Posted on 03/13/2017 1:14:55 PM PDT by Theoria
Remember Afghanistan? The longest war in American history? Ever?
When it comes to wars, we Americans have a selective memory. The Afghan war, dating from October 2001, has earned the distinction of having been forgotten while still underway.
President Trump’s Inaugural Address included no mention of Afghanistan. Nor did his remarks last month at a joint session of Congress. For the new commander in chief, the war there qualifies at best as an afterthought — assuming, that is, he has thought about it all.
A similar attitude prevails on Capitol Hill. Congressional oversight has become pro forma. Last week Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of Central Command, told Congress that the Pentagon would probably need more troops in Afghanistan, a statement that seemed to catch politicians and reporters by surprise — but that was old news to anyone who’s been paying attention to the conflict.
And that’s the problem. It doesn’t seem that anyone is. At the Senate hearings on the nomination of James Mattis as defense secretary, Afghanistan barely came up.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When you don’t fight to win and only fight not to lose...
Say what you want about FDR. He had many, many faults. But he put together a machine that completely crushed both Hitler and Tojo in 3 1/2 years.
Sad - tragic actually - that Bush II decided to go the LBJ route instead.
Ah, after 8 years of doing nothing, now the NY Slimes has taken notice.
I think the request was for several thousand more training and support troops to get the Afghans back on the offensive. This request could be satisfied by NATO, although some US maintenance specialists are needed.
There can be no justification for continued American sacrifice of blood and treasure in Afghanistan once Bin Laden was eliminated. In fact the ruling Taliban at the time were willing to violate their “hospitality” tradition and turn Bin Laden over to the Americans but GW Bush thought it better for humanity to go to war and try his hand at nation building.
The Afghan war, dating from October 2001, has earned the distinction of having been forgotten while still underway
But the heroin Imports have gone up 1000 Percent since then, so it appears to be a success!
In a place where dragging a dead goat across a
goal line is considered sport and where tribal
enmity means standing on opposing ridges and shooting
at each other for sport...then war IS a sport.
It was a never ending war under Obama and partly because of Obama but, funny, the NYT didn’t mention it until Trump took office.
That’s why the Russians got the hell out of Afghanistan. We were laughing at them then, the Russians are laughing at us now.
Misinformation
Afghan Ambassador; What He Said About the Differences Between Trump, Obama Is Stunning
Yes, very interesting huh.
The only way to get Afghani tribesmean to stop shooting at each other is to give them something else to shoot at.
FDR was lucky in that the majority of his military leaders had served during WWI.
Some of articles he wrote or others reviewing his books in the NYT, during the Bush and Obama years.
AMERICA’S WAR FOR THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST
At least with the US Army, Marshall sacked an awful lot of them: a large proportion of the general officer corps were relieved both at the start of the war and afterwards.
Mattis sacked one of his regimental commanders during the invasion of Iraq. I would expect more to be relieved once definite objectives are set and not met by commanders.
We must be living in alternate universes, because my recollection is that the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden.
“The only way to get Afghani tribesmen to stop shooting at each other is to give them something else to shoot at.”
Two birds with one stone....DRONES sent to spray ‘THE CROP’ into nothing,thus forcing them to do something besides ‘drug the world’with their poppy product.
Secondly they can try to shoot the drones down letting another behind the first know where to aim its fire...They don’t fire/shoot, they won’t be targeted.
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