Afghanistan is not a war. It is a police action, plain and simple. Negotiations with the people we were sent to fight and restrictive rules of engagement point directly to my previous point. My next point: There are those who lead, there are those who fight, and there are those who need to get the hell out of the way. The harsh reality of what needs to be done to stop future terrorist attacks and lengthy, costly deployments seems to elude those who legislate (the people that need to get the hell out of the way). This creates a long, drawn-out Vietnam-style conflict which is already not popular (if dying troops ever was popular).
Our politicians are so tied up in appeasing every facet of our population that they have brought this mess on us, and they have no clue how to fix the problem, but I do. Some of you will approve, most wont.
If someone fires at a U.S. position, we fire back regardless of what they are using as a shield. If people aid the enemy, execute and pillory them. If someone tries to remove the body, they go next. Crush the enemy into the ground relentlessly. This will draw sympathizers back into the region and abort their global caliphate plans. Eventually there will be a victor, and I already know that it will be our side.
Allowing the enemy to rebuild and strengthen their positions is not the way to conduct a war. So far, it has been a recipe for disaster at the expense of many young men and women.
Going back to the pre-Obama world
1 hour ago
Amen
ReplyDeleteHaven't you heard? We have no enemy in Afghanistan...Iraq, either. We just haven't explained to them well enough why they should reduce their hatred of us. It's all out fault.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I wish we WOULD take our "modern" wars seriously. There is not an entity on earth we couldn't beat if we decided we wanted to.
We certainly need to stop politicizing them, and that goes for both parties.
ReplyDeleteKick out the reporters. Stop pretending Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen are cops because that's not what they're trained to be. Not even now with all of the adapting to urban warfare.
Most of all, stop letting the Taliban, and any other group get away with the atrocities they carry out. The pacifist would argue that seen from a different point of view, we are the terrorists. That might get you laid on campus, but it isn't the reality.
Warfare is ugly, cruel and brutal. There's no way around that. The minute we make this about one political party or another, we publicize it and it becomes a wound that won't heal for long after the conflict stops.
The b-side to this is that sometimes war is necessary. If this is true than we ought conduct it the proper way which isn't going to be popular.
Next, not everyone needs all of the information everytime. That is something that eludes the modern human being, especially in the United States where people bury their faces in their cell phone, iPad, and other devices and derive their comments either from a buddy, an actress, or a three-second sound bit from a second-rate politician.
Lastly, the public needs to stop personalizing everything. It seems in this information (post information?) age, many think the world revolves around them. This used to be limited to those with power, but those who think being self-absorbed makes them a greater person are fools.
Straight talk is not popular. Neither are straight actions. I think you speak the truth on this and the truth isn't always pretty.
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