Posted on 09/08/2012 11:28:46 AM PDT by NCDragon
WASHINGTON It was another week at war in Afghanistan, another string of American casualties, and another collective shrug by a nation weary of a faraway conflict whose hallmark is its grinding inconclusiveness.
After nearly 11 years, many by now have grown numb to the sting of losing soldiers like Pfc. Shane W. Cantu of Corunna, Mich. He died of shrapnel wounds in the remoteness of eastern Afghanistan, not far from the getaway route that Osama bin Laden took when U.S. forces invaded after Sept. 11, 2001, and began America's longest war.
Cantu was 10 back then.
Nearly every day the Pentagon posts another formulaic death notice, each one brief and unadorned, revealing the barest of facts - name, age and military unit - but no words that might capture the meaning of the loss.
Cantu, who joined the Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade on Sept. 11 last year and went to Afghanistan last month, was among five U.S. deaths announced this past week, as the Democrats and Republicans wrapped up back-to-back presidential nominating conventions.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
U.S. And its allies (chiefly U.K.) Aren’t ruthless enough to eliminate the Taliban so we should be withdrawing troops right now.
Compared to Chicago, Philadelphia, DC, Detroit........ a young black man is safer in the army in Afghanistan.
Democrats promote murder at the local level
Casualties have risen since Obama took office, since the new rules of engagement do not allow our troops to defend themselves, but the media has completely ignored the body counts they used to publicize so assiduously.
And the war has completely lost its point.
Note that this excuse of an article is extremely vague about all this, and of course no mention that Obama is at fault, along with his Communist defense secretary.
“Strangely the drumbeat stopped cold on January 20th 2009.”
The other major factor is the nation relying on a “professional” army instead of a citizen army. Vietnam was unpopular due to the draft which put people in harms way who did not want to go to battle for what they did not perceive as a threat against the homeland. If young people were being drafted into the service and killed everyday there would be a very strong and active anti-war/anti-military movement made up of young people and their parents.
If we had a Republican Prezzy in the white House, the media would be slamming him non-stop about the casualties, the lack of a mission and the bogus rules-of-engagement.
Taps for the approximately 6,500 dead and 46,000 wounded who are causalities of the war we were told the government would handle as we continued to go to the mall.
Criminal!
Approximately 119,500 KIA and 328,600 wounded in the undeclared wars since WWII.
My heart aches for them all; each and every one.
And we the people are still just going to the mall!
"America, where are you now?"
Why are we maintaining small bases on the border with Pakistan when we could eliminate the Taliban one by one with the use of Drones?
Those small bases are acting as bait, IMO. You make them large enough that it would take a battalion-strength assault to take them out quickly. Then you swoop-in with the Apache’s and the A-10’s and kill the Taliban wholesale. Drone strikes are terribly inefficient on a cost-per-kill basis. Fine for high-value targets, assuming you can confirm the kill (which is problematic).
If you make the bases larger, and better able to defend themselves, then they are too big for the enemy to take-on. They disperse and go through the cracks because you also can’t cover the front because you’re bunched-up.
Right now both sides are getting what they want. The Taliban is attempting to pick-off these bases. The Army is killing Taliban in large numbers. We’ll see who switches their strategy first (that’s how you know who lost).
Yes but like so many banana republics it transfers the populaces’ attention from how bad the economy and everything else is due to this, magic negro.
Whatever the deficits may be we don’t need to bring back the draft.
Gee, you’d think the US would be numbed to the drumbeat of the mini-Vietnam happening every year in our inner cities. There are far more murders there every year than troop deaths in the entire 11 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But nooooo, the media know who is to blame (democraps) for that one and don’t want to talk about it — except to blame inanimate objects.
These people look at “be nice” as weakness but after the second solution you earn respect if not love.
F#%& all of these people ... and I don't say that kind of thing very often.
IMO, the only things they respect and fear is overpowering strength.
Whats the difference between an “enemy fighter” and an innocent civilian?-—He dropped his weapon.
The US government wants victory in Afghanistan, like your credit card company wants you to pay off your card balance.
You can if you are talking about military formations. The trip-wire forces (Observation Posts) require the enemy to mass if they hope to overrun them. Killing masses of troops is "wholesale." It means getting your Arty & Airpower involved. Sniping at a tent with Helfire missiles is "surgical" and wasteful of resources.
Nobody is talking about extermination of populations here.
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