There are no easy answers in the Afghanistan Debate
"I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love," Hoh said.Matthew Poh, a former Marine Captain and combat vet, resigned his position heading up reconstruction for the State Department in Afghanistan. He says he can no longer support the war.
"There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed," he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. "I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys."
You don't have to agree with his conclusions, but we'd be foolish to ignore the observations of a man with so much in-country experience as we contemplate the way forward.
Patriotic Americans should hear well-reasoned arguments from all sides
Here's an excerpt from a reader Q & A hosted by WaPo.
This isn't WWII and there shouldn't be a comparison. No one can kill better in this world than the US military, however, if killing was the means to victory we would have "won" this years ago. This is primarily a political fight.For more reasoned dissent, see TNR - Bacevich and NY Post - Ralph Peters
Strategic Drift
Poh, Bacevich and Peters, patriots all, point to a strategic drift that started in the Bush administration. We went in to kill bad guys. Now what? Obama exaggerated that drift by appointing a man of action, General McChrystal, and then criticizing him when he took action. The President's scholarly and leisurely pace isn't helping matters any.
What is the Mission?
I have faith in General McChrystal. What I want is to hear a stated goal from our elected officials. Where will be be in 10 years? What's the end game? What does "success" look like?
Freeing Pashtun women from their shackles sounds nice, but is it in our national interest?
I am not against the Afghan war. I was there (in a non-combat role) and I believe our efforts have been heroic and noble. It is important that our government clearly spell out the mission, embrace it, and explain it to the American people. They owe it to the good men and women who are giving it all they've got over there.
WaPo - Matthew Poh
WaPo - Poh Q & A
NY Post - Ralph Peters
David Shribman
TNR - Bacevich
3 comments:
It is important that our government clearly spell out the mission, embrace it, and explain it to the American people.,,Don't hold your breath with Hussein O at the helm my friend!
There are many correct points on may fronts.
1. The Afghanistan goverment corrupt-Yes!! "in many the ways US goverment can be accused of that also."
2. How many different cleat missions is the US goverment going to make for our armed forces.
3. The leaders of Afghanistan corrupt? Yes but that is all they have and that who is going to run for political office.
4. The mind set of the middle east if totally different than ours and still we seam to screw it up everytime we touch it. OUtr military kicks ass damg good but our military members seam to get the shaft, mulitple time.
5. What does the common person of afghanistan want? Don't see any of the news networks asking that question!!!
6. Seams simplier to pull out the military and take out those freakin nuts when they show their faces. Starting with to man
A friend of mine today, a fellow conservative, made the point that we can't even reform Detroit. How do we expect to clean up Afghanistan?
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