Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Obama's Afghanistan Surge Begins with a Bang
Posted by PJ Tobia on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Comments (7)
Showing 1-7 of 7
"Besides being deeply unethical, killing civilians hurts the mission."
Unethical??? Accepting cash from a liquor lobbyist to vote down a bill is unethical. Murdering innocent civilians is immoral, criminal, and barbaric. Jesus.
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I'd like to point out that the 40% spike, according to your link, is due to the Taliban. Over half the dead were killed by the bad guys. This is something the left tends to ignore, whether in Iraq or in Afghanistan. Most of the civilian dead are not killed by the US military. I suppose one could argue that they are dying because we are there, but that ignores the fact that people were being killed when we weren't there, too, in even larger numbers. Does that make us responsible for those deaths?
Mike:
I don’t think that we are in any way responsible for deaths caused by the Taliban. That said, I’m not an Afghan. Right or wrong, many people in villages do blame the coalition for deaths caused by the Taliban for the simple reason that we can’t seem to stop them from happening. We promised to bring stability to Afghanistan. When we fail in that promise, and the Taliban kills innocents, we are perceived by locals as having betrayed them.
I’m not on the left or right of this war. I’m not saying this perception of betrayal is right, or justified. I’m just telling you what Afghans told me.
And BTW, when we do accidentally kill one civilian, the Afghans I’ve spoken with think of it as a much bigger deal than when the Taliban kills, say, ten.
Again, I’m not saying that’s the way it should be…
The British Army lost their asses in the "Stan". It ground down the Soviet Army and (arguably) contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union. And now, BHO wants to use Afghanistan to make him look macho?
The professional military (and I was one!) think it's "the best war we got". It's the American kids dying to meet domestic political shows of machismo that pisses me off.
There is no "Win" in the Stan. The people have been fighting each other and outsiders since the stone age (wait one.. they ARE the stone age). Declare Victory. Take out the ground troops. Use RPVs to take out the noisy ones.
BHO's "being bold" policy means that he now "owns the Quagmire". Stupid stupid stupid.
I’m sure Obama is legitimately doing what is required of him based on the current situation. If that’s the case, one has to wonder whether he’ll be forced to do the exact same thing two years from now and send more troops to Iraq following a withdrawal. For more check out http://www.TalkObama.info
I’m sure Obama is legitimately doing what is required of him based on the current situation. If that’s the case, one has to wonder whether he’ll be forced to do the exact same thing two years from now and send more troops to Iraq following a withdrawal. For more check out http://www.TalkObama.info
In his first month, President Obama has talked down the economy and engineered a huge surge in federal spending. Now, while President Obama escalates troops for a new war in Afghanistan, the bills will come due.
Meanwhile, just as President Obama begins to order an attack Afghanistan and Pakistan, he also sets the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay free. The horror and pain is just beginning.
With a performance like this, and Obama only a month in office, the markets are noticing. We see the Dow industrials down about 8% from the pre-inaugural close and off more than 20% from Election Day.
Bills won't come due all at once, but new wars and new taxes and new government debt will cripple the USA for decades.
People look ahead at this and don't like what they see. Their gloomy view of the future further saps their confidence in the present. More than ever, they need what candidate Barack Hussein Obama promised: hope and change. It's not what they're getting from Obama as president.
