Posted on 10/04/2012 3:02:56 PM PDT by jazusamo
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan When our Fox News team left for Afghanistan last week, there was a palpable sense of imminent calamity in the air. Gloom and doom news from here is now a staple in our so-called mainstream media. Reports of "green-on-blue," or insider, attacks by our Afghan allies against American and NATO troops are depicted as a sure sign of mission failure and portend of worse to come. Commentaries, columns and "analysis" from "experts" urging our political and military leaders to "get out now" routinely grace our print and broadcast outlets. The terms "betrayed," "cut our losses" and "minimize failure" appear regularly in the press, and "lost cause" is now the media watchword for Afghanistan.
Defeatism of this sort is nothing new. Prognostications of failure in American military campaigns predate the founding of our republic. The "wrong war, wrong strategy," "no way to win" and "not worth the cost" arguments didn't begin with Vietnam; they have been commonplace in contemporaneous critiques of every military endeavor in our nation's history. So, too, have been calls for the heads of those leading these fights. "Fire them all" is hardly a new mantra for American military leaders or the politicians who send them to war.
In the 1750s during what we call the French and Indian War British and Colonial troops set out to drive French forces from North America. They were thwarted by an alliance between the French and Native American tribes. During a disastrous campaign to capture Fort Duquesne now Pittsburgh the British-American effort was repulsed in part by unconventional warfare attacks perpetrated by Indians who were initially thought to be our allies. Thank goodness, the widely publicized failure didn't destroy the future military career of an otherwise promising young Colonial officer named George...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
I don't think he really gets what the Islamists are about. They don't think like western civilization regarding life and protection of their wives and children. They are a "death cult" who want to die for some obscure prophet. Unlike tyrants of the past, they have NO consideration for their own. They think they will go to heaven as they kill innocent people.
Unlike the Hitlers, Lenins, Stalins, Mao's, et al, the Islamist fanatics WANT to die. They don't want to exist, but be a martyr in conflict so they can have their 72 virgins, lots of grapes, in a cool field of glory. Heaven awaits them if they kill enough other humans, whether westerners of competing Sunnis or Shites. They are taught to hate and kill anyone that is not of their teachings.
I might be reading this wrong, but seems like Ollie is not getting the gist of Islam.
I don’t admire him, nor do I understand why he’s a conservative hero. Except that he stuck it to the Dems in hearings and managed to stand against the MSM current. But who cares? A psychopath could pull that off.
I assume North is referring to those Afghan troops who don’t turn around and shoot us.
North gets it but you can well imagine the backlash if he openly advocated for what is needed in the war against Islam. The Muslims don’t operate on our frequency but when toltal war is unleashed upon them, they will fear us and leave us alone.
I think the only strategy that will work in this long-term confrontation of western and Islamic values is containment.
Unless we are willing to undergo some major social engineering project that amounts to long-term ethnic cleansing, we are stuck with sharing the planet with 1.5 billion antagonists who hate us and don’t want us around. Of course the feeling is mutual except for some touchy-feely liberal types who haven’t really got much of a clue that they are actually the most hated of all of us (from the Islamic point of view).
I think we have to leave it to God to do anything as radical as ridding the earth of what appears to be an incompatible group of homo sapiens, but their animosity and general dysfunctionality make it probable that the idea will slowly gain political currency despite the barriers of political correctness saying no way. I mean, what other options do we have? There’s no living with them, they are conditioned to be crazy from earliest social development and to some extent about half of them are already beyond salvaging, the other half you can do business with if you are wary and not overly naive.
Modern communications will mean that the Islamic world will be further radicalized and anti-western, unless some strain of Islam arises that has a more tolerant and co-operative basis. Since that is essentially already spoken for as Christianity, the only working solution is mass conversion, if you don’t like ethnic cleansing.
A vast Islamic civil war seems to be looming and we could take the approach of making sure both sides are about equally armed at all points until it winds down.
We are demanding that our troops follow suicidal rules of engagement. Any native is a potential or actual enemy and must be treated as such.
You bet he gets it. He knows full well the radicalism of islamists and has been reporting from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan for somewhere around ten years.
Maybe if we arm them and help them defeat the Soviets, they will be our friends.
The reason why I and so many admire him is that he was a champion against socialist/communist tyranny. We're seeing our very own Country heading in that direction, and you want to give me shit?
North and Reagan absolutely KNEW that the collectivism of the Sandinista National Liberation Front was a threat in our hemisphere. They supported the clandestine faction (Contras) to hopefully overthrow the tyrannical government. They were actually winning until Congress cut off funds. So North tried to support the Contra under the radar.
We can debate all day whether Reagan knew of such efforts, but North was the lead man who attempted to put down communism after Congress went squishy. I think that to be a good thing. Reagan and North were men who recognized the threat of the "gimmes" within communism.
BTW, I saw communism first hand back in 1960's in the love/peace movements as they formed local communes just outside of Los Angeles in the hills. I also watched them fall apart because the system was unsustainable.
Why? Because as always, some did not want to work as hard as others. Those who did work harder for the system finally got fed up with the slackers and left. Those '60's communes fell apart...never to be tried again. Communism and to a lessor degree socialism simply cannot work due to human characteristics. Sociology 101.
So yes, North tried to eliminate the communist Sandinistas. I give him credit.
~Oliver North
From Wikipedia:
Service/branch: United States Marine Corps
Years of service: 19681990
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
Unit: 1st Battalion 3rd Marines
3rd Battalion 8th Marines
2nd Marine Division
Commands held: Marine Corps Northern Training Area, Okinawa
Battles/wars: Vietnam War
Awards:
Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart(2)*
Presidential Service Badge
Well said, FRiend.
I wonder when the people of the US and it’s “leaders” will acknowledge that Islam is at war with all non muslims and will be until we or they are exterminated.
You forgot about the Japanese. WW2. Planes flying into structures. kamakazee. Fight Islam the way we fought Tojoism and Emperor Worshiping Japanese suicidal nuts and you win. Nuke them. Fight like Nam, finish like Nam.
If you don’t have the guts to make a horrible mess don’t go to war.
bttt - great history lesson many seem to have forgotten.
Thanks for the ping jaz. Finally got the chance to read it. I think other than most of the commentary. I think this article is about the troops, and their perspective. It’s the MSM, the Pundits, the Politicos that are the defeatists, but the troops maintain that can-do attitude they are famous for.
I’ve read other articles in which the troops speak out about how they just want to have the politicos get the “H” out of the way, give them the tools, and let them win this thing.
I’m with the troops on that.
That's exactly what Ollie is saying, it's not about the brass or the CinC or what some people think about Col. North's past (whom I consider a true patriot).
It's about the troops on the ground that are willing to sacrifice for the good of our country and for the man fighting next to them.
Those men are better men than many, they're willing to lay down their lives for all of us and our freedom.
You are correct.
As I’ve always said, the war on terror should have ended within a few minutes of the first tower collapse.
A few dozen Trident D-5’s targeting Tora Bora, Khandahar, the Pakistani tribal areas, and every major islamic population centers and religious sites.
Cull this 1.5 billion down to about 500,000.... Mop up the rest with a carpet bombing of JDAM’s, Rockeyes, and CBU-75’s and a few FAE’s.
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