Posted on 08/16/2012 5:47:42 PM PDT by jazusamo
WASHINGTON — In December 2009, our commander in chief went to West Point and proclaimed that he would withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by 2014. Since then, he has proudly emphasized that "We are on a course to end this war responsibly." Now U.S. and NATO troops and loyal Afghan soldiers and police officers are reaping the bitter harvest of the seeds that Barack Obama planted with those words.
Over the last 10 days, in five separate incidents, seven American military personnel were killed in what used to be called "green on blue attacks" — where Afghan soldiers or police have assaulted their U.S. and NATO counterparts. Thus far this year, 37 coalition troops and civilians have been killed in 29 incidents of what the Pentagon now calls "insider attacks." According to figures released by the NATO command in Kabul, there were 11 such events in all last year, resulting in 20 deaths.
Until now, the Pentagon and NATO command in Kabul have maintained that these "sporadic incidents" were usually the consequence of "personal grievances" and "related to people getting into arguments." In March, after an insider attack that killed two British commandos, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the assaults by individuals wearing Afghan police or military uniforms weren't part of "any kind of broad pattern of activity." That perception has been altered by events on the ground in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, following two attacks perpetrated by Afghan nationals that resulted in six Marines killed and two wounded, U.S. Gen. James Amos, Marine Corps commandant, took the unusual step of issuing guidance to all U.S. Marine leaders. Amos, it should be recalled by my media colleagues, co-authored the "Counterinsurgency Manual" with Gen. David Petraeus; it was used as the guidebook for the fight in Afghanistan...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Remember when W was President newspapers and network news used to have a “Body Count” update featured prominently?
Afghanistan is not worth one American life.
Why are we there ?
Put the blame where it belongs for this one, on the Bush administration the the “nation building” foolishness. Afghanistan should have been nuked out of existence, along with both neighbors. Then it should have been declared a US territory, or alternatively ungoverned territory available to others to colonize and tame.
Nation building with primitive Mohammedan is amazingly naive. Isn’t there anyone with any sense in State? (rhetorical sarcasm there)
Nuke Mecca & Medina and end Islam. No Haj = no 5th pillar = no fulfilment of the Islamic religious obligation = an extinct god. Allah = Thor, Zeus, Jupiter, etc.
Well said...despite the best of (but misplaced) intentions we should have learned by now that it’s impossible to reason with or worse, placate, Islam.
The mullahs have demonstrated time and again that compromise is not a language they speak or even wish to understand.
Col. North is a good man. He remembers what happened to our allies in Southeast Asia when we pulled out, and it hurts him. He’s using the same paradigm to think about Afghanistan, but it doesn’t work. There may be decent individuals, but all the factions are bad, and the entire national culture is rotten to the core.
It’s like someone said about Somalia, “Build a wall around it,” or just walk away, “and let them do what they’ve always done.”
It's going to get worse the closer we get to pulling out... Standing with an American means soon you'll be standing alone... these folks are trying to make it possible NOT to be murdered when we leave. Obama's an idiot for pulling this trick...
Hmmmmmmmmmmm jaz, Did you forget the ping list?
Thanks, rqsr!!...Red faced and embarrased, I sure did. Was just going to log out and thought I'd check pings and glad I did. :-)
Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.
Agreed. Also, as the War ramps down, Spec Ops participation is ramping up. They will take the majority of casualties. What makes that even worse is the time, money, and amount of training it takes to build a Spec Ops troop. Spec Ops will be severely damaged by the end of the draw down. We can not afford to lose any troops in that crap hole, but losing a great many spec ops troops is asinine, criminal and intentional.
Iraq is hurting, and the thinking is minor presence would have helped significantly to maintain some sense of order. But the superficial, petulant scumbag decided otherwise.
>> and the thinking is minor presence
???
and the thinking is: minor presence would have helped to maintain order... (in a significant way, blah, blah, blah)
It is said of the Islamic religion the only way to be sure of Heaven is to die as a martyr, IE ...like the 9/11 planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City.
Thus it creates what I have heard called a religion of death. To die for their idea of God.
Hard thing to deal with. We are foolish to believe otherwise. The killer/shooter at Fort Bliss in Texas, a couple or three years ago, -— the same thing.
It was all in the name of Allah.
The whole thing was intentional - Obama was told why announcing a leave date would be so dangerous. He did it anyway.
growing Afghan National Security Forces from 332,000 to more than 350,000.
THAT number will dwindle like grass in the desert. Even though we will try to rain dollars on it.
And the guys standing in direct opposition to these terrorists and actually fighting and killing them -instead of trying to accumulate enough evidence to charge them with a crime and give them a civilian trial followed by ten to twenty years of free meals and health care courtesy the US or European taxpayer- weren't Americans, they were Afghan, and yes, they were and are muslim, though not burqa-pushing music-hating joy-sucking rock-chucking suicide-adoring muslims such as the Taliban that want to control everyone, instead they were the kind that wanted little more than to raise thair families, send their kids to school, operate businesses, tend their vinyards and orchards that the Taliban had destroyed. And their leader, the son of a policeman who was loyal to the King of Afghanistan Zahir Shah before the king was deposed by communists and socialists, was the first carefully chosen casualty of the 9/11 attack.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.