When the CIA found Laden`s location in Jalalabad, a quick call to the Air Force for a B-52 payload nuke delivery would have shown how a Laden was just roach for a superpower to step on.
Instead of that, we acted frightened of the roach. :-/
Posted on 07/22/2011 12:10:50 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie
Plenty of cheap shots and attitude, but essentially, he’s right.
This is a brutally honest appraisal of the schizophrenic nature of a government that outgrew itself long ago and does not value its own blood and treasure.
Much of the essay is true, but that statement is not. We were in the alliance called the the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, SEATO. We don't rule other NATO countries, Japan or South Korea. Where's the imperialism?
the people of Afghanistan don’t want democracy
on top of that,
they want the invaders to leave
Perhaps I could intrique you peruse my tagline?
If not, I believe the Rebublic is truly dead.
No amount of shrieking will save it.
When the CIA found Laden`s location in Jalalabad, a quick call to the Air Force for a B-52 payload nuke delivery would have shown how a Laden was just roach for a superpower to step on.
Instead of that, we acted frightened of the roach. :-/
Throughout history, who hasn't? Virtually every would-be conqueror has been stymied in the region.
Au contraire, that is *precisely* what we are in Afghanistan to do.
Their government is a secondary consideration, and our interest in it extends only to ensuring that it does not harbor either the Taliban or other Gen4War practitioners.
Whether they can mount an election or keep their accounts straight is of little concern to us, whose interest in the country is more dire and less positive (i.e., certain things will not be tolerated) than was our interest in South Vietnam.
The genesis of the problem is the American practice of throwing money at people instead of cultivating motivated and trustworthy allies.
This hasn’t changed since the forties. Chiang Kai Shek was better funded than Mao, but Mao’s followers were better motivated than Chiang’s.
The US lost China.
The South Vietnamese were better funded than Ho Chin Minh, but Uncle Ho’s forces were better motivated. The same applies to the Afghan Government and the Taliban today. (A notable exception was when the US was on the side of the Mujaheddin (forerunners of the Taliban) in the 1980’s).
The lesson: don’t waste your time on a protracted war in a foreign land unless you have motivated allies (e.g the Kurds). Don’t attempt to buy loyalty with money, if you have to, then ensure that the engagement is very short or conducted at arms length.
When Dingy Harry declared that the war was lost, he didn't mean right then. He was alluding ti the fact that Dims will not rest until they deliver defeat to the Red-White-Blue.
The US needs to learn to carve up countries. Iraq’s Kurds should be given a separate country, as should the Iraqi Christians. In Afghanistan the north-east should be carved and given to Tajikistan, the nother-west to Uzbekistan and the Hazaras should be given their own protectorate. The Pashtuns need to be reunited with the Pathans in the N-W Frontier province of Pakistan. At the same time, detach BAluchistan from Pakistan and make it a separate country (this will cause problems for the Iranis who have Sistan-e-Balochistan as their south-eastern province) and separate Punjab from Sindh.
“We were in the alliance called the the Southeast Asia Treaty
Organization, SEATO”
Oh give me a break. SEATO was a paper based alliance which was of no use during the war. Heck it only outlasted South Vietnam by less than 2 years!
I’m still trying to understand exactly how and why a punitive expedition to uproot and disrupt Al Qaeda in Afghanistan became a ten year long “nation-building” campaign. My best guess is that the Al Qaeda issue was only one of the motivess behind our intrusion, with the other unspoken goal being to establish a client state on the eastern flank of Iran that would be friendly to US interests. If so, this venture will stand as a testimonial to unrealistic adventurism on the part of the US State Department (and possibly the Bush White House).
[snip] Now it is obvious that those indicators were set for President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012. [end]
There's a roach we want to kill in Kansas City.
Quick, drop a nuke on the city!
All Empires are fraudulent and most of the problems in the World today were caused by the breakup of the British, French and Ottoman Empires.
The problem with granting the Kurds a new state is that significant Kurdish minorities exist in Turkey and the Turks will go to war to ensure that a Kurdish state is not born. It’s that simple. The US does not have the stomach for another set of wars in the Middle East.
Afghanistan presents a similar problem and so does Pakistan.
In Africa, most states are mere geographical expressions and have no meaning. For example, there is no reason why Djibouti should be a separate, independent country and Somaliland is not. There is no reason why Togo should be an independent country and why Nigeria should not be at least three different countries.
The problem is that when you start you cannot tell where you are going to stop.
That's called Balkanization for a reason. And it doesn't turn out well.
Its the “quiet American” all over again.
In my view, America’s geopolitical ambitions in Central Asia are just too ambitious. That region is China and Russia’s background and it was foolhardy to assume that these experienced major players would just sit back and allow the Americans to dominate that region.
I think it is enough to dominate the Middle East, there was no way the Chinese would let the US dominate Pakistan. After the debacle in Iraq, the US neither has the will nor the stomach to effectively contain Iran.
(With the Arab Spring, even the US hold on the Middle East appears shaky).
The US needs a more humble and realistic foreign policy if she must avoid overextending herself.
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