Posted on 08/30/2012 7:08:32 AM PDT by shove_it
There's a rising stench. It's coming from Afghanistan. It smells like defeat. After eleven years and an "exit strategy" that resembles that of Iraq, it seems as if Americans are trapped in Afghanistan. It's become the most cramped elevator ride in U.S. history. Essentially we're at a stand still. A quagmire. Suddenly it's a nightmare scenario. Yes, folks, I believe we're stuck. And to make matters worse, somebody gunned a fart.
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The Afghan people will be exposed to great savagery if we leave. It pains us to leave them to this.
But China, Russia and Cambodia brought immense savagery upon their people, and we didn’t intervene there.
Time to bring our people & equipment home, and let the Afghan tribes sort things out.
They hijacked airliners and used them as weapons of mass destruction... We respond in kind with our own WMD’s namely Trident D5’s targeting Kandahar, Tora Bora, and the other known taliban/ al qaida strongholds in afghanistan. Followed by strikes on every muslim religious site such as mecca, qom, medina, etc.
The only true economic activity in Afghanistan is based on opium production. The Bush administration at least made attempts to find alternative agricultural products to support the economy. they failed, but they tried. The Obama administration doesn't even realize they need to try.
re: “what is the objective?”
That is the question that I don’t see an answer to anymore.
When we orginially went into Afghanistan it appeared to me that it was to
a) destroy the Taliban or at least greatly reduce it’s capability to carry out attacks against the United States, b) if possible, attempt to stabilize Afghanistan’s government to be able to take on the Taliban on their own, c) demonstrate to other nations who harbor/support terrorist groups whose goal is to kill Americans that they will get their butts kicked, and
d) get Osama bin Laden if practical.
I felt like, at least initially, that we were making some progress on all fronts - that is until Obama came into office. He did get bin Laden (maybe), but other than that, what has our mission in Afghanistan become? I can’t tell - can you? We still make attacks on the Taliban, but it just seems like Obama is content to have our troops just try to keep the status quo rather than finish the job and get out.
It seems that our relationship with their government and with the locals has deterioated back to what it was prior to our going in - I just do not see a clear mission anymore.
We HAD to invade Pakistan to take out the government which aided the 9-11 attacks.
Taking out an unstable dictator like Saddam Hussein was necessary.
But why we remained there in both places is beyond me.
I think the naivety of Bush and his successor is partly to blame.
Both of them are laboring under the illusions that you can change people's thinking when they don;t WANT to change that thinking, by relatively peaceful means.
It can't be done. Especially when dealing with Muslims.
What it takes to change their thinking is by enforcing an alternative thought process on them and that is mutually painful, especially to THEM. But as a culture and society we appear unwilling to do that.
In Afghanistan we have no clear cut military goals and we have no clear cut occupational objectives. We should have pulled out long ago and should do so now.
We need only look at the return to the lunacy that exists now in Iraq - a lunacy endemic to any Muslim state. We need to pick our targets carefully, identify our obejctive carefully and be prepared to pursue them ruthlessly. All of which Bush and Obama for different views, have neglected to do.
Exposing the Afghan people to savagery? Uhhhh...I think they are, and have always been, savages. We should simply leave them to be what they are and want to be.
Sigh. It's hard to let go of the old paradigms, such as political parties representing real differences, or the USA engaging in warfare in order to win.
The name of the game for the last 65 years, ever since the end of WWII, has been to inflate asset values. This has not accomplished through real production, but increased leverage (debt).
Increasing nominal asset prices (bubbles) via leverage reduces the real carrying cost of previously incurred debt. Of course, you have to deal with the newly incurred debt, but that's a problem to be resolved during the next bubble phase. Rinse, wash, repeat - yes, a Ponzi scheme.
War is just one mechanism for debt financed state & public spending; there are many, many others. The young kids dying overseas are merely victims being fed to the banking/finance monster behind the state.
How long this can continue is anyone's guess. It really seems that this time they are running out of options. For those who have awaken (the reason I pinged Travis), they are busy plotting how the end-game is going to play out.
The future actions of the USA as it attempts to keep power/control is a lot more critical than these 'small' diversions thrown up to confuse.
I am SO with you on that!
My son spent 5 months there as a Marine, until he hit an IED. Once spent 3 days in a Forward Operating Base with no ammo. I asked him why we are there....to kill the poppies.
Leave it and level it.
“But why we remained there in both places is beyond me.”
Surely you meant Astan rather than Pstan. I agree entirely.
Apparently there are trillions of dollars’ worth of gems and precious metals in Afghanistan, some of which have industrial or military uses. We were aware of this even before 9-11. Consequently, one of our motivations for being there is economic: making sure those are not in the possession of the Chinese or other bad actors.
Juan McCain says throw more Americans into the mess.
That’s only part of it. The biggest reason is that our “ally” whom we give billions of dollars in aid to, Pakistan, is providing a safe haven for the Taliban to train and recruit. America’s State Department under both Bush and Obama, somehow pretend that Pakistan is helping us and that lie is wasting lives and money in the third world sh1t hole that is Afghanistan.
We’re helping those generals and admirals sell their books.
And you believe that? da bushes have been part of the drug trade since daddy was a young man his own self. Remember mena? That’s how daddy met his adopted son, billy jeff. Two sons who were both governors of states that just happen to be major drug hubs into the USA? Florida and Texas. Both at the same time. Lawsy me. Do the names barry seal, manuel noriega, johnny sutton ring a bell?
this has turned into a status quo war. We should put the troops and equipment in to win, decisively - get out - then leave it to NATO to knock out any hot spots that pop up.
We must not turn it over to the Taliban - they must be crushed.
Like, uh, maybe they don’t want democracy and hate America. Not necessarily in that order.
nice image,
God doesn’t need our weapons, but every time I see a pic like this I’m reminded of the following:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10
“All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.” Isaiah 34:4
“And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” Revelation 6:14
Wasn’t there a report a while back regarding some precious minerals or some such thing, in Afganny?
Get them the he** out of that corrupt disgusting country!
No Blood for Poppies!
Google it.
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