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To: DoorGunner

“Sounds almost like you are advocating Desertion.”

Well, it sounds to me like you are being extremely literal minded. So I’d better come right out and say it. No, I do not advocate desertion.

Anyhow, please excuse the gallows humor. But when a general (correction, a colonel) implies that a soldier may be acting with criminal intent if he returns fire on somebody that’s shooting at him, or expects him to make a cost-benefit assessment of the public relations value of defending himself when he comes under attack, the present unpleasantness in Afghanistan begins to resemble Somalia, but on a much larger scale.

This smacks of the culture of the political correctness that led up to the Ft Hood massacre, when numerous warnings of Major Hasan’s deeply disturbed mental state were ignored by fellow officers and the FBI. Or the recent near tragedy over Detroit that highlighted the persistent refusal of our government to profile airline passengers with a high likelihood of being terrorists. Or how about the fact that our president, and the Democrats in general, have been pushing all along to tear down the wall that separates military and civilian law, which could potentially put our combat soldiers in legal jeopardy. The half heartedness of our leadership in the Afghan is bad news. That’s the context of my pessimism.

If the Vietnam taught us anything, it’s don’t dick around when you send soldiers into a shooting war. If you’re going to do it, then bomb Hiphong Harbor or whatever else it takes. If you’re overly concerned about how the Russians might react, or about negative “world opinion”, then keep the boys home.

Same thing with Afghanistan. If our government won’t be able to resist the inevitable demands by some European judge to extradite soldiers for to some Belgian or Spanish court for “Human Rights” violations, then we shouldn’t be over there, putting all kinds of restraints on our soldiers, just to please some so-called friends.

A few months following 9-11, a small number of American special forces types hooked up with Uzbek tribesmen. With our air and artillery suppport the Uzbeks routed the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. They didn’t stop running until they got to Pakistan. All this proved that the Afghans in general despised the Taliban government. So we can win their support and the war if are willing to give our army what it takes to do what armies are designed to do.


45 posted on 02/16/2010 1:10:03 AM PST by haroldeveryman
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To: haroldeveryman

Obviously, I misunderstood your position, Thank you for the further explanation.

DG


47 posted on 02/16/2010 2:42:09 AM PST by DoorGunner ("Rom 11: until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so, all Israel will be saved")
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To: haroldeveryman

There’s a story about Lyndon Johnson. When he was running for Congress in the 1940’s he is said to have told a campaign manager to spread a rumor that his opponent was having sex with a pig. His advisor told him that he hadn’t heard anything about that. Johnson replied,”Neither have I. I just want to hear him have to deny it”. I felt the same way about the “desertion” thing.

So this is to thank you for your last response. I really appreciate your getting me off the hook.


52 posted on 02/16/2010 10:29:03 AM PST by haroldeveryman
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