Posted on 03/27/2009 2:00:11 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
I asked the boss for a reaction to the Afghan speech. He said he would have framed a few things differently, but his basic response was: "All hail Obama!"
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
“It’s not Obama’s war. It’s America’s. And I pray he listens to the generals...’
If he does, I pray the Generals do NOT send ground troops into that moonscape to chase down a bunch of rag tag camel jockeys that could be of no possible threat other than offer the kind of real estate to al queda that can be obliterated from the air. Destroy the poppies from the air, kill the happy campers from the air, but stay the hell out of a ground war.
It is not Obama’s war. It is America’s. Fortunately, the RonPaul/Dennis Kucinich wing of the Republicrats were unable to persuade the marxist Obama to abandon it, just yet anyway.
AQ is pretty much driven into Pakistan (our ally) and we just fighting the Taliban now and they are gaining!. Nobody is talking about Bin Laden any more, who is probably in Pakistan. We can’t afford to spend any more blood and treasure on this. Where do intend to get money for this project? Obama’s printing press?
Why? Our ground troops have been mopping the goat f*****s up with efficiency and valor.
Could it just be that Obama thinks he is Woodrow Wilson? Conservatives lose all suspicion on presidential power when it comes to foreign policy. Very strange. Why blindly believe him on this and then doubt him on everything else?
“It has become a futile crusade and sinkhole with no apparent purpose.”
So responding to the largest terrorist attack on American soil is a “futile crusade”?
Just mopping up? Then why is Obama throwing more troops in and why do you support him?
They are gaining? Been reading the NY Times a bit too much lately? The same NY Times that every year tells us about the new Taliban Spring Offensive that never materializes in any effectiveness. I will give you that they have adapted and now use more suicide bombers to kill civies than before. That is desperation, however, not a winning strategy.
“Why? Our ground troops have been mopping the goat f*****s up with efficiency and valor.”
I don’t dispute that, I just don’t know why...
It may have started that way but this is 2009 not 2002. Is there any limit? Can we ever consider leaving trashcanistan or are you willing to blindly give Obama a blank check to stay there for his entire administration.
Cause just using Air Power alone does not work. Sometimes we have to send in the troops kill the bad guys who hide from the bombs..
And sending more even more troops eight years later shows that our current strateyg of relying on troops is working because......?
Did I say “just mopping up”, as in the war is near its end? I said they have been mopping them. Meaning wiping them out. Have been doing it since we got there. The brits and the canucks and the Aussies also have been doing superb work. Why just yesterday....
At least 12 Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan battles
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61644
Taliban lose 130 in three day battle with Marines
I don’t recall wars has to have a timetable.. I prefer that we stay over there and kill as much as possible so they don’t come here..
“Could it just be that Obama thinks he is Woodrow Wilson? Conservatives lose all suspicion on presidential power when it comes to foreign policy. Very strange. Why blindly believe him on this and then doubt him on everything else?”
Because it’s somewhat obvious to the military people I would guess that this speech and it’s primary objectives to this point in principle are one and the same in the speech.
The question is a political one though. What is the political will to follow through on this and to seriously go beyond the limited intel on Al Qaeda actors and take not only them out wherever possible (via Predator, etc.) and actually attempt to take down the whole operations network.
This is a FORMIDABLE challenge. And we just don’t know the answer to these important questions.
The speech indicates some serious steps but they are as I understand it inadequate on both counts. And we know our NATO allies will not step up. We have some great NATO soldiers, UK and France, Canada, just not enough of them.
And if that’s a problem now in Afghanistan, it doesn’t even begin to tackle the issues over the border in Pakistan. This is a huge, complex problem. I really don’t think we have an adequate policy here. It appears we are giving it a shot, but what’s behind it? Is there commitment, utter intent to take down Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and longevity to do so by taking on the Taliban?
That’s not clear. Not by a long shot. We just got a decent speech with policy intent today.
The more I think about the speech, the less impressed I am. Ask me a year to eighteen months out what I think. My guess is we will be discussing our inadequacies that led to the failure to forestall Al Qaeda.
The Taliban come here? When has that happened? The answer btw is never. They are the only folks we are now fighting in Afghanistan. AQ, probably only a few hundred or so now, is in Pakistan. This has turned into a Wilsonian nation building project but, heh, if you want to blindly trust Obama to do the right thing, go ahead. Also, how do intend to buy for this endless war.....and it has become endless.
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I would ask: But why believe that Obama is even telling the truth about AQ? We often get into trouble when we trust presidents (Republican or Democrat) to level with us. At the very least, we should follow Reagan’s rule of trust but verify.
It seems like you prefer that you live in a world in which you think that the oceans are going to protect us like it us too in the past. I don’t care how long it takes and as for paying for it we should cut some useless social programs or maybe your idol Paul should give up his earmarks for the Afgan war..
Re-read your history. The oceans never protected us. Throughout the eighteenth and much of the ninteenth century, the U.S. was often surrounded by the possessions of hostile powers including the British to the North and the Spanish and French to the South and West.
You seem to be willing to believe and blindly follow Obama hook, line, sinker. That is your right but don't criticize me for daring to doubt the good intentions of our new maximum leader.
“Cause just using Air Power alone does not work. Sometimes we have to send in the troops kill the bad guys who hide from the bombs..”
I get that and I would be with you if we were talking about the DNC, but the Tall-ee-bawn should just NOT be on our radar...they were protecting AQ, but now they are just bad guys living in a craphole at the end of the earth and I don’t care...I would rather have a ground force where it is needed...like on the Mexican border...and that shthole ain’t worth it...
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