There seems to be some disagreement about who the home team is. You seem to be suggesting it isn't the Afghan government, and the Taliban who are actually based in Pakistan are only one of the ethnic populations in Afghanistan.
( I'm not suggesting that it is anyone but the Afghan Government... Afghan is not our home, it is their home....which makes it their home Team.)
I don't believe this was ever out intention, stated or otherwise.
(Yes, by being in Afghanistan, "hunting terrorists", we ARE trying to rule their Country. We put Karzai into power, we're helping him to train a Military and Police force (which as everyone can see is futile at best) and helping Karzai form a New Government. We're pulling the strings...I'd call that being the rulers of Afghanistan...)
Again, who is this new leadership you speak of... Karzai is scrambling to regroup for a future without our army to support his government. He can barely control Kabul, let alone the countryside without our muscle. Opening negotiations with the Taliban and releasing some of their top military fighters from gitmo will further weaken the already weak Kabul government.
(See Above.)
Everybody makes mistakes, but it is only our mistakes that the press enjoy playing up, and the opposition uses as a rallying cry. The elephant in the room is that we have already announced that we are pulling out. It is framed by the weakness of that retreat, that things will only get worse. It is sad for the majority of the Afghan people who only want peace, but have known only fighting for multiple generations. After we leave they may get their peace but it will not come with freedom of choice or self rule.
( If the Afghani's want peace, it is their responsibility, not OURS. The U.S. should not meddle in other Country's politics, and, that is not the supposed reason the U.S. went there in the first place...it was to root-out terrorists and terrrorist training camps. (per GWB))
It is just more evidence of our politically correctness warped judgement when we care more about handling of the corpse than making them corpses in the first place.
(NO...it is an idea the goes back many Thousands of Years...to treat Warrior's corpses, even the opposing Warrior's corpses with respect. The Warrior gave the most precious thing he had to give, and that was his life, if he died an Honorable death in battle, his corpse was to be treated Honorably in death.)
It is shaping up to be a monumental waste, but this is not unusual for this crew. Where is the outrage over the half assed surge? There is a saying that we are always fighting the last war, not the current one, and the surge that worked so well in Iraq, is not the correct strategy for Afghanistan, especially when you don't give your generals the troops and resources they tell you they will need to accomplish that mission.
(What resources?...we have the most technically advanced weapons, the supposedly, best trained Military forces and we cannot still get them to behave as our leaders want them... You cannot make people that hate you, hate your life, and hate the majority's religious belief system, love you. )
I am always angry when we choose to fail at any undertaking and this looks like we are planning to fail at this too. While out of political favor, the original strategy that we used to take over Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance and minimal US troops, looks brilliant in hindsight. I'm sure they are already looking for ways to blame this debacle on that former guy... but he didn't ramp up the commitment there over the last few years.
( This undertaking was doomed from the start... the Russians spent many hundreds of thousands of lives in Afghanistan. And, for them it was an all out War...not some half-assed, Nation Building, Rooting-out terrorist mumbo jumbo. The Russians didn't have any so-called factions to help them. People forget, that to these people, their rallying cry is Islam vs Christians .)
Our failure in afghanistan will weaken our influence in the region, that seems to be in a state of flux right now, in need of some good examples and positive support. Not more, "good luck you're on your own" empty platitudes.
(Our failure in Afghanistan will change nothing but the time-line... ending with an Islamic Theocracy selling their Mineral Rights to the highest bidder.)
Of course opinions vary, and if we ramp up domestic spending high enough we can't afford to help around the world.
Wouldn't it be nice if everything magically turned peaceful, in our absence.
Do you feel lucky? I don't.
JR
