28 Replies to “Precision Voting”

  1. Maybe they’ll start referring to it as the “Politics by Other Means Using Deadly Military Force”
    Sounds so much “nicer”

  2. I’m glad they are going to try something else, similar to what occurred during the “surge” in Iraq. It must be very frustrating to the soldiers to fight over and over for the same piece of real estate. There seems to be an almost unlimited supply of jihadis and Afghan nationalists willing to take on the Coalition. Some Afghan fighters are of flexible loyalty, changing sides as conditions change. If the war is going to be won, it will be because the elites have been bought off and local people buy into fighting the Taliban and keeping them out of their local area, similar to what happened in Anbar province in Iraq. The ‘ghan is different, however, and success is more problematic. I’m not confident we can pull it off. Obama is probably seeking a face-saving way to pull out, which will be followed by a resumption of the civil war, until the Taliban take over again. Too bad for the little girls who won’t be allowed to go to school, and the women who will live their lives under house arrest. We are trying, however ineptly, to help them get a better life, but ultimately, the Afghans will have to fight and win this battle.
    My 21 year-old nephew left for Afghanistan last night with the 82nd Airborne.

  3. I saw soldiers actually SMOKING in those photos. Don’t they know that is hazardous to their health?

  4. One problem the handwringers have is that….the military smokes….it goes with the territory…stress ya know….
    My one remaining sympathetic notion towards OBOZO is that he smokes….
    The other problem the handwringers have…as reflected by that Homeland Security threat assessment memo….returning troops are a security hazard….the absentee ballots indicate they don’t vote democrat….
    Democrats make the mistake of attempting to conduct war with domestic political goals….
    Casualties are a problem politically….hence the surge to lesson casualties….and the standoff use of missiles during the Clinton administration.
    The later policy doesn’t work….you cannot occupy ground with a tank, a gun(artillery), an airplane, a helicopter or a missile….occupation occurs with troops on the ground…and casualties.

  6. There is nothing in Afghanistan that is worth dying for. There will never be a shortage of insurgents and they will never quit.
    We need a bail for the Army because they are too big to fail and they are going to fail in this effort.
    Stop wasting valuable Western lives and get out now. Let the chips fall where they may.
    All we are doing there is attempting to provide better mud huts to primitives. That is not the reason we went there …. We went their to get rid of the taliban and al kaida.
    Why not just fly over every six months and carpet bomb the training camps then come home and have a burger and a coke.
    I don’t believe this war is winnable, nor is it worth fighting. I did support this effort since day one, but since Obama took charge, I believe are chances of success are gone as are his.
    The USA is now under the control of an incompetent pack of thieves and their ‘behind the curtain’ marionette masters. Nothing is what is seems and we are all in grave danger from this freakish situation.

  7. McChrystal outlined some of the basics of the new strategy last week in a seven-page counterinsurgency guidance document.
    “We (Gen. McChrystal) will not win simply by killing insurgents,” he wrote.
    WRONG !!!!!!!
    “We will help the Afghan people win by securing them, by protecting them from intimidation, violence and abuse.”
    How can you do that w/o killing Islamic Terrorist Savages ? Oh that’s right, Obama may have a half brother fighting in Afhganistan.
    Good Lord, Obama’s Cumbaya Strategy will get us all killed.
    I do agree Momar on the Carpet Bombing.

  8. Momar has the right idea. In fact, when I was contemplating the hopelessness of the situation last week, I also thought of the carpet bombing.
    Wonder if that idea will eventually reach the higher echelons.
    And Ratt agrees also.
    Maybe we could start a poll.

  10. I agree with Momar’s post.
    Afghanistan was lost the day that it was decided to allow Afghanistan to be an Islamic Republic.
    It is only a matter of time until all of the seats in Afghanistan’s government are filled with Taliban who were elected to be there.
    Why waste more blood and treasure?
    Our politicians should just hold secret talks with the Taliban, get a ceasefire, declare victory, and get our soldiers out.

  11. Afghanistan is winable….been done before…
    Alexanderm Genghis Khan and the Golden Horde succeeded……..without carpet bombing….but you would never know the difference after….
    Remember the Mongols succeeded where the persian Empire failed—to destroy the Assasins…And the Brits ended the Thuggee Cult–something the Moguls couldn’t do….
    Boots on the ground….
    “Obama’s Cumbaya Strategy” is like Neville Chamberlain’s “peace in our time..”

  12. Afghanistan was lost the day it became an Islamic Republic.
    It isn’t even a real country.
    It has no economy except opium poppies.

  14. “Israeli sniper”??? I do believe that is Rifleman Jones of the British 2 Rifles. Gotta read the story so you can comment dude.

  15. citizens everywhere for all time have been subjected to intimidation and abuse or at least have had to be proactive to neutralize it. and it comes from unlikely and sadly surprising INTERNAL sources; from those who are PAID great sums of money to counteract it but in fact are the worst instigators.
    nothing new about that.
    the strategy to get Afghans to a point where they can take on this job and take on the taliban themselves is in my mind the acid test of success in that country. it is doable. it is why I unreservedly support the Canadian military personnel there. a great deal more that the gubbamint of Canuckistan present or past.

  16. Oz,
    ..thinkin’ the same thing here…
    “There is nothing in Afghanistan that worth dying for.”
    Correct Momar…in my view the major reason the “War In Afghanistan” is ongoing concerns who will control the “Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline” and that other 3-letter word…OIL.

  17. More Afstan administrative comedy courtesy of the Bundeswehr.
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,646085,00.html
    Likewise, it’s already been a few years since a German general complained that putting your hopes in the CH-53 military helicopter “is like rolling the dice.” In fact, the military has been calling for more helicopters for as long as it has been deployed in Afghanistan. But even with two more helicopters, to add to the fleet of six, nothing much has changed. The only improvement was to the statistics, since the helicopters arrived without any pilots to fly them. As one person commented rather dryly: “The staffing level was not adjusted to the number of aircraft.”
    Another brilliant exercise in logistics similar to our own Canadian Sea King tragi-comedy.
    Cheers
    Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht-Commander in Chief
    Army Group “True North”
    1st St. Nicolaas Army

  18. IMO Obama simply F’d up!
    Although Obama says “Astan is the war we have to win” IMHO he didn’t mean it. Obama campaigned on leaving Iraq, but because of who he ran against he had to appear to be strong against “terror”(I’m projecting). In reality, I believe Obama couldn’t care less about Afstan or Iraq. His only concern is how will these wars effect his polling numbers.
    I predict that Obama will not follow through, and with dwindling international support the Americans will pull-out accomplishing nothing in the end. The fact is, the way I see it, this war is probably unwinnable in the current political climate. Nobody is willing to invest the resources necessary to get the job done. None of this is Obama’s fault of course. The problem is Obama took the “high and mighty” road and condemned GWB for a war that he won; and, ran his mouth about how he would bring home a victory in a war they must win.
    Politically, Obama must hope and pray that the Iraqi government can maintain order. Remember, during the primaries Obama said that if the Taliban took over Iraq again, he would send troops in AGAIN to remedy the situation.
    In four years Obama may lose Afstan and hand back Iraq to the enemy. That’s what I call political suicide.
    btw, wrt the “War on Terror”, what is it they say?
    Reality is a biatch!

  19. Gotta read the story so you can comment dude.
    ~Texas
    I clicked on the links but didn’t click on the picture.
    Why didn’t I click on the picture?
    Because clicking on the picture doesn’t usually lead to a story here at SDA, it just leads to the same picture on a blank page.

  20. “Afghanistan is winable….been done before…”
    I have to agree; but the tactics and political will must change drastically to do so.
    As an old British soldier observed after 9/11: “you have to promise to find all remains of the bomber and bury them in pig skin”. Use something that worked before.
    Listening to the big “O”‘s administration, hearkens back to domestic crime fighting tactics instead. We can’t hold a “Search Warrant” type of hearing before going in and killing the bastards. We can’t read them their Rights. Etc..
    The CIA hearings must have Bin Ladin dancing with glee!

  21. Think about it for a moment – This effort had better be winnable given how close the Taliban is to the Pakistani nukes!
    To do that, NATO just may have to ‘contract out’ to the local warlords. It seems that they are the only ones willing to do whatever has to be done to succeed.

  22. This effort had better be winnable given how close the Taliban is to the Pakistani nukes!
    ~CRB
    Don’t worry about it.
    Pakistan is only ever one election away from a Taliban type getting control of those nukes and the second largest ethnic group of Pakistan are Pashtuns, while the Taliban is largely Pashtun, which is the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

  23. While our guys are in the area, there is one more hurdle for these savages to mount and I don’t like their chances.
    CRB

  25. The Brits are eventually going to figure out that they can fight the Taliban in Birmingham and Manchester. It’ll save the travel expense of going to Af’stan.

  26. The Brits are eventually going to realize that they don’t need to go to Af’stan to fight the taliban. They can do it in Birmingham and Manchester and save the travel expense.

  27. Mark Ottawa,
    Firstly, your request was polite and you are thanked for that.
    Secondly, the fact that you suggest that Eric Margolis will set me straight tells me who is actually delusional and it isn’t me.
    “The End Of Oil” (on the edge of a perilous new world) by Paul Roberts is a good place to start. Add the fact of the reserves in the “stans” (Turkmenistan, etc in Central Asia) need a pipeline to reach a thirsty market. Before the Taliban took control of the country, UNOCAL (American and part of the CentGas Consortium) was starting to organize the project. The Taliban then cancelled that involvement and let the project to a Brazilian company, I believe. Now there is, again, an American interest in building the pipeline. Go figure.
    Follow along from there and do your research.
    Afghanistan is not a winnable conflict. The first British soldier died, I believe, in 1842. In the British Cemetery, in Kabul, Lt-Col John Garsford was interred on Dec 14, 1879 the first of many, from the Anglo-Afghan War. The list goes on and no one could win. Why? Maybe because it isn’t winnable?
    Mark, there are other factors that play out, for sure. But a common denominator remains that other 3-letter word…..OIL! I have yet to see any argument that disproves that fact. Why else, and by whom, would the waste of soldiers lives be justified? And, please, don’t pine that “democracy” debate…it just doesn’t cut it with me. Sorry.
    Good health to you Sir.

  28. Mark,
    Forgot one thing: just a couple of days ago, Russia, who got their fannies waxed (with American help) announced it wants to be involved on the stragetic planning side (no troops) to aid “our” side in the conflict. It just gets ‘more curiouser and curiouser’.

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