just doesn´t works in this part of the world. if we like it or not they do not want to live in a “democracy” nor are they interested in our way of life.

[VOA]

“Democrats Never Meant What They Said About Afghanistan”

As some Clinton Administrations underlings admitted about the USA involvement
in The Balkans:

“It was the only war we had.”

In other words, Bill Clinton had to earn some “macho” bona fides
by putting US Forces in the field.
No matter when, where, how or why.
To show he was “Presidential”.

[what's up]

neither the country of Iraq nor Afghanistan was a direct threat to the US

No, they were just harmless little enclaves of playful people just pretending to be building more and more anti-US sentiment.

Saddam would have just backed down and let the inspectors in eventually and the Taliban in place in Afganistan would have just said, "Oh, 9/11 was just a one-time deal..we won't do it again." Right?

[Vendome]

Whatever, tell it to the Turks. Haven’t heard squat from them in a while but, my couch with the ottoman looks real nice.