Posted on 08/07/2011 7:42:45 AM PDT by joesjane
Today my husband and I mourn the loss of 31 Special Operations Servicemen on last Saturday. Last Saturday my husband lost several friends.
This morning we were listening to the Mike Slater conservative radio show over our morning coffee. His subject of conversation was the loss of these warriors. He posed the question of why are we still in Afghanistan?
Both myself and my husband have served in the middle east, spending time in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. I have felt a growing sense of anger regarding the war for some time and today I was moved to post a vanity comment about this subject. I hope I don't ramble too much and I thank the free republic members in advance for allowing me the opportunity to vent.
Once upon a time I was a rabid supporter of our war effort in Afghanistan. I went over there with what was admittedly a simplistic view. These cavemen facillitated the attack on our civilian population back on September 11, 2001. To this day I have such a hatred in my heart for these people and wanted to do my part to destroy them.
After deploying to Afghanistan I realized the mission was not one that I believed in. Again in my simple view, we were attacked and our military should be over there to irradicate the threat but this was no longer what the mission was. I was appalled to see that our military were hamstrung in order to reduce collateral damage of civilian population and win media and world wide support.
We have spent blood and treasure worth more than all redeamable human beings in that God forsaken region of the world. I am sick in my heart that we lose good men there.
What should we do? I don't know. It is too late now for us to enact a scorched earth mission....that is really too bad. I do know that these warriors are following orders, they will be there as long as they are ordered to be. They will be there until their last breath if it is to protect the homeland. I just hope everyone keeps the families of these men in their prayers, they face a lifeime of grief following the loss of their loved ones.
I read a little of your post. I agree we should not be in Afghanistan.
That is about all I can read, this story has upset me so much and is so disturbing, I am not able to cope with it.
Melissa
Thanks Mel,
I think this is probably the hardest position I have ever had to take. I support our military 100% and I will always believe we would be able to win any war we commit to if and only if politicians stay the hell out of it. The whole situation makes me sick and I blame Washington. The blood of these warriors is on D.C.’s hands.
You well say what many of us are thinking and feeling. I am a Marine Dad.
We should not be there if we are not going to adequately support our service members. What we are doing now is deliberately putting them in the line of fire.
I am still waiting to hear that we bombed Kandahar or Kabul or Hamid Karzai in order to communicate that this is not acceptable. I’m still waiting. And, that is unacceptable.
Your Marine is in my prayers don-o!
Thanks for your comments and the credibility behind them. I feel this tragedy deeply. I also question America’s presence in the Middle East but worry that leaving, particularly under Obama, will be for reasons of political advantage rather clarity and the predictability of consequences.
We should have had begun a mass evacuation of troops in Afghanistan and cut off all foreign aid to Pakistan the day after we killed Bin Laden.
Good post. If there is another 9/11 - heaven forbid - let’s hope that the country has at least learned something from the past 10 years. That is, at least learned what not to do.
Not really. Get M. Omar and get out taking out all of the Madrases, ISI posts and Islamist mullahs in Southern Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan. Give the military support to India.
IMHO, we should have gone William Tecumseh Sherman on them starting on 9/12/01 and had everybody home by Halloween that year.
strangely enough, one of the first thoughts in my head was ‘trap/setup’ and ‘tribute paid’ for killing osama
which led to thinking it could have been a set up
which led to thinking the WH would have to have leaked some info, after having so publicly outed the team as being the one that took out osama
sadly, none of these thoughts i can dismiss anymore as too far fetched.
which leads me to somewhere else.
prayers and condolences to the families and friends.
My sincere appreciation to you and your husband for serving in our military, especially in the Middle East. Folks like you and your husband are my heroes. I wish that I could look into your eyes, shake your hand and express my gratitude to you both.
I travel often and I always make it a point to shake hands with any servicemen/women that I see at airports and tell them that I support them 100%.
I am honored to be able to write to you and thank you .
God bless you for your sacrifice.
Leave and move them to Iraq. Then ship every drop of oil here until we are paid back two times the cost of both wars.
The real problem is that there is no strategy.There is some foggy notion of nation building. That aint what the military is for. And when we start having a offensive that is making headway, it is stopped.
What is the real shame is that the hands of those fighting the war are tied.
If we had real leaders, we would either go all in or get all out.
You won’t get an argument from me.
I read an article back in 2002 that has stuck with me. The author, an expert on the Middle East, said that radical Muslims fear and respect a winner, and despise losers.
The author's point was that Bush II had better win decisively. Because if he didn't the radicals would see us (and the rest of the West) as weaklings who deserve to be eliminated. And that message would spread worldwide.
Well, Bush decided that nation-building was more important than total victory. If he had opted for total victory, no radical Muslim anywhere would have any credibility. But Bush went for nation-building instead. I will never forgive him for that.
They reported that he had been deployed before, and had specifically asked to return to combat. he had even turned down an opportunity to be an instructor, just to go back. He went back over there just six weeks ago.
Part of me agrees that perhaps we should get out of there, but another side (the side that is a former soldier) tells me that these guys at the tip of the spear see and know things that the rest of us do not. SOMETHING made that young man from Tennessee with a 2 month old daughter believe that there was something going on worth risking his life for.
Rather than continue to question the misssion, I'm personally going to take a time out and simply honor his (and all of the others) sacrifice. The loss of one is a terrible tragedy... the loss of so many at once is simply staggering.
Prayers up for their families.
I like girls —I think they should be educated.
But if just ONE of our guys gets zapped building schools for Afghani girls, well then that’s just stupid.
I value both things, but I prefer our guys to live to the prospect of their girls getting an education.
Sorry..!
Afghanis have a very different set of values from me, and I accept that —let them suffer.
We should get out.
A punitive expedition is a concept we used to understand, and is how Afghanistan started out. Because we did not get OBL right away, we stayed, but the mission morphed from “get OBL and Al-Q” into “meals on wheels” nation-building. Unfortunately nation-building with tribal savages is a fool’s errand.
We got OBL. Declare victory and get out, warning everyone in the vicinity we will bomb them to the Stone Age and bounce the rubble if they let another OBL set up shop.
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