Posted on 10/07/2012 12:10:59 PM PDT by yoe
America's longest war entered its 12th year Sunday, with the anniversary marked by a Taliban statement claiming that NATO forces are "fleeing Afghanistan" in "humiliation and disgrace".
The US led the invasion on October 7, 2001 to topple the Taliban government for harbouring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The Taliban were quickly routed, but launched an insurgency that grew in strength over the years until NATO had some 130,000 troops from 50 countries defending the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
The troops have now begun pulling out and all foreign combat forces will be gone by the end of 2014 according to a withdrawal schedule agreed by the US and NATO.
"With the help of Allah, the valiant Afghans under the Jihadi leadership of Islamic Emirate defeated the military might and numerous strategies of America and NATO alliance," the Taliban said in a statement Sunday.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Obama is a loser who squandered the Country’s hard fought investments in the ME.
In the face of terrorism, he runs and instead blames the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.
We should never of began nation building in Afghanistan. You can’t turn savages into civilized people. Blow them up, and repeat as necessary.
It’s time to bring all of the troops home and send those bastards up on Capitol Hill over there for a while. It’s those lowlife scumbags in Washington who cause these things to drag out with their goofy, Fluken “rules of engagement”. IMHO, the U.S. Congress has killed more American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen than all of our enemies combined. TAKE OFF THE CUFFS AND LET THEM FIGHT AND FINISH IT!!! @$$holes!!!
Finish what? What is the goal? Supposedly this was about getting OBL, but it’s foolish to send in an army to go after a bunch of loosely knit groups of terrorists who move across borders at will. You are right about politicians and policy wonks getting our troops killed. The next time some jerk like Wolfowitz or Perle tell us that a war will be easy, cheap, and short, perhaps we should send them in first.
We need to get the f*** out of Afghanistan!
You cannot win a war by trying to win the hearts of your enemy.
The only reason to think about their hearts is to shoot them in it.
When you fight an enemy that has no rules about the way they fight you, you adapt their rules.You kill them where they stand and you do it in great enough numbers that they get tired of fighting. Which by the way is what they are doing to us.
We get into these long protracted wars because the touchy-feely sissies in Congress and the White House don’t have the fortitude to conduct a proper war.
If you go to war, then expect deaths, lots of them.
The rules of engagement should be different. The troops should be allowed to shoot anything that is not American. Civilians in other wars get the hell out, because they know it’s not safe. It should be no different here. If civilians want to loiter in a known unsafe area then they get killed; it’s that easy.
And why don’t we have an enemy body count that’s 6 or 7 figures?
It’s been 12 years already. I’d expect the enemy to have at least a million dead by now.
You can’t win a war by making them your friends. They’re not and they don’t want to be. The war will be over when the enemy dead pile up faster than they can bury them.
Note that -
1) Afghanistan is a land-locked country, so NATO was always at the mercy of one of those surrounding countries to use supply routes;
2) it’s kinda hard to win when your enemy is secretly taking refuge in that country you need for the supply routes - i.e., Pakistan;
3) improved drone & other technology means a heavy “ground footprint” isn’t necessary to keep Al-quaeda reeling;
4) By pulling out, NATO now can have no risks when going after the real source of the problem - Pakistan
Clint Eastwood got it right:
“Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean — you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how did it — they did there for 10 years. But we did it, and it is something to be thought about, and I think that, when we get to maybe — I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just...”
Clint Eastwood got it right:
“Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean — you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how did it — they did there for 10 years. But we did it, and it is something to be thought about, and I think that, when we get to maybe — I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just...”
Given the chance, they would nuke us in a second.
We could never live with killing the innocent, with the guilty.
So now they stick their chests out and crow.
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