Monday, August 31, 2009

Just What ARE We Doing?

Now that the hoopla over Michael Jackson and Teddy Kennedy is dying down maybe the media can get back to reporting the news. Like explaining the mess in Afghanistan. The corrupt Karzi is likely to bully himself back into the Presidency. One wonders what will happen when the war lords he bought, with our money no doubt, decide they want more of a payback for making their people vote for him!

Now we learn the American commander thinks the U.S. and NATO need a new strategy to defeat the Taliban. Whoa. Wait a minute. It hasn't even been a month since a new strategy was heralded. Persuading the farmers to switch from planting poppies to far less profitable, even if more healthy, crops like wheat. The Americans and British were scheduled to pour millions into this new tactic!

Meanwhile, back at the war ! It's winnable so says the General. Eight years we've been slogging through that wretched excuse of a country. What do we have to show for it? More pipe dreams?

The war in Iraq was always winnable too. Afghanistan needs more troops. Iraq still needs more troops though we're leaving them to fend miserably for themselves.

The Taliban's "tactical prowess" is improving. Sound familiar?

Nine in ten casualties are caused by IED's. Sound familiar?

Meanwhile the body count continues to rise. I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty tired of hearing how we have little appetite for expanding the war while we continue to do so.

I'm not even sure who the enemy is any more. Are we fighting a drug war on the opium producers? Are we fighting a religious war against the Taliban?

What ever happened to al Qaeda? And bin Laden? Do we have a direction at all? Are they one and the same?

I don't see that we have a clear direction at all. Then when I read that Obama has not even read an assessment of the Afghan situation, I could do no more than shake my head in dismay. Not because I'm worried the war is going to reach our shores but because the President doesn't seem to have a handle on anything.

Who does? Anyone?

5 comments:

Margie's Musings said...

I agree. This entire war is just another Vietnam. If the Soviet Union couldn't win it in ten years, what makes us think we can? We are just throwing good money (which we cannot afford) after bad.

Word Tosser said...

Vietnam we saw on the news every night... it is hardly mention now.. except for a body count on George S. show on Sunday...

If God couldn't control that area in over 2000 years what makes the nations think they can... let them kill each other...
can we build a wall around the countries to keep them in? lol...

Sansego said...

Leaving would be a mistake. We made that mistake in 1989 when we abandoned the country after the Soviets left. Many Afghan people have never forgotten that. We used them and discarded them like trash when we no longer needed them. Thus we left a vacuum in which the Taliban moved in. America will not make the same mistake again, which is what leaving will do.

I was one of those very few who was against even this war back in October 2001. I remember being called a traitor and a surrender monkey. I'm curious to know who many of those people who supported this war in 2001 are now the quitters. Its hard for me to respect that.

I don't think we will ever find Bin Laden. He is said to have made arrangements that his body would never be found after he dies, so that no one will ever know if he's alive or dead. He can be a specter for a long time after death that way. I personally believe that he died sometime in the last year of Bush's presidency.

Janine Hurd Glenn said...

Headlines are meant to attract attention. The full story stated "the president had asked for the assessment of the 8-year-old war, realizing that the effort had been "under-resourced" for "the better part of a decade."" It also stated that the report had only been released to the pentagon on Monday and that they had not yet released it to the president. This shows the intelligence of the president, not at all what you suggested. Please look for the truth before making false statements.

Mari Meehan said...

What is it I suggested? And what statement did I make that was false? He hadn't read it no matter where in the process it was. As commander-in-chief, I'd think he'd like it first, but that's just my opinion.

The link is there for people to read, as you apparently did. It's good to remember too, that headlines that grab attention are often all the public gets from which to derive an opinion.

I do not see where I made a false statement, but that too is my opinion.