Comments on: ‘Hard’ Is Not ‘Hopeless’ But Getting To ‘Hopeless’ Is Hard

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:27:51 +0000

Just to remind you, we are fighting this war because some Muslim nut jobs flew planes into two of the largest building in the US killing approximately 3000 people in a few hours. That’s why we are there and it is worth the lives and time. The people who are fighting certainly understand that. What they don’t understand is Obama’s lack of interest in fighting this war. McChrystal had to go public just to get a reaction from the White House, while Obama was off “sacrificing” himself to the Olympic Committee. Things like that are incredibly demoralizing to military troops.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:31:06 +0000

I think that there’s a difference between “being” in Afghanistan for 8 years and doing things there for that time.it’s been our inaction and inattention that’s given the situation the urgency that McChrystal feels.
That’s no joke.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:52:09 +0000

The US “found a strategy”? I thought the US got lucky when the sunnis decided they would not fight us if we paid them not to fight us. so we paid them and they stopped.

Ding! The history of the Iraq war has been revised so many times that it gets hard to keep track of the real storyline. Petraeus bought off the Sunnis. The protect the civilian population sounds good but by the time of the surge, Baghdad had already gone from being majority Sunni to majority Shia. Petraeus put up some concrete barriers between some of the neighborhoods but the ethnic cleansing had largely taken place. And of course there are the millions who fled Iraq or were internally displaced.

HelenaHandbasket has it right too. We have been in Afghanistan 8 years and McChrystal is talking multiples of Friedman units. It is this that makes such a joke of McChrystal’s sense of urgency. He’s talking 10 years and that won’t even take us to an exit point, just a “decisive impact.” And the crucial question which keeps getting buried in all this is: Is the war even worth the effort, the lives, the time, and the treasure? The answer to this question remains: No.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:02:05 +0000

Suppose we arrange swimsuit competition with McChrystal, Mullah Omar, and bin Laden for ya?

We arrange, you deride.

By: oldtree

oldtree — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:55:13 +0000

It sounds like a statement of faith. A different kind of faith that matches up with the bizarre stories that come of ritualized christianity indoctrination in our military today. The air force seems intent on violating all the laws banning religion from influence in their service. It must take some intelligence to fly a plane, the last bush not withstanding. It is also these that make decisions about what to do with their bombs in the long run. One might wonder if they have the name of their favorite among deities drawn on the bomb they use on the foes of jesus ex machina.
But a statement of faith while people are dying, waiting for some intervention beyond the material or the rational, defies thought. It begs the question, are these all that we have remaining in our officer corps? Have the independent thinkers all left the service? To allow men to die while you wait for guidance unknown does not sound correct in a professional army.

By: pluege

pluege — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:50:08 +0000

its always so encouraging when Americans apply their attention-span-of-a-toddler to such minor things as war. Afghanis have been in their hell-hole for millenia. No doubt they laugh their asses off (or more likely can’t even comprehend) McChystal’s egomaniacal talk of changing things there in 12 or 24 months.

By: Eureka Springs

Eureka Springs — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:11:02 +0000

How many people born inside the borders of Afghanistan.. actually call the place they live Afghanistan?

By: TJ11

TJ11 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:08:49 +0000

What good is a general who has such narrow vision of options that the only strategy he can come up with is to remake Afghanistan into something that looks more like American first, then deal with the problems in those terms. Worthless. Who can afford such a strategy to keep America strong? It will bankrupt us. What are they teaching at the War College these days? Don’t they have any strategies other than nation building?

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:02:46 +0000

Driven entirely by his boss’s re-election calendar, looks like to me.

By: Scarecrow

Scarecrow — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:00:54 +0000

The US “found a strategy”? I thought the US got lucky when the sunnis decided they would not fight us if we paid them not to fight us. so we paid them and they stopped.

Where is the Afghan counterpart to that “strategy”? Iraq also had a national government that could claim to represent a majority, and we could use our army to suppress those Mahdi’s that were contesting that majority. Where is the Afgan counterpart.

There’s no there there.