LadyJazzer wrote: It doesn't matter if we leave 5 years from now...or 10 years from now... The outcome will be the same...
What DOES make a difference is how many of our own we lose, and how much money we throw down the drain... The longer we wait, the more we waste...of both. We knew this 5 years ago, but everybody is too afraid that the usual folks will break out their "cut and run" banners and bumper-stickers.
Let's save us... If we're going to "rebuild something", let's rebuild us. Let's use the "peace dividend" on our own country. It hasn't been our battle in years. All we do now is mission after mission to cover our own personnel, rescue our own personnel, protect our own personnel...If we weren't there, none of that would be necessary. Obviously, running around the Middle East trying to drop Jeffersonian democracies into tribal, feudal societies is not going to work.
After watching Charlie Wilson's War, I thought we should have helped to rebuild Afghanistan, but after finding out from news reports and returning vets, I think moving the country forward is impossible. No one in power cares about the people and the stuff that is built isn't maintained.
One of the early stories was that women were unable to receive an education under the Taliban, but even 90% of the Afghani male troops and police are functionally illiterate.
We should have let the Soviets keep the place.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
My own opinion on Afgan is that we are trying to change thousands of years of history and it will not happen. Afgan has never been conquered, it is a country that has been at war for ever, either with itself or with another country.
Even the current government is corrupt. Karsi proves all this almost daily. The problem (in my opinion) is not Afgan but Pakistan. The are nothing more than liars, waiting in the background to see how all this plays out.
It always takes me some time to process information like this. I tend to want to just run from it as it is painful. My prayers to the friends, family and fellow Seals of those who have been lost. May they guard heaven well.
LJ.....once again....you are the voice of reason. (This is starting to happen a lot.....one of us is mellowing)
Very sad. My thoughts are with their friends and family too.
I like those Chinooks, but when they go down they take everyone out. I am with those who say let's bring our troops home from
Afghanistan. Now that Bin Laden is dead, there is no reason to be there IMO. I've got friends and colleagues over there or on their way. I would rather they survive here, job or no, than die there.
With tongue in cheek, I say, let's sic Korporate Amerika and the IRS on that country....
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The co-pilot of the Chinook helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan was a pilot for the Colorado Army National Guard based at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, military authorities said Monday. Friends identified the victim as David R. Carter.
The news is reporting that the Taliban militants responsible for taking down the Chinook helicopter have been killed. I figured they were marked men and the last person you want to be is someone marked by America's finest....the Special Ops troops.
I'm not sure how they know they have killed the same militants...but I hope it's true. I also suspect that particular region of Afghanistan is going to get even MORE unwanted attention in the near future.
