Unforgivable

[777 fixer]

I find it interesting that we disregarded the decade long Soviet adventure in Afghanistan as we debate troop surges and the like.

The fact is that the old Soviet Union, unbound by "Exclusion Zones" and a "Hearts and Minds" philosophy could not subdue the country by brute force but we're going to?

While flooding the country with Red Army soldiers did not help the Soviets there are some very big differences. The most important one is that the Soviets idea of hearts and minds was to blow up everything in their path. Great if your fighting the Werhmacht, not so great if you're trying to win a gureilla war. All they ended up doing was to alineate the population.

 

[JFK Fleet Service]

The population is already alienated, be it the hearts and minds of the Americans or the brute force of the Red Army.

Western armies fare poorly in Afghanistan.

 

[delldude]

Bringing "this" back to elementary logic,

1. An Attack, orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden, is carried out on 9/11/2001.

2. Mr. OBL is residing in the country of Afghanistan.

3. The US Military, at the direction of President Bush, goes after OBL in Afghanistan(a counter attack).

4. US Military has him/Al Qaeda boxed in, and with every passing week/month becoming less and less effective.

5. President Bush, heavily influenced by Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, unloosen-the-vice on OBL and the Afghan mission, and divert precious resources from the Afghan theater to go on a New Objective in Iraq. (This decision is Greatly opposed by US Sec of State, and former Army General Colin Powell)

6. My 19 year old US Marine son, calls me(at home) to see if the news at home is reporting (to be true) the strong rumor that his unit is hearing(in Afghanistan), that President Bush is Diverting resources.

7. I answer YES.

8. He replies.."this makes No sense", and that the men from 95% of the Officers and 100% of the enlisted guys are bewildered/confused and starting to get upset. Being Ordered to do more-with-less, they "soldier on".

9. In the late spring of 2003 I get the "Knock at the Door" from 2 nice sympathetic Marines ! ! !

I don't think I've left anything out (Mr) 'delldude' .

Its a hard hand to deal with when a loved one makes a choice that puts them in harms way and an even bigger burden when it knocks at ones door.

I'm sorry for your loss.....truly.

I still feel Kerry grandstanded, as he is does quite well.........before Obama's speech.

I think General Franks put that into perspective several years before.

 

[joanne]

Its a hard hand to deal with when a loved one makes a choice that puts them in harms way and an even bigger burden when it knocks at ones door.

I'm sorry for your loss.....truly.

I still feel Kerry grandstanded, as he is does quite well.........before Obama's speech.

I think General Franks put that into perspective several years before.

Thank you.