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The Water Cooler
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U.S. SSGT kills 16 civilians
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<blockquote data-quote="Glocktogo" data-source="post: 1744784" data-attributes="member: 1132"><p>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? </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Glocktogo, post: 1744784, member: 1132"] 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? [/QUOTE]
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