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Turns out, the mayor of Arlington, TN thinks that he really and truly knows the reason for Obama’s speech the other night on Afghanistan. It was to pre-empt the Charlie Brown special, because, you know, Obama is a dirty Muslim, and doesn’t believe in the Lord our Savior, Jesus H. Christ (does anyone know what the H stands for anyway??). Check out the link here on the story itself. Oh, of course, it was all much to do with nothing. Have people lost their ever loving minds though? Seriously? Obama is an evil Muslim who doesn’t want people to see the Christmas Charlie Brown special? And this guy, is a mayor of a town, sure, it’s probably a small town, but still. He’s supposed to be a leader, and he’s a fucking moron.
Turning towards Afghanistan though. Obama pledged more troops. I don’t know how I feel about this really. On the one hand, it’s probably overdue, and on the other hand, I’d rather have all of our men and women back instead of in harm’s way.
So what do we do here? In speaking with some of the guys I work with, they’re behind this troop escalation (it’s not a surge, since the word surge indicates that there is some sort of plan for “winning” whatever that means). They have thought for a long time that we needed more guys on the ground in Afghanistan, and they are also proponents of letting them get out there, do their jobs. The Big A Army is good at blowing shit up, and killing bad guys. This much is true. Maybe, they’re one of the most proficient groups we have at doing this, although, the Marines are right there with them. Our Army and Marines were never meant to be out and about within the people, building societies back, and doing counterinsurgency efforts. Our Green Berets, and SF soldiers though, are very good at this. It is a key component of their training.
I believe what we need to do though is to kill as many of the bad guys as we can, and make it a price that they’re not willing to pay any longer, again, remember, we’re good at destroying things, and killing bad guys. We need to bring in specialists, being SF soldiers, or civilians that can show folks in Afghanistan how to create a society, and we also have to learn that, what functions as a government, or what functions as a society in Afghanistan is not even remotely going to be like what we have here in the United States. They’re not going to have a Starbucks, and a Target on every corner in their country, and there is going to be a certain level of chaos almost always, but they are also a tribal nation. Run by local leaders, more so than a central government. We have a hard time wrapping our heads around that paradigm.
Anyway, like I said, I just wish we could get all of our troops home. Garrisoned, and safe stateside. That might put me out of a job, but then again, that’s a hit I think I’d be willing to take, if it meant, no more fighting for us.
I also have come to believe that eventually, some guy in Pakistan is going to rat out Bin Laden, yeah, more than likely, he is somewhere in Pakistan. They’re going to get sick of Predators dropping bombs on houses and people around them, and they’re going to finally give him up, sick of his shit, and the trouble that he brings along with him. We’ll probably snatch him up then, or kill him, but what will that really solve? Nothing really. At this point in time al Qaeda has been basically wiped out, and or spread out around the globe. We’re looking at an organization that doesn’t have a “central command” any longer so to speak, but what we have to be vigilant about is smaller cells, of 1-10 guys plotting smaller scale attacks against soft targets. Which means, that yes, battling terrorism is probably going to become more of a police action, than a military action.
Why am I writing about this? Not sure really. It’s that time of the year when cycling is in its down cycle, except for ‘cross, and well, there are only 2 words I’ve got say about cyclocross. Katie. Compton. That woman is fucking hardcore no doubt. If she doesn’t win the world championship this year, she’s cursed, or something like that. Because really, she’s on a tear, and she would be only the 2nd American to be a world champ in ‘cross, the first being Matt Kelly. Whatever happened to that guy anyway? Didn’t he just burn out, and disappear? I seem to remember him making a “comeback” so to speak at some point in time, but haven’t heard from him since then. He was a world champ, and then, gone. Why do our young racers all seem to end up in that situation anyway?
Going back to Compton, she’ll be on the top step of the podium this year at the world championships, I can only hope. She’s been killing it so far this year, and I’m pretty sure she’ll keep on that path. If she doesn’t, I’d be surprised, since she is head and shoulders above the rest of the women in the US at least. None seem able to keep up with her at all. She’s a few gears higher than the rest. We’ll see, we shall see. Good luck to her.
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Dude. We have no clear agenda in Afghanistan, much less a strategy for “winning”. The only thing we are achieving there is the creation of more animosity, destruction and orphans. People will not give up Bin Laden because they are sick of us bombing them. They will flock to his cause because they are sick of us bombing them.
Riding bikes is Good.
The Agenda remains the same.
Crack brews.
giantcu92 wrote:
“Maybe, they’re one of the most proficient groups we have at doing this, although, the Marines are right there with them. Our Army and Marines were never meant to be out and about within the people, building societies back, and doing counterinsurgency efforts. Our Green Berets, and SF soldiers though, are very good at this. It is a key component of their training.”
Not exactly. The Marines and US army special forces are aimed at counter-insurgency and fighting wars (fighting is an adjective in that case). Regular army does in fact have as part of it’s charter to “hold and rebuild”. It was a major part of its mission at the end of WW2 in germany, japan, and italy. When done correctly, as in those theaters, it’s quite successful. However, the tendency since vietnam has been to go in, leave a big steaming pile of shit, then go home.
I think reverend dick needs to look a little more closely at the situation before claiming ‘we have no agenda’. Clearly, we do. It’s to make afghanistan a socially and politically viable independent nation that isn’t a threat to the rest of the world. Afghanistan was always imo ‘the right war to fight’. Iraq was the greatest foreign policy mistake this country has ever made.
Afghanistan is in the state it’s in now in part because of the US abandonment after the soviet occupation. We had the opportunity to create a politically neutral/friendly state, and we had the admiration of the afghan nation after helping them drive out the soviets. Instead, we left the place more of a steaming pile of rubble than when we went in and with absolutely no viable government.
Now we have the chance to do it right without the military-industrial money whores (cheney et al) turning their backs on the grounds of profit margin. We shouldn’t abandon the effort without at least attempting to invest in their infrastructure and provide a legitimate government with incentives for success (yes, I realize the legitimacy of their government is extremely dubious at best right now).
The afghani populace is tired of war, no doubt, but it isn’t us bombing them, it’s the muslim radicals. They know this, and as we make headway at driving the radicals from populated areas to the point where the only violence the citizenry sees is terrorist bombings by the radicals, they will (hopefully) become more aligned with our efforts.
Will this work? Maybe. Maybe not. But we know what _won’t_ work, and that’s leaving a big steaming pile of shit for the taliban to clean up.
I have read that upwards of 90% of the world supply of heroin comes out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Guess where that money goes? That’s bullshit behavior, and I support a military response to lessen its viability.
Depending on the craft of the mofo’s living in the bush, how long can this thing be sustained? How scaleable is their mantra? What was it again, jehad?
And from a marketing purest sense, will it be appropriate to classify it as WWIII or would “The Global War” be more sellable? I think the later. It has a better ring in general and will adapt to movies, action figures, underroo’s and bumper stickers.
Hell, you name it. Imagine a kid being able to collect a whole armada of Global War Militants? It all starts with an idea.
Fuck, Shit, Hell. They need to clean that shit out. Napalm. This is another Vietnam FAIL in the making.
“And from a marketing purest sense, will it be appropriate to classify it as WWIII or would “The Global War” be more sellable?”
Gnome— the phrase I’m using these days (it’s not mine) is “The Long War.”
The Long War has no end. Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever, it doesn’t really matter. The war is seen as necessary to prop up the military-industrial complex, to destabilize uppity third world economies, and of course to prosecute U.S. interests abroad. Gas is still a buck fitty. The war may go somewhere else, but it ain’t going away.
The “H” in Jesus H Christ stands for haploid.
I thought it was for ‘hematoma’…?
I love to watch girls fighting