Time to Get Out of Afghanistan

Originally posted by vor78
He's doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign, which was to refocus our military efforts on Afghanistan and to increase the troop presence there. He's done that.

You make a good point. He is doing what he said he was going to do. And that's a good thing. But this is a matter of disagreeing with him, even before he was elected. I was happy that he was going to move toward ending Iraq, but very disappointed that he was going into Afghanistan. Have always disagreed with him on that.

jam, I still support Obama. I just disagree with him on some things. This is one of the biggest.

reply to post by Solomons

"letting the military do what it does best" actually mean?

I believe any military, not just ours, main objective when called upon is to create a living hell for the enemy in the drive for victory. They are not there to be a police force, they are not there to win hearts and minds. They are there to achieve their objective as promptly as possible with the least casualties.

How can they win hearts and minds when they are killing relatives of the hearts and minds they are trying to win over?

How can they police an area when the supposed enemy can blend right in?

I am not a warmonger nor am I a peace activist. I just believe the military should be used as a last result to achieve an objective as quickly as possible an withdraw just as fast.

Bush goal in Afghanistan was to get rid of the Taliban and go after members of Alqeada. They accomplished that. Immediately after that they should have properly trained the Afghans to take over and defend themselves. This is when our military should have left.

After we left, it would be up to Afghanistan to decide what was best for their country.

Instead, we are still training the Afghans, we are trying to win hearts and minds, playing cat and mouse with the Taliban, etc.

The longer we prolong or escalate this war, the more losses we will see on all sides.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor dampened, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue... In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. -Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Wars of "attrition" are doomed from the beginning and are more than likely traps in which the invading force has been lured by enemies who are apparently more intelligent than the fools who fall for such obvious schemes.

reply to post by KOGDOG

Wars of "attrition" are doomed from the beginning and are more than likely traps in which the invading force has been lured by enemies who are apparently more intelligent than the fools who fall for such obvious schemes

Yeah. Kinda makes a person wonder just why China, a major ideological foe of the USA, would lend them so much money & thus fund the wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, eh? Oh Sh!t! You dont think they've read Sun Tzu too, do you?
Edit to add: star btw.

[edit on 2/9/09 by Bunken Drum]

It has ALWAYS been time to get out of Afghanistan. We are only there to secure the land for an oil pipeline. Let the oil companies hire Blackwater mercs to do it without the participation of the American taxpayer. I would rather the money go to fund healthcare for Americans instead of death for Muslims.

reply to post by Bunken Drum

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier. Rudyard Kipling

What nation or people has ever succeeded defeating a stone age Afghanistan who can always outlast a "super power"... such as the USA or..... the Soviet Union who fought right on their own border?

Just dig another hole, tunnel, or cave just as the Viet Cong did or the Afghanistan's do and let the "super powers" drop another million dollar bomb on nothing.