Posted on 11/18/2020 9:02:24 AM PST by rintintin
If having big numbers in your own home state - whether Nebraska Utah or Florida - lets you buck the base while seeking the presidential nomination, then Jeb should have been our 2016 nominee.
I would vote for a commie or stay home before I’d vote for a ‘neverTrumper’ or their pick.
McCain and Romney both lost anyhow so our sacrifice was stupid and wasted. If the Republican party puts up a Jeb, don’t vote. Walk away.
If Jonah Goldberg’s for the person, I’m out.
Providing career advancement and contracts. Every officers with goals of getting a ticket want to stay in.
That and keeping the RUSSIANS out.
Never mind no one has been able to hold Afghanistan, ever.
But Biden will continue the forever war. Until we end up abandoning everything there.
No more military adventures.
This.
Jeb Bush / Lynn Cheney and Mittens for Sec. of State.
I guess then that Mitch will not be a candidate in 2024.
Did we ever? The Russians couldn't handle Afghanistan. Why did we ever think we could? What do we want with this country anyway? I never understood why we were so determined to stay in Afghanistan.
I love that analogy.
It started with the reasoning to go in and crush the Al Qeda training camps that were pumping out 10s of thousands of jihadiscum.
Then it morphed into a fight against the Pakistani ISI created and controlled Taliban.
then it morphed into “liberating Afghanistan”.
then it morphed into a “Make Afghanistan Like The OC!”
and now it has morphed into “Use US armed forces to protect our heroin profits”.
The biggest mistake was not ending this war before the election.
As for the war we went into Afghanistan for, I give it the following grades”
1. For initial execution of very initial goals: A-
An A for the rapid deployment of sufficient forces to kick the Taliban out of control of Kabul, depose their government, and establish a large functioning army of occupation. The minus is for the flimsy intelligence that caused the inability to take out Bin Laden as part of the initial occupation.
2. For the long term prospects in Afghanistan: F
To me the F comes from multiple parts:
1. How the long term prospects were integrated
in the general plan in the beginning: F
(things went in a manner as if the long term
was not given much real consideration from the
start, as if they just thought they could install
a large force and then play it by ear)
2. Battle field rules of engagement: F
(the battle field rules of engagement at
the very large level seemed bent to
very short term immediate mission goals and
never about totally defeating the Taliban -
as if they never thought they could do that
or were never asked to lay out a strategy to
do that)
It pains me when I think of the lives already lost - how do we honor them best, and that thought always puts me on the fence as to staying or going.
But I do not believe you (we, the U.S.) should ever go to war without an intent to beat the opponent into unconditional surrender, and if that is not what you want to do and/or do not have sufficient public support to do then you should not be in the war, period.
I believe to “win” in Afghanistan required fighting there as we fought in WWII - you throw EVERYTHING you have into it non-stop with no let up and without restraint until the enemy is defeated. I also believe two things about the situation meant doing that was not going to happen.
The first is that there was not and was not going to be public support for it. The second part is conducting WWII style war against Afghanistan was impossible to achieve without taking that war to the territory of Pakistan and maybe Pakistan itself due to its known complicity with the Taliban - and as we new later its harboring Bin Laden.
No U.S. President at the time was going to get Congressional support for WWII style war in Afghanistan that in order to win was going to take that war to Pakistan, due to the overwhelming opposition to such an effort that would have come from all our allies including what Middle East “allies” we were trying to keep. With that knowledge also went the knowledge that making war with Pakistan was going to bring China into aiding Pakistan, just as Russia ran to aid Assad in Syria. No, that kind of war was not going to fly.
In sum the war in Afghanistan was NEVER “winnable” under the only terms we were willing to engage in it.
For the troops who already died there, that is a terribly sad thing to have to say.
Every dollar spent in fighting in Afghanistan is a dollar NOT spent on helping the American people. Bring our troops home, focus on rebuilding our own country, and let the rest of the world sort itself out unless it directly threatens us.
Where is Podesta going to get his pizza and hot dogs if we leave Afghanistan?
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