Posted on 09/02/2019 1:01:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The answer to Afghanistan and Iraq on September 12 2001, was a complete Muslim travel ban into the USA. Not 18 years of war, thousands of American dead, $ Trillions in debt, a destabilizing “Arab Spring,” and mass Muslim immigration into the West
You missed the part where we annihilated the people who attacked us and kept us from having another successful mass attack in the 18 years since.
Can’t believe conservatives are part of the “if we hide, they’ll go away” crowd.
How is it any different that aid-the-enemy Democrats?
Never fight a war unless you intend to win it. “In war there’s no second place prize for the runner up’’. - General Omar Bradley.
Agreed.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Mattis published this book to position himself for a VP slot...
Being a combat veteran doesn’t necessarily give someone an ounce of wisdom and integrity.
It then, how would you know? I’ve hundreds, even thousands of the real thing - and have served my own time in war - and unless you’ve been there yourself, you have no idea at all what you’re talking about.
I’ve had my fill of “armchair patriots” who never risked squat for our country.
P.S., why are all your references NeverTrumpers?
I’ve never built a road in my life, but I design them for a living. Does that mean a highway contractor with a high school education is a better civil engineer than I am?
Chainmail, there is much to be said about the value of personal experience. It offers a unique perspective, to be sure.
But we all must be careful about denigrating the opinions of non-professionals. For example, folks who are not teachers should be free to comment on educational issues. And folks who are not cops should be free to comment on police issues. Etc.
And if those folks are wrong (as they often are), let’s gently correct them.
Being in combat is not theory, it’s not hypothetical, it’s completely unsafe. It’s organized murder. But those of us who undertook the responsibilities and risk and losses know first hand what the issues really are because we were in middle of it.
We saw who the enemy was, who the people we were sent to protect were and we saw who we were. Theory is a lovely, safe thing but there’s nothing remotely the same as leaving the security of your compound, hearing the slick sound of your rifle chambering a round and knowing that your life may be over in the next minutes or hours.
We who served in war know what the outside world is like and who we face out there. The people who stayed home are safe but insulated.
No, you aren’t an expert.
If anything, we should be the ones who are ready to give everything for our country because we realize that our survival depends on self-sacrifice.
I also knew LTG Jay Garner when he was a battalion commander. He was bounced from his role of being in charge of Iraq Reconstruction barely a month into the job. Why? His stated objective was to return Iraq to Iraqis as soon as possible.
Bush/Cheney were having none of that, too much money to be made by well connected government contractors.
I’m thankful for my platoon sergeants who had combat duty in Nam. They hastened my development as a platoon leader.
One does not have to have combat experience to understand the history of Afghanistan, where otherwise civilized nations send their soldiers to die for no apparent reason in that shithole country. It’s been that way since Alexander the Great.
Here’s my story. In no way is it comparable to yours. You risked your life. All I risked was my time.
Anyway, I spent many years teaching in urban public schools. And three days a week I’d stay after school to tutor kids who missed a class or couldn’t grasp a concept. I was not paid for that time. I just did it because it needed to be done.
And as I walked to the parking lot, I’d pass other classrooms where other teachers were also voluntarily working overtime, also with no extra pay.
And then there was the football coach, trying to instill a little bit of discipline into his players. If you did the math, that guy made about $3 an hour for his coaching efforts. Same goes for the teacher who is working to put on the school play.
So I get home, take off my shoes, and check in on Free Republic. And there’s some guy posting about how lazy teachers are. Ugh! What does he know? Has he ever been a teacher? Patience, I sez to myself, just politely tell him a few things he might not know.
Regards,
LR
The Roman Empire lasted from 27 bc to 476 ad, or more than five hundred years. If we are following a comparable path we still have some time left.
What really steams me are the "couch commando conservatives" who pontificate about how quickly the war should be over or whether we should be anywhere fighting at all. they have no concept at all of the risky situation we are in as a preeminent power and what it takes to keep the people at home safe.
I had always believed before that conservatives were the men who headed into the direction of the gunfire and the liberals/Lefties were the ones who avoided any risk to themselves and cheered the enemy in the process.
Looks like I might have been wrong.
I do differ with you on one thing: "where otherwise civilized nations send their soldiers to die for no apparent reason in that shithole country. " You seem to have missed the fact that the Taliban-led Afghanistan was the main training and staging base for al Qaeda before 9/11 and if the Taliban return to power, we are back to that same danger.
Three years, eight months and seven days
Thank you for being a dedicated educator!
Butbutbut the mediots kept describing Old Joe as an “old hand” at foreign policy, and Baraq Hussein Obama’s “most trusted advisor” on foreign policy....the guy he relied on.
After 9/11 Biden said that Afghanistan should be bombed, then bombed again. But no boots on the ground. After Bush II’s invasion of Iraq Biden said that Iraq should be divided into three separate nations: one for the Kurds, one for the Shias, and one for the Sunnis.
Biden was right each time. (Oh, how it pains me to say that.)
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Damn, I might have to stop calling him The Idiot Biden.
Just a coincidence?
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Not at all.
We would not vote for the New World Order so they set about importing people who would.
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