The mission was fucked in Vietnam, same as Afghanistan. Sorry, but Obama was right to be skeptical about what we're doing there and right to be pessimistic about our chances to accomplish whatever the fuck it is we are trying to accomplish. The thing he was wrong about was not to pull every single American out of that shithole the day he was sworn in.
Don't you get it yet? Afghanistan is a black hole that we can pour treasure and blood into for the next 20 years and nothing is going to change. Read your fucking history books. Ask the Russians, ask the British, we're just the latest in a long line. We should have been out of that god-forsaken place 12 months after American boots first hit the ground there.
Originally Posted by timpage
Don't you get it yet?
If I found myself in command and I was more than skeptical (he didn't believe in the mission, it was all politics) then I would either change the mission to something that can be accomplished and bring aid to the population or go in front of the American people and tell them the truth. The mission cannot be accomplished therefore I am now ordering all the troops home. Or if you want to be diplomatic and politic you say the mission was accomplished (Bin Laden is in hiding and the Taliban has been defeated) and then you order the troops home. In either case you might get some kind of response from Karzi that he is willing to cooperate 100% which include banning honor killings and all those other third world things they do. The strategy would change to one of massive overkill when we find a concentration of terrorists (if we stay). That would include all facets of a military response.
Obama didn't have the guts to withdraw and then he didn't have the brains to listen to the professionals.
Some have said that this is par for the course. Not true, in 1942 FDR was facing a mid term election that his party was going to do poorly in. Operation Torch (the invasion of North Africa) was planned for later that same week. His political people said that they needed some kind of victory to turn the election around and if Torch could happen a week earlier... FDR went to his military advisors (he did think about it) and they said that the high tide and a moonless night was what the needed to save American lives. FDR chose the military advice over the political advice. The GOP got nine new senators with a greater share of the popular vote and 45 new congressional seats with a solid majority of the popular vote. That was a man with guts and integrity (even if I disagree with some other things that he did)
