Posted on 02/07/2012 4:37:51 AM PST by 1010RD
A US army officer has accused the American military of painting a misleading picture of progress in the war in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis turned whistleblower and broke ranks with the official portrayal of the Afghan war after he 'witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.'
'How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding?' Colonel Davis asked in an article titled 'Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down.'
'No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan,' he said in the article. 'But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on. [SNIP]
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This is an excellent article. The on-the-ground reality in Afghanistan is horrible. It's a lesson to us about war fighting, nation building and our national interest.
A lesson that unless learned and learned well we will continue to kill our heroes for nothing. Bush blew it and Obama and the Democrats were wrong. Afghanistan isn't the "right war".
That’s not me and should have been in quotes. That’s the introduction to LC Davis’ article.
What do you suggest - that we shouldn’t have gone in in the first place, or that our goals should have been more limited: wipe out Al Qeada and Bin Laden and the heck with Afghanistan or even the Taliban?
Where should we have started and at what point should we have stopped. I think a key issue here is that these things are very hard to get stopped. Vietnam was a similar slippery slope. What does it say that were were unable to keep something like it from happening again (assuming the Col. is right and this is, essentially, another Vietnam)?
Unless we enter a fight with the intent and the resolve to use whatever force necessary to win -with minimal loss to our troops.But to win—and not just be cannon fodder for the bloody United Nations—or the global cabal —unless we fight the bloody freaking Muslims on terms they understand without wiggle room for doubt. Our intent to break the freaking sword of Islam to tear down their high places and burn their dam idols tossing whatever is left into Gehenna. They will use as target practice slay us wherever they can and wait until we leave them being the victors.
First, I don’t think this is another Vietnam mainly because at the Paris Peace Accords we won. It was only afterwards that Congressional Democrats undid that victory because it played to their meme. They then have controlled the thoughtspace going forward.
What were the goals of Afghanistan and Iraq? They obviously were poorly planned. Is it in our national interest to nation build? Is Islam a fruitful pasture for liberty? These are all invented countries with political boundaries imposed by Great Britain and France nearly a century ago. Many allied with Nazis during WWII. They are tribalistic and backwards. Their populations have a long history of rule by tyrants and their religion is antithetical to democratic principles.
Had we instead gone in and destroyed the “bad guys” set up and stocked our “own guys” and left it would have been either better or no worse than what we had today. Bush and his handlers made a domestic political decision to stay that had no tether to the reality of the international situation.
If we had limited our goals to punishing and then installed our own puppet the area would have been better off. Bush could have said what I just said - more diplomatically - and made the case to the American people that he’s unwilling to risk a broader war and more American blood. That’s what I think.
I think the fight is about an oil pipeline thru ‘stan. It’s the same reason the Russkies were in there fighting. The Afghans are probably getting short changed on the “toll” since they will not be getting any oil/gas from said pipeline.
Oh, please.
ping for later
Agreed. That we let the Taliban slip through to the FATA regions of Pakistan shows that we had little grasp of the political realities of the region.
The net results are going to be a resurgent radical Islam and the destabilization of the region which we are already seeing. This is a major policy blunder and will cost us much going long into the future. Obama’s supported the “Arab Spring” as domestic political cover for the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is an utter tactical and strategic failure.
Which lies at the feet of the State Department, two administrations (perhaps more if you want to go back to Bush I and Clinton), and internationalists/world citizens from the Ivy League who learned that it doesn’t matter how stupid the idea if the execution is perfect. They then cover for each other and history is rewritten. The lesson to every Muslim democrat who longs for modernity and liberty is: You cannot trust America.
As noted in in LTC H.R. McMaster’s book “Dereliction of Duty” subtitled “Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies That led to Vietnam” The problem is a systematic problem in the military — sucking up to the head shed!
You’ll have to do better than that.
Yes and I don’t understand why you can have whistle blowers in every other government bureaucracy, but somehow the military is disloyal when they do it. The abuse of classified designations simply to cover stupidity isn’t in the best interests of the nation or of liberty. We need more transparency and through that you’ll get national support for your actions. Who supported Obama’s war mongering?
Other comments here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2843058/posts
I have been reading several different books on combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both tell similar stories. A military constrained by politicians. And no real goals. Neither of these places is at any point close to accepting a stable form of government, no matter how much we wish it.
I HATE to see young lives wasted in this mess. These people simply are not worth it.
Blow it up.. and leave.
Not one American in a thousand — perhaps ten thousand — can give a coherent, factual, reasoned answer as to why we’re in Afghanistan.
If we’re interested in fighting Islam, we ought to watch the direction to which muslims turn five times a day, and go thataway.
But...we are not interested, are we?
Fight like WWII, win like WWII. Fight like Nam, lose like Nam.
We beat the Germans and the Japanese because we made them believe the only other choice was total destruction. We told the Afghan’s that we were coming to save them.
I think our mission could be more focused (the destruction of the Taliban and Al Queada in the region) except for one reason. That is the nukes sitting in Pakistan. We have to prop up a corrupt political government sitting in Pakistan because the alternative is the Islamo fascists taking over the government and getting the bomb. The only true solution is to declare war on Pakistan go in there, secure the bombs and then proceed to wipe out Al Quada and Pakistan. That’s never going to happen so we’re stuck where we are.
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