Them elephanunts are a hardship to haul around
That's why you're supposed to ride them.
Well, we did have that deviation from the plan over there in Iraq, so the delay is understandable.
Every few generations, someone comes along who thinks they can reinvent the wheel. I don't believe it's a failure to learn and understand history, I think it's because they really think they know better. The current brain trust (I'll include Bush, Rumsfeld, et al in this category) feels like they can actually "win" Afghanistan. Given a few decades of memory eraser, som new fool will come along and do the same thing.
We'd have accomplished more if we'd napalmed all the poppy fields right before harvest and never set foot in that God forsaken place.
Don't take this the wrong way... this is directed at no one specific person, but to everyone in this thread talking about how we shouldn't be over there or about my fellow servicemen who have passed...
How much do you do to support your troops while they are over there? Do you just go down to the local store and buy a "Support our troops" ribbon? I see a whole lot of hollow "caring" for the troops over there i.e. saying it but not showing it... How many of you donate to the local USO, send care packages to the troops over there, or even a letter... without the squadron going out and looking for people to do this of course? Think not about why we are over there per say, but about the people who have no choice and must do what they are told. Who joined to be something, someone who wants to keep america safe no matter the cost. I bet if you could ask all the servicemen who've died "do you think your death was for something?" all of them would reply "yes" without a doubt in my mind. When we are over there, yes we complain about it all day (who wouldn't, it's hot and dusty all the damn time), but when there is a job to do, we live for it and will die by it if we must.
I'm just bringing this up because I see a lot of people talk about how much they care about us, when they only say it to make themselves feel better. Most people complain about all the money being spent for this "war on terror" that they think is useless... let me tell you, and I've seen it first hand, that the people we are fighting need to be fought. Would you rather have the battle ground on our soil? I'd hope not. If we don't take the fight to them, they will be at our throats killing our women and children. Pretending to have a heart attack in the middle of a food court so all the people will run to try and help them, only to be blown up by someone's F'd up beliefs when they get close.
If we weren't the world's police, who would be? If the nation stood by and did nothing like I'm sure most of you think we should do, then what would you complain about when you specifically are faced with terrorism or war was brought to your doorstep? Someone has to do it, we stepped up. Just because you are good at reading what the media sells or the internet does not make you qualified to judge the calculated risks we must take in order to protect out soil from the evils of the world. You don't see or hear about what goes on behind the scenes. You may think you do, but you don't unless you are actively serving and have privy to the information...
About the SSgt going on a rampage... of course the guy snapped, it happens when no one sees the signs. Suicide tolls in the services are climbing. Lots of people in the service are begining to listen to all the media and the citizens who complain about things like "why are we over there" and it weakens them. It takes a mental tool on someone who wants to fight for his country, but hears all day long, "why are you there, why are we spending money, blah blah blah...". People grow weak when no one is there to back them. Maybe no one was there for the SSgt to back him up, to look out for him... I'm just saying it's harder than it looks to be a warfighter now a days when our citizens don't back us 100%. I try my damnedest to look out for my guys and see any signs of irregularities so I can help them through their struggles because most of the time, they have no one to go to really. Where were the people looking out for this guy? Who didn't see the signs?
I could rant on and on, but I'm sure I've pissed someone off and I'll get modded or something, but just take away one thing from this, "support the troops."
How much do you do to support your troops while they are over there? Do you just go down to the local store and buy a "Support our troops" ribbon? I see a whole lot of hollow "caring" for the troops over there i.e. saying it but not showing it... How many of you donate to the local USO, send care packages to the troops over there, or even a letter... without the squadron going out and looking for people to do this of course? Think not about why we are over there per say, but about the people who have no choice and must do what they are told. Who joined to be something, someone who wants to keep america safe no matter the cost. I bet if you could ask all the servicemen who've died "do you think your death was for something?" all of them would reply "yes" without a doubt in my mind. When we are over there, yes we complain about it all day (who wouldn't, it's hot and dusty all the damn time), but when there is a job to do, we live for it and will die by it if we must.
I'm just bringing this up because I see a lot of people talk about how much they care about us, when they only say it to make themselves feel better. Most people complain about all the money being spent for this "war on terror" that they think is useless... let me tell you, and I've seen it first hand, that the people we are fighting need to be fought. Would you rather have the battle ground on our soil? I'd hope not. If we don't take the fight to them, they will be at our throats killing our women and children. Pretending to have a heart attack in the middle of a food court so all the people will run to try and help them, only to be blown up by someone's F'd up beliefs when they get close.
If we weren't the world's police, who would be? If the nation stood by and did nothing like I'm sure most of you think we should do, then what would you complain about when you specifically are faced with terrorism or war was brought to your doorstep? Someone has to do it, we stepped up. Just because you are good at reading what the media sells or the internet does not make you qualified to judge the calculated risks we must take in order to protect out soil from the evils of the world. You don't see or hear about what goes on behind the scenes. You may think you do, but you don't unless you are actively serving and have privy to the information...
About the SSgt going on a rampage... of course the guy snapped, it happens when no one sees the signs. Suicide tolls in the services are climbing. Lots of people in the service are begining to listen to all the media and the citizens who complain about things like "why are we over there" and it weakens them. It takes a mental tool on someone who wants to fight for his country, but hears all day long, "why are you there, why are we spending money, blah blah blah...". People grow weak when no one is there to back them. Maybe no one was there for the SSgt to back him up, to look out for him... I'm just saying it's harder than it looks to be a warfighter now a days when our citizens don't back us 100%. I try my damnedest to look out for my guys and see any signs of irregularities so I can help them through their struggles because most of the time, they have no one to go to really. Where were the people looking out for this guy? Who didn't see the signs?
I could rant on and on, but I'm sure I've pissed someone off and I'll get modded or something, but just take away one thing from this, "support the troops."
I can empathize with your concerns, because I've been there, done that. I've lost friends and fellow Marines while deployed and I've lost a friend to this war. I believe I have a right to speak my mind on the subject, and that you are in the service fighting for my right to do so, just as I fought back when I was in. I specifically remember reading some political hack's unfounded opinion on the dangers I was facing and getting pissed because he was lying to the American public about it. He wasn't there, so how the hell could he know what was happening?
I've yet to see any credible evidence that suggests the Taliban would ever attack America on American soil. I have yet to see any credible evidence that anything we're doing over there now is making America safer. Are they nice people? No. Is that a reasonable justification for continuing to attack them 10 years later? No. The very fact that we’re continuing to engage them in anything but an all out war after a decade is proof of failures on a strategic level. We can win all the battles in the theater, but that does not necessarily add up to a victory.
How can the most powerful nation in the world, with the most advanced combat force ever fielded be so woefully mired in sustained hostilities with one of the least advanced nations to ever exist? Simple, it’s a policy failure. Our troops have been saddled with restrictive ROE’s. We’re too busy trying to win the “information operations” war to recognize the futility of Afghanistan. We lack the clarity of purpose necessary to change that region into one more advanced, because we cannot change the people themselves. We do not fight to capitulation. We fight to either convert or stalemate the enemy. It would take more than 50 years of clear, decisive policy and intervention to convert the population of Afghanistan into something more than backwards savages. It would take an all out annihilation of the population to effect a complete surrender, which we’re unwilling to do. The Japanese did far more to the United States than any Afghan ever has, and we were unwilling to decimate their population either.
So, what are we fighting for in Afghanistan? Democracy? If so, it’s the absolute worst reason in a long line of bad reasons to occupy that region since Alexander the Great invaded. While Islam has held sway over the region since 642AD, no invader from outside the region has ever managed to conquer the indigenous population. You can plant all the seeds you want, but unless they want those ideas to grow, they will not.
So, we’ve expelled Al-Qaeda. We’ve killed most of the Taliban leadership responsible for harboring Al-Qaeda. What do you propose our further intervention in the region would accomplish? What would it do to further US interests, much less our security?
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a vet of OIF and no matter what anybody says I know I made a difference in the lives of those I helped and those who were on the wrong end. I work for and with Veterans everyday and see the toll this war has on them, myself included. It ain't pretty but they all are making a difference, even if its not the most popular thing.
I will say that after the incident this weekend it is time to cut the crap and decide what we are going to do. It's time for either full blown war with these idiots, no mercy or it's time to get out. Destroy them or move on.
The war is a lost cause and we will pull out of Afghanistan and it will revert back to what it was. To paraphrase John Kerry: "how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Afghanistan? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
The world doesn't need a global police force. Not to mention, who's responsible for the bill? You, me, our children? Why? Because some other place is all screwed up? And we're not?
Mmmmkay.
Well.......son was in Kosovo and Afghanistan
Daughter in Iraq
SIL currently in Afghastain
I write lots. Participate in letter and other drives through My VFW and American Legion.
You know some one over there that would like a friendly note dropped to them PM me and I will drop him a line. I mean that.
It breaks my heart at the # of troops there who get little or nothing from back home.
Daughter gave me over a dozen names of troops in HER unit alone that were getting nothing from home.
I organized a letter and present drive to those troops and believe me I would love to again...............I am serious
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