- Jun 6, 2007
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President Obama's Administration again is dropping the ball on Afghanistan. This time it involves the Administration's entering into an agreement with the Afghanistan government agreeing to get authorization for night raids from a panel comprised of Afghanistan authorities before conducting the raids, it 's like requiring the military to get a warrant before conducting such a raid. The problem here that should be obvious to anyone exercising good judgment is that the country of Afghanistan is an extremely corrupt country meaning that these panels can't be trusted to keep the information they receive confidential practically this means the Taliban and Al Qaeda will often be tipped off of these raids and the targets of these raids will escape and even worse bomb and sniper traps will be set-up that kill and wound American soldiers. America once before in its history adopted rules of engagement that handicapped its military, it was called the Vietnam War and everyone knows the outcome of that war!
America's two best generals over the last twenty-five years, General Schwartzkopf and General Petraeus, on numerous occasions outlined the top priority strategy the American military should have to win a war, that is, continually degrade the enemy's military strength to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has repeatedly violated this essential part of their responsibility. Last year, on the Afghanistan War the Obama Administration withdrew ten-thousand of the thirty-thousand troop surge which was supposed to turn the war around, its one thing to bring four to five thousand troops home that just handled logistics and infrastructure matters but they brought troops home that could have helped in the fighting. This year the Obama Administration wants to pull the remaining twenty-thousand surge troops out of Afghanistan by the end of September, again their blowing it big-time, they should keep all these units in Afghanistan through this year's warm weather fighting season to degrade and weaken the Taliban military forces to the greatest extent possible and if bringing these surge troops back to the United States runs into early 2013 so be it, the military mission should be taking priority here not the President looking good for the November election. Outside of the top U.S. Generals who are duty bound to obey the President of the United States and cannot publicly proclaim the White House is wrong on this issue, numerous military experts many top active duty officers and even many rank and file soldiers believe the White House is making a mistake here, could so many responsible voices be wrong about the Obama Administration's policy to withdraw from the fight? It's obvious it's the voice with the ulterior motive that is wrong here! A large portion of the American people besides those that have and are serving in uniform deeply care about the reputation of the U.S. military at stake in this matter in recent decades the U.S. military has really raised its reputation to an illustrious level with the throwing of Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait and the 2003-2010 Iraq War which brought democracy to Iraq and the Obama Administration is throwing it all away with its mismanagement of the Afghanistan war.
The majority of the American people are right it's foolish and wasteful for America to have as its goal "nation building" in Afghanistan only an indigenous people can build a nation in their country because it takes more than just having a strong security force in a country to build a nation it takes a political and government system that works for ordinary citizens; moreover, there is a limit on how long a war can last before it turns into on many levels an irresponsible use of power for the government prosecuting the war. Just one example in the Afghanistan war how can we the American people ask ordinary U.S. soldiers to deploy in the Afghanistan war zone for a year where they face a real risk of being killed or wounded than come back to the states for a year break than deploy back into this war zone for another year and repeat this cycle indefinitely, its too much hardship on those soldiers its too much worry, fear and trauma were putting them through. The U.S. military could do an outstanding job in everything involving Afghanistan and the nation of Afghanistan could still fail, it currently has a titanic size "corruption" problem not only with respect to common matters that ordinary Afghanistan citizens face but also in fundamental big things like being able to hold fair and honest elections on the national level, it's only a matter of time before ordinary Afghanistan give-up on this mongoloid version of democracy and choose a Taliban theocracy. Considering the Afghanistan government's failure to function well over the past ten years and no prospect of this changing the vast majority of American people are only looking for our government to be responsible in getting out of Afghanistan trying as best as it can to leave an environment in Afghanistan to allow for success but "get us out" which means the American people expect the White House to weaken the Taliban to the greatest extent possible and strengthen the Afghanistan security forces to the greatest extent possible until we essentially leave by the end of 2014, the legal deadline, and hopefully that will leave the Afghanistan security forces in a position where they can hold the nation together until the next elections where Hamid Karzai who cannot constitutionally run again will be replaced and hopefully a good Afghanistan government will be formed capable of laying the groundwork so that the nation of Afghanistan can succeed! In short, the American people don't expect the White House to have thrown in the towel on militarily defeating the Taliban which it sure looks like the White House has done!
The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has repeatedly publicly condemned and called for the cessation of night raids by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It's not surprising that Hamid Karzai would do this for he has displayed crystal cleary over the last ten years that he is a spineless opportunist. The U.S. government should not concede on this issue, the Afghanistan government is in a war allied with the U.S. and its Nato partners against the Taliban and al Qaeda innocent people sometimes get killed in a war and innocent people sometimes have their sensibilities violated in a war and unfortunately that happens, nevertheless the U.S. doesn't take off the table in a war vital weapons that can save the lives of our citizens and the lives our allies' citizens that is a line we won't breach. Hamid Karzai is asking us to do that here if Mr. Karzai pushes this issue and wants to play the sovereignty card he can play this card but if he plays this card the American government should comply but also should totally shut off all funding to Mr. Karzai's government not shut-off the Afghanistan people though. The U.S. government should then set-up a funding system within Afghanistan to run until the end of 2014 that allows the U.S. to directly fund the Afghanistan Security forces and any other governmental or non-governmental entity we believe are good in Afghanistan and if that involves ferrying around bags of money in helicopters to these entities so be it. Furthermore, if Hamid Karzai plays this card we should dramatically change our war strategy to limit risk to U.S. soldiers if he wants to handicap the U.S. military we'll change our level of participation, no combat patrols no accompanying Afghanistan security forces off bases we'll limit operations off U.S. basis to situation where an enemy target(s) is definitely located than we move to that location and kill or capture that target(s). If Hamid Karzai wants to take it to the extreme and cause us problems with this course we can just say we don't recognize his legitimacy as President he and his allies stole the past election there is plenty of authority for that position and we will stay this course until the end of 2014 pursuant to the NATO agreement and if we have to pull out all U.S. nationals from Afghanistan and hunker down in a bunker mentality until the 2014 deadline so be it. It would be interesting to know if U.S. diplomats ever informally confronted Mr. Karzai with the wise advice that he seems to try to walk a path where he thinks everything will be okay for him if the Taliban come back into power in Afghanistan where wisdom definitely calls for the belief that if the Taliban come back into power Hamid Karzai is a definite dead man at the hands of the Taliban for he was the chief conspirator and collaborator with the evil infidel Americans and that is if good Afghanistans don't kill him first for throwing away the Afghanistan people's only good chance in generations and probably generations to come of having a good democracy because of the corruption Hamid Karzai and his family promulgated and tolerated!
Another area where the Obama Administration is mishandling the Afghanistan War is their plans to reduce the size of the Afghanistan Army and police force from 352,00 to 230,000 by 2017. Even though NATO largely pays the cost of these forces this seems very foolish NATO security forces are leaving by the end of 2014 a big loss for security in Afghanistan and at the same time you want to be reducing Afghanistan security strength it seems like your facilitating Taliban military successes there. Good judgment seems to call for the strategy of wait to see that the security situation in Afghanistan after NATO leaves is clearly good and stable before reducing the strength of the Afghanistan security forces the one exception to this is if specific Afghanistan security units aren't good either from a fighting standpoint or a law and order stanpoint than those units should not be funded and the size of the overall security forces shrunk accordingly. When the U.S. was at its peak of its surge what was the cost of the Afghanistan war to the American people $100 billion dollars a year considering America has already gone all in on Afghanistan we've spent probably close to a trillion dollars on the war, lost 1500 American soldiers over there suffered at least four times that number seriously wounded what is $ 6 to 7 billion dollars of aid per year to Afghanistan for the foreseeable future to see that country succeed as a democracy also considering that if Afghanistan succeeds as a democrat country long-term it will only be because it stopped being a corrupt country and if Afghanistan succeeds this way it would put a lot of pressure on the neighboring country of Pakistan to succeed that way and if that happened that would be a great advancement for peace, security and justice throughout the world. It's a miniscule expense considering this potential up-side!
Top Democrats and their top supporters are foolish in standing by and letting the Obama Administration mishandle the Afghanistan war. If Barack Obama this November wins a second term and the Afghanistan situation continues its downward spiral and there is no reason to believe a second Obama administration will change this the Taliban may not regain power during Barack Obama's second term but they will shortly afterward and if this occurs the Democrat brand will be hurt badly over it. It will permanently impress in the back of their mind for the American voter that Democrats are bad and cannot be trusted on "defense and national security" matters which bodes poorly for Democrat candidates in future elections. This is especially true if one considers that the Obama Administration is not only planning to do the understandible thing in rolling back U.S. military strength to what it was before 9/11/2001 because of America's deficit and national debt problems but the Obama Administration plans on making the U.S. military significantly weaker they plan on shuttering one aircraft carrier group and leaving the U.S. military only strong enough to win one major war at a time when prior to 9/11 it was stong enough to win two major wars at the same time and maintain a third war at a stalemate! As things look now it seems the Republican talking point "Democrats are weak on defense" will hold persuasive strength well into the indefinite future!
America's two best generals over the last twenty-five years, General Schwartzkopf and General Petraeus, on numerous occasions outlined the top priority strategy the American military should have to win a war, that is, continually degrade the enemy's military strength to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has repeatedly violated this essential part of their responsibility. Last year, on the Afghanistan War the Obama Administration withdrew ten-thousand of the thirty-thousand troop surge which was supposed to turn the war around, its one thing to bring four to five thousand troops home that just handled logistics and infrastructure matters but they brought troops home that could have helped in the fighting. This year the Obama Administration wants to pull the remaining twenty-thousand surge troops out of Afghanistan by the end of September, again their blowing it big-time, they should keep all these units in Afghanistan through this year's warm weather fighting season to degrade and weaken the Taliban military forces to the greatest extent possible and if bringing these surge troops back to the United States runs into early 2013 so be it, the military mission should be taking priority here not the President looking good for the November election. Outside of the top U.S. Generals who are duty bound to obey the President of the United States and cannot publicly proclaim the White House is wrong on this issue, numerous military experts many top active duty officers and even many rank and file soldiers believe the White House is making a mistake here, could so many responsible voices be wrong about the Obama Administration's policy to withdraw from the fight? It's obvious it's the voice with the ulterior motive that is wrong here! A large portion of the American people besides those that have and are serving in uniform deeply care about the reputation of the U.S. military at stake in this matter in recent decades the U.S. military has really raised its reputation to an illustrious level with the throwing of Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait and the 2003-2010 Iraq War which brought democracy to Iraq and the Obama Administration is throwing it all away with its mismanagement of the Afghanistan war.
The majority of the American people are right it's foolish and wasteful for America to have as its goal "nation building" in Afghanistan only an indigenous people can build a nation in their country because it takes more than just having a strong security force in a country to build a nation it takes a political and government system that works for ordinary citizens; moreover, there is a limit on how long a war can last before it turns into on many levels an irresponsible use of power for the government prosecuting the war. Just one example in the Afghanistan war how can we the American people ask ordinary U.S. soldiers to deploy in the Afghanistan war zone for a year where they face a real risk of being killed or wounded than come back to the states for a year break than deploy back into this war zone for another year and repeat this cycle indefinitely, its too much hardship on those soldiers its too much worry, fear and trauma were putting them through. The U.S. military could do an outstanding job in everything involving Afghanistan and the nation of Afghanistan could still fail, it currently has a titanic size "corruption" problem not only with respect to common matters that ordinary Afghanistan citizens face but also in fundamental big things like being able to hold fair and honest elections on the national level, it's only a matter of time before ordinary Afghanistan give-up on this mongoloid version of democracy and choose a Taliban theocracy. Considering the Afghanistan government's failure to function well over the past ten years and no prospect of this changing the vast majority of American people are only looking for our government to be responsible in getting out of Afghanistan trying as best as it can to leave an environment in Afghanistan to allow for success but "get us out" which means the American people expect the White House to weaken the Taliban to the greatest extent possible and strengthen the Afghanistan security forces to the greatest extent possible until we essentially leave by the end of 2014, the legal deadline, and hopefully that will leave the Afghanistan security forces in a position where they can hold the nation together until the next elections where Hamid Karzai who cannot constitutionally run again will be replaced and hopefully a good Afghanistan government will be formed capable of laying the groundwork so that the nation of Afghanistan can succeed! In short, the American people don't expect the White House to have thrown in the towel on militarily defeating the Taliban which it sure looks like the White House has done!
The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has repeatedly publicly condemned and called for the cessation of night raids by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It's not surprising that Hamid Karzai would do this for he has displayed crystal cleary over the last ten years that he is a spineless opportunist. The U.S. government should not concede on this issue, the Afghanistan government is in a war allied with the U.S. and its Nato partners against the Taliban and al Qaeda innocent people sometimes get killed in a war and innocent people sometimes have their sensibilities violated in a war and unfortunately that happens, nevertheless the U.S. doesn't take off the table in a war vital weapons that can save the lives of our citizens and the lives our allies' citizens that is a line we won't breach. Hamid Karzai is asking us to do that here if Mr. Karzai pushes this issue and wants to play the sovereignty card he can play this card but if he plays this card the American government should comply but also should totally shut off all funding to Mr. Karzai's government not shut-off the Afghanistan people though. The U.S. government should then set-up a funding system within Afghanistan to run until the end of 2014 that allows the U.S. to directly fund the Afghanistan Security forces and any other governmental or non-governmental entity we believe are good in Afghanistan and if that involves ferrying around bags of money in helicopters to these entities so be it. Furthermore, if Hamid Karzai plays this card we should dramatically change our war strategy to limit risk to U.S. soldiers if he wants to handicap the U.S. military we'll change our level of participation, no combat patrols no accompanying Afghanistan security forces off bases we'll limit operations off U.S. basis to situation where an enemy target(s) is definitely located than we move to that location and kill or capture that target(s). If Hamid Karzai wants to take it to the extreme and cause us problems with this course we can just say we don't recognize his legitimacy as President he and his allies stole the past election there is plenty of authority for that position and we will stay this course until the end of 2014 pursuant to the NATO agreement and if we have to pull out all U.S. nationals from Afghanistan and hunker down in a bunker mentality until the 2014 deadline so be it. It would be interesting to know if U.S. diplomats ever informally confronted Mr. Karzai with the wise advice that he seems to try to walk a path where he thinks everything will be okay for him if the Taliban come back into power in Afghanistan where wisdom definitely calls for the belief that if the Taliban come back into power Hamid Karzai is a definite dead man at the hands of the Taliban for he was the chief conspirator and collaborator with the evil infidel Americans and that is if good Afghanistans don't kill him first for throwing away the Afghanistan people's only good chance in generations and probably generations to come of having a good democracy because of the corruption Hamid Karzai and his family promulgated and tolerated!
Another area where the Obama Administration is mishandling the Afghanistan War is their plans to reduce the size of the Afghanistan Army and police force from 352,00 to 230,000 by 2017. Even though NATO largely pays the cost of these forces this seems very foolish NATO security forces are leaving by the end of 2014 a big loss for security in Afghanistan and at the same time you want to be reducing Afghanistan security strength it seems like your facilitating Taliban military successes there. Good judgment seems to call for the strategy of wait to see that the security situation in Afghanistan after NATO leaves is clearly good and stable before reducing the strength of the Afghanistan security forces the one exception to this is if specific Afghanistan security units aren't good either from a fighting standpoint or a law and order stanpoint than those units should not be funded and the size of the overall security forces shrunk accordingly. When the U.S. was at its peak of its surge what was the cost of the Afghanistan war to the American people $100 billion dollars a year considering America has already gone all in on Afghanistan we've spent probably close to a trillion dollars on the war, lost 1500 American soldiers over there suffered at least four times that number seriously wounded what is $ 6 to 7 billion dollars of aid per year to Afghanistan for the foreseeable future to see that country succeed as a democracy also considering that if Afghanistan succeeds as a democrat country long-term it will only be because it stopped being a corrupt country and if Afghanistan succeeds this way it would put a lot of pressure on the neighboring country of Pakistan to succeed that way and if that happened that would be a great advancement for peace, security and justice throughout the world. It's a miniscule expense considering this potential up-side!
Top Democrats and their top supporters are foolish in standing by and letting the Obama Administration mishandle the Afghanistan war. If Barack Obama this November wins a second term and the Afghanistan situation continues its downward spiral and there is no reason to believe a second Obama administration will change this the Taliban may not regain power during Barack Obama's second term but they will shortly afterward and if this occurs the Democrat brand will be hurt badly over it. It will permanently impress in the back of their mind for the American voter that Democrats are bad and cannot be trusted on "defense and national security" matters which bodes poorly for Democrat candidates in future elections. This is especially true if one considers that the Obama Administration is not only planning to do the understandible thing in rolling back U.S. military strength to what it was before 9/11/2001 because of America's deficit and national debt problems but the Obama Administration plans on making the U.S. military significantly weaker they plan on shuttering one aircraft carrier group and leaving the U.S. military only strong enough to win one major war at a time when prior to 9/11 it was stong enough to win two major wars at the same time and maintain a third war at a stalemate! As things look now it seems the Republican talking point "Democrats are weak on defense" will hold persuasive strength well into the indefinite future!
