Afghanistan: Obama's Vietnam

Years to Go in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win. Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take "a few years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

It's my contention that Obama had better pull our troops out of Afghanistan while he can, because nobody goes into Afghanistan without at least a decade of commitment. Look at the history of war in the region — it's going to be a bloody, protracted offensive on an ever-elusive target.

Just Like Vietnam

There is no way in hell that President Obama can fight the Taliban. The Taliban is an octopus that scurries and hides and changes color and spews ink and hate and terror. Same as Al-Qaeda. Both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, incidentally, were armed and trained by American combat experts, plus they have that extraordinary blood fever of the Mujahideen.

I mean, the Mujahideen kicked Russia out of Afghanistan. Russia, with its bad-ass high-tech war machine, got they little panties all soiled down in Afghanistan.

So... I'll be very interested to see how this glib, basketball-dribbling president approaches this situation. It's very dicey in Afghanistan, there are a lot of flavors in the mix, and Obama can't afford to get mired in it. Politically and financially. Obama is going to have to pull the plug on Afghanistan.

When the last Americans leave that region... Katie Bar The Door

— Doc Velocity



[edit on 8/15/2009 by Doc Velocity]

Afghanistan is not Barak Obama's Vietnam. This Vietnam belongs squarely to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and a few other Republican thugs who couldn't wait to get us into that mess.

reply to post by Doc Velocity

Obama: 'Victory' Not Necessarily Goal in Afghanistan

www.foxnews.com

President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but "victory" in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.

"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Only two people have conquered Afghanistan.

Alexander and Genghis Khan.

Both resorted to depopulating vast regions.

It worked.

reply to post by Doc Velocity


We could easily destroy the Taliban and conquer Afghanistan if the politicians would take the gloves off of our fighting men and women. This is why Iraq and Afghanistan is like Vietnam, because we decided, just like in Vietnam, that part of the people in that country are our friends. However, if we let them all be viewed as the enemy then we would be free to take the measures necessary to insure victory.

Regardless, I do think we will win with the new technology they have. They are able to take out leadership nearly at will now. I believe it is a heat signature tech that can identify the people from a satellite and then target them almost immediately with drones.

Originally posted by chiron613
Afghanistan is not Barak Obama's Vietnam. This Vietnam belongs squarely to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and a few other Republican thugs who couldn't wait to get us into that mess.

Hold on. Congressional Democrats researched the situation in advance of the invasion of Afghanistan and 18 MONTHS LATER in the invasion of Iraq. Congressional Democrats approved the invasion, they approved the water-boarding, they approved everything, much to the dismay of the hand-wringing liberals.

Congress knows everything they need to know about Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the Middle East in general; and, no, the president is not their sole source of information. Hillary Clinton, for one example, is somewhat renowned for her field investigations, employing whole teams of investigators, so we can rest assured that Congress has many, many operatives gathering independent information from a variety of sources.

Don't start howling about George Bush. Bush is out of the picture. So is Dick Cheney. Out. Gone. You voted them away. Yes, thank you for participating.

But the same Congress remains. With the same agenda. With the same mean-spirited, anti-American, fear-mongering, free-speech-muting socialists at the corrupted core.

— Doc Velocity

Originally posted by dooper
Only two people have conquered Afghanistan.

Alexander and Genghis Khan.

Both resorted to depopulating vast regions.

It worked.

My dad said that too ... it is impossible to have peace there with the people that live there (I think 5 mil. of them).
It would simplier to nuke them into oblivion.

Well, it's already coming to pass. Obama is already ramping up the action in Afghanistan. He should not do it but he's gonna do it, and do you know why?

It's because when a liberal president with no military background is presented with the military option, he can't help himself and he starts playing war... Like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama is just such a "twinkle-toes" liberal president, and he simply can't help himself. He's gonna do it! He's really, really gonna do it! He's gonna play war with people's lives. He gets to KILL.

Man Oh Man... I am just waiting for whatever kind of tricked-out anti-war protests we're going to see under the Obama Administration. Do you think we'll see a bunch of sleep-over anti-war protestors at Obama's vacation ranch or dream island or whatever the hell it is Do you think we'll see protestors at military funerals?

— Doc Velocity

Originally posted by SLAYER69
Obama: 'Victory' Not Necessarily Goal in Afghanistan
"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.

Hm. Obama has this weird affinity for the word "notion," regularly using it as a throwaway word, but usually as a segue into his condescending soliloquy of the day. In this case, he used the wrong word altogether. He should have said, "It invokes the image of..." Hirohito, et cetera.

But why does the word "Victory" worry this president? Why does the thought of an enemy surrendering trouble our immaculate president, hmmm? Perhaps he would rather have Hirohito sit down at a picnic table and toss back a few beers and put all this old war stuff behind us, yes?

What. A. Maroon.




— Doc Velocity






[edit on 8/15/2009 by Doc Velocity]

reply to post by Doc Velocity


No offense Doc Velocity but I think you need to understand the relationship between Russia and the Taliban at the time. The taliban wouldn't of existed if it wasn't for Russia, and they worked together quite awhile. IN fact, I often wonder, and know I will get flamed, if Russia should take some responsiblity for Afghanistan.

Aghanistan wasn't that bad of a place before Russia got there.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
No offense Doc Velocity but I think you need to understand the relationship between Russia and the Taliban at the time. The taliban wouldn't of existed if it wasn't for Russia, and they worked together quite awhile. IN fact, I often wonder, and know I will get flamed, if Russia should take some responsiblity for Afghanistan.

Aghanistan wasn't that bad of a place before Russia got there.

I understand the dynamic. The Taliban was Russia's Afghan face in Afghanistan, just as the Mujahideen was America's Afghan face. America and Russia were warring — indirectly, of course — for many years, supplying and training and directing their respective fighting forces across Afghanistan. Russia lost, plain and simple. The Mujihadeen tested the Ruskies to the limit, until Mother Russia threw up her hands and called home the survivors.

Yeah, the Mujahideen kicked Russia out of Afghanistan. What's funny was that while all of this was going on, the USA and Russia were still making deals to supply weapons to Iran and Iraq. Tip o' the hat to Senator Al Gore.

— Doc Velocity

Afganistan is an excellent place for troops to train with the Terrain, landscape as well as caves. My hypothesis is that the troops are there to train for a huge war. The deaths reported are nothing but people dying during training. Because I dont see anything over there.

Originally posted by chiron613
Afghanistan is not Barak Obama's Vietnam. This Vietnam belongs squarely to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and a few other Republican thugs who couldn't wait to get us into that mess.

Obama is getting us in even deeper. He's diggin in. So yes, this IS Obama's Vietnam. At the transition he could have left. He didn't. The tide of change was with him ... but he let it run out and now he's calling for an even bigger situation then Bush43 had to deal with there.

Originally posted by Durabys

Originally posted by dooper
Only two people have conquered Afghanistan.

Alexander and Genghis Khan.

Both resorted to depopulating vast regions.

It worked.

My dad said that too ... it is impossible to have peace there with the people that live there (I think 5 mil. of them).
It would simplier to nuke them into oblivion.

Nuke five million people who have never done you any harm, how many Afghans have done anything to America. The worrying thing is that I believe many Americans share your same view. Might as well Nuke Iran while we're at it or just anyone with brown skin and talks a bit funny. That'll solve all our problems.