Last year during the presidential campaign, as Barack Obama was hawking up Afghanistan as the “real” War on Terror from which Iraq was a “distraction,” I wrote and said (among many on the right) that this was just an……

We’ve been there 7 years, without success. Time to come home.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 7:25 PM

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

unclesmrgol on September 22, 2009 at 9:15 PM

Haven’t people been saying for some time that Afghanistan would have to be a very long commitment – 10, 15 or more years?

ProfessorMiao on September 22, 2009 at 9:19 PM

When this whole thing started, Bush warned the American people that this would be a very long conflict, and that many battles and successes would never even be seen by the public.

If you expected everything to be over in 7 years, it’s your own fault for not paying more attention.

But even watching them have to suck it up is not a good reason to waste lives and resources on a lost cause.

I’m quite sure that the public is finished with war. This is a war-weary country. Rightfully so.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:04 PM

So I guess there’s not one American citizen you love enough to defend from Islamists who would trigger a nuclear weapon, if they had it, inside the most populous city in America? Not one neighbor you feel is worthy of an American soldier’s sacrifice of time, sweat, blood and even Life, to keep Islamists from killing a dozen, a thousand, or even a million innocent Americans inside the US, or even abroad. You obviously then feel that tourists who get killed on vacation overseas deserve their deaths, and American workers (including the native host country citizens who work for American companies) deserve to be dragged through the streets of Saudi Arabia, beheaded for sport on al Jazeera TV, deserve to be crushed and burned in the American embassies of Tanzania and Kenya, and the native populations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Indonesia, and Pakistan deserve to be oppressed by Islamic thugs who see only the al-Hadith and the Koran as justification for every immoral and illegal act perpetrated on “infidels” of any stripe? Folks who see every evil act they perform justified as according to God’s will, and the consequences of not embracing the Koran as the one True Book of God?

Are there maybe a dozen of your friends and neighbors who don’t deserve protection? What if it was a thousand who don’t deserve protection? A million?

Don’t be a victim of Islamist killers, because AnninCA doesn’t feel you deserve to be safe from harm whether you are in America or in Russia or in Israel or in France or Sweden, even. You torqued off the Muslims, so you deserve it if they kill you for sport.

Do I have that logic about right, Ann?

Don’t fight for your life because the Islamists have a point. Maybe we are evil? Maybe we aren’t justified in trying to live peacefully with others, who continually stab US in the back and then blame US for making them do it? Because we deserved it.

I guess doing nothing in the face of thugs and criminals, and, yes, Evil men, is the path you would take, Ann?

It is not a path I, or my shipmates, or my fellow Americans choose as our common fate or the fate we wish on our relatives, friends, neighbors, or fellow citizens. So you may just say Thank you, …….. and then get out of our way while we go about the business of changing the Islamic world for the better and protecting America while we do so. Your opinions on this matter, since there is no one worthy of our lives or yours, do not mean squat to us.

Subsunk

Never put a Democrat in charge of a war.

tom on September 22, 2009 at 7:44 PM

FIFY

AnninCA on September 22, 2009

No, it’s a surrender-weary country. We are prepared to go the distance to win. The left never wanted that and still doesn’t. They used one military conflict to club Bush over the head on another and now just say “never mind”. We stepped into a den of rattlesnakes for a reason and we have a duty to clean out that den, not least of which for those who have gone before and sacrificed so much. And our military can do it if given the resouces and support of the people and their “leaders”. That truth is lost on the surrender monkeys in Washington, the media and around here.

The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Afghanistan)

The ONLY people that have a right to complain are the men and women actually over there and their families…and with few exceptions, I don’t hear much complaining. They want to be given the opportunity to destroy the enemy as they were trained to do so their buddies over there, and innocent Americans over here don’t get killed instead. Many have unhesitatingly sacrificed themselves in order to save others.

These Marxists have always been willing to see Americans sacrificed for nothing so that the ones they support can go about their business and further erode international stability so that they can move in and instill Socialism as a result of the confusion.

Don’t believe these Leftists when they say they care about the troops. They don’t. They only care about their ideology. They despise anyone in a uniform unless it’s a Communist revolutionary like Fidel or Che. To them, U.S. soldiers and those of our allies are the “forces of reaction”…their enemies, the true oppressors in their warped minds. The Taliban to them are revolutionaries fighting oppression and Capitalist Imperialism.

Ann Math.

*facepalm*

Then we should have given Saddam the option for unconditional surrender.

Troop losses – 0

Victory – Less than two weeks.

We’ve been there 7 years, without success. Time to come home.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 7:25 PM

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

unclesmrgol on September 22, 2009 at 9:15 PM

Haven’t people been saying for some time that Afghanistan would have to be a very long commitment – 10, 15 or more years?

We’ve been there 7 years, without success. Time to come home.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 7:25 PM

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

I’m quite sure that the public is finished with war OBAMA. This is a war-weary OBAMA-weary country. Rightfully so. AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:04 (Corrections a lot more accurate!) Fight the damn war to win. Let the generals on the ground do their jobs, and tell the politicians to butt out.

Maybe this guy has the right answer. It’s different from the general’s and Obama’s vision.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:56 PM

Petraeus was right on Iraq and he backs McChrystal. I’ll take that over Ralph Peters or Obama any day.

Those who say we should walk away are not addressing the cost of doing so. That includes you. There is a huge price to pay in doing that, a price that we will pay for a very, very long time.

Maybe this guy has the right answer. It’s different from the general’s and Obama’s vision.

But this? 7 years and we’re starting over?

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:50 PM

And where will we be after the next terrorist strike in the US?

I despair at times. If WWII had broken out in 2001 Jews would be extinct and all Europe would be speaking either Russian or German. We’ve lost the will to fight wars to win, and we prevent those who haven’t – like Israel – from doing so. In the end, we will lose much more than war.

ProfessorMiao on September 22, 2009 at 8:48 PM

I personally had enough will for Iraq. I supported the surge. Still think Bush did the right thing, too.

But this? 7 years and we’re starting over?

And it involves wiping out civilians.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:18 PM

Better American civilians than Aghanistan civilians? Or do you think that Al Qaeda no longer poses a threat?

I despair at times. If WWII had broken out in 2001 Jews would be extinct and all Europe would be speaking either Russian or German. We’ve lost the will to fight wars to win, and we prevent those who haven’t – like Israel – from doing so. In the end, we will lose much more than war.

Left finally free to stop pretending it supports the war in Afghanistan
…

“America has come in a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used,” said Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in the message.

We have the opportunity to fight and defeat the taliban. Should we take that opportunity or not?

I’m not convinced there is a real opportunity. From my reading, and I happily admit, I’m not one to dig into military stuff, I can see the absolute horrific PR nightmare here, since it involves wading right into Pakistan.

And it involves wiping out civilians.

The rest of Afghanastan, from what I hear from John Bachelor’s show (he always has on some really good military guests) is that it’s completely different from Iraq. The fights are spread out, isolated, and horribly remote.

And lately, the elections, suggest that the notion that we go in and rebuild? Whew* I’d think that one over. Even reading about that in Iraq was an eye-opener for me.

But even watching them have to suck it up is not a good reason to waste lives and resources on a lost cause.

I’m quite sure that the public is finished with war. This is a war-weary country. Rightfully so.

AnninCA on September 22, 2009 at 8:04 PM

you may be right on both counts. We have the opportunity to fight and defeat the taliban. Should we take that opportunity or not?