We're almost there, aren't we?
Posted on 10/29/2011 7:10:08 AM PDT by Perdogg
At least 13 U.S. troops were killed in Kabul on Saturday when a suicide bomber struck a vehicle in a NATO military convoy, a U.S. military official said.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed 13 deaths within its force, but did not specify their nationalities.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
G-d help the families...I have family over there and pray that they were not killed..I also pray for the Fallen’s family to be comforted.
I’m sure the Obama’s are celebrating.
You can read about it tomorrow on page C-28 of the NYT...
Can someone tell me why we’re there again?
When i was young, i could go weeks or months without reading a word in the news about muslims and their BS. Now it’s every single day, i hate them all, im tired of them, and their d@mned 15 minutes are over.
To build Afghanistan into a peaceful, thriving, modern democracy.
We're almost there, aren't we?
My husband is on his way back there now after finishing his leave.
What a friggin’ mess.
Taliban. Terrorists that want to wage war on America and have the means to do so.
We're almost there, aren't we?
We’re Building a strong Christian nation that will provide a democratic example to all the surrounding nations as they advance women’s rights, repeal all traces of the Muslim cult, pass affirmative action laws allowing gay marriage and gays in their military, eradicate the poppy fields and strive to repay the American tax payer for all the blood and treasure expended——GET REAL!!!
A serious question for you,first a comment, thank you for your husbands service and you for standing with him. The question is does he think our current approach is working? Including all the pc stuff we do to not offend.
The arab spring has not reached them yet
We’re there because of the Taliban.
The Taliban had their hands in every pot over there. They were terrorizing the citizens and had absolute control.
We’re ‘nation building’ because we have to give the people somewhere else to look for leadership.
The locals weren’t helping us against the Taliban because the TB would kill them. We had to build their trust and gain their cooperation to keep them from joining the TB. That is why we’re building the country up.
Rather than wage war with terrorists here, we’re doing it over there. We stepped into a convoluted snake pit to kee our civilians safe.
I, for one, have ‘war fatigue’. As the wife of a soldier, I’m exhausted. Three (year-long) deployments in six years. I want to see this end more than anyone.
But I remember why we’re doing this.
My husband is heading back to Kabul as we speak. While he was home on leave he told me that we have a long way to go if we want to make this a happy ending.
Equip our drones with persistent nerve agent and soil sterilant and spray that sh_thole constant for the next five years. Win, or get the f_ck out of the way.
GO NAVY!
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
Many of the sources linked on Google News are calling them “NATO troops”, or simply “troops”. Top story linked is from the L.A. Times, headlined
“Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan kill several NATO, Afghan forces”.
He is seeing progress. What he’s frustrated with is the disconnect between the leadership and the boots on the ground.
We have companies gathering intel, but nobody wants to hear it. Guys see a job that needs to be done, but nobody listens. The army is a huge bureaucracy and, at this point, everything being reduced to paperwork. Most of the work being done over there is just ‘housekeeping’ to maintain our presence. That’s the problem with maintaining a large presence in a foreign land. The BOTG are frustrated with the disconnect between what they’re trying to do and the glacial pace of the response. But there is much progress being made.
Why else is it so painfully slow?
I think that the main problem is that we’re dealing with an uneducated people. 30 years ago, Iraq was a nation in the process of westernizing. Women were going to the university. People were getting it. So when we cut the legs out from under an oppressive gov’t they had something to fall back on.
Here, they don’t. What’s really bad is that, historically, they actually did the best under communism. At least then they had a strong central gov’t. They have NO frame of reference for what we’re offering.
The people have been deliberately kept illiterate by their religions leaders who chose to teach *their* corrupt, distorted version of the Koran. (As bad as it really is, what they teach is beyond insane.)
The Taliban really has lost most of it’s hold over there. This is why they’re reduced to road-side and suicide bombings. They don’t have the resources to fight. The locals are being swayed and are cooperating. The absolute evil that was the Taliban has been pushed back.
The BIGGEST problem we have with establishing a good central goverment over there is corruption. Corruption, bribes, blackmail... those are at the ROOT of their entire system. Nothing gets done without a bribe. It’s ingrained and accepted. Helping to form an honest government with a lying, corrupt people is really difficult.
It’s like taking in two foster kids. (Iraq and Afghanistan) One was raised until the age of 9 in a loving home then was thrown into an abusive foster home. The other has spent their entire lives being abused and has never had a moment when they weren’t trying to just survive. Which kid will you have the best luck reforming?
My husband told me that Washington has much less influence over there than we would imagine. They military is there to get a job done and everybody is on the same page.
You have no idea how brilliant and educated our officers and senior NCO’s are. Each and every one of them (that’s over there) has studied this country inside and out. They know more about the history, politics, culture, and psychology of these people than the people themselves do. (Before deploying, my husband was given a list of over a hundred books on Afghanistan to read and study. He has gotten through all but twelve.) We need to trust them completely and stay out of their way.
What they’re most afraid of is that Washington will pull the rug out from under their efforts too soon. Realistically, we need another four or five years to turn the Titanic.
At the same time, the troops are exhausted. They feel the fatigue more than any of us. If we say, “hey, we just can’t afford this any more,” and bring them home, I think that they’ll come quietly, but they’ll be dispirited. I know that my husband will be pissed for life if we leave too soon and he has to watch this country degrade back to where it was. (I don’t think he’d ever get over that.)
I mean, what was the point of all the sacrifice, hard work and death if we give up before the job is done?
Islamic radicals are sensing victory with Obama’s cut and run from Iraq. By upping the body count of US troops they are hoping to spur the anti war leftists in the US to pressure Obama to also cut and run in Afghanistan. This is the same strategy that worked so well in Viet Nam.
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