The Commitment in Afghanistan

The other day I talked about the war in Afghanistan being Obama's war. I pointed out that this was a commitment which was plagued with land mines. To begin with, I read no real commitment by the President in his speech at West Point when he failed to mention "victory". I pointed out that the Afghan homeland was unlike other traditional battlefields. This is an extremely mountainous terrain populated by many different ethnic groups which are in some ways a nation in of themselves. I noted that the Soviet Union failed to recognize the internal problems and failed after 10 years with nothing to show but 15,000 lives lost. I pointed out that this was really about the Al Queda and Taliban who jointly were carry on a battle against the "infidels" that dates to the Crusades. Last but far from the least is the corruption in the Afghan government which could be the tipping point to any expectation for success.

I have faulted the Administration for suggesting a timeline of 18 months and things are not always what they seem. In followup interviews on network talk shows, the Secretary of Defense Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen sang the Administrations chorus line that 30,000 troops will do the job and we can expect the "transition" of our soldiers out of Afghanistan to begin in July 2011.

Now we start hearing the verses to the song and it is not all we were told it would be. It began with President Karzai of Afghanistan telling the world the very next day after the Obama speech that he did not think the American Forces would be leaving in 2011. This has been followed by statements that he believed it would take 5 years to train the Afghan military to defend their homeland and perhaps 15 years before Afghanistan would be able to economically stand on their own.

Perhaps the more revealing details have come within the last two days from Admiral Mullen and General McChrystal. Speaking at Camp Lejeune, NC on Monday, Adm Mullen stated that the insurgency had grown in the last three years and he expected casualties to rise as more U.S. troops entered the theater. He said "this was the most dangerous place he had seen in his four decades in uniform". He further stated "we are not winning, which means we are losing".

Then it was General McChrystals' turn during congressional committee hearings yesterday. Under intense questioning, he told the committee that he did not get as many troops has he requested and must work under a schedule that he did not recommend. After the Obama Administration and the media told the public that everything was just as planned and represented at West Point, we now find out that this was not necessarily so.

Whether you agree with the United States forces fighting in Afghanistan or not, we are totally committed and must support them and bring our soldiers home with nothing short of victory however long it takes.

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln".

I I have to hope for the sake of the troops, that as Commander-in-Chief he does not run the war like he runs the economy.

Afghanistan - Obama's War

On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama spoke at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY to announce the increase of troops and commitment to the Afghanistan War. During this speech he spoke for nearly 35 minutes and not once mentioned the word -"Victory". Certainly a troublesome aspect in itself. Here you are as the President committing a large number of our armed forces to a combat mission and not being fully committed to the concept of walking away with victory. Our nations history has never marched to war without such a paramount principle. Sadly to say, as the camera panned the audience of our finest cadets, far to many found his delivery more conducive to sleeping than to a battle cry for victory.

I found the announcement of a timeline extremely inappropriate. Many of the troops will hardly be on the ground for twelve months before the "transitions" period begins. Much of the Presidents strategy hinges on the success of training the Afghan troop to assume control of the country when Americans leave. This was to a great degree the same policy of the Russians when in 1979 they were requested to come in and prop up a marxist regime fighting the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance. The Russians admittedly reflect to the difficulty of fighting in the mountainous terrain and realize today that important historic and ethnic factors were totally overlooked in their quest. Initially they were tasked to defend the southern borders with the Soviet Union but found themselves increasingly involved in tribal spats and eventually stood between two warring factions. After years of troop built up they finally called it quits and mourned the loss of more than 15,000 Soviet soldiers.

My logic tells me that these Muslim radicals have been fighting this war not just the ten years that Russia was involved and certainly more than the eight years we have already been there. This is a religious war that dates more than a thousand years back to the Crusades. This is about them against the infidels of the Christian and (more recently in history) the Western World.

Time means nothing to the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. They will hunker down for 18 months or as long as necessary knowing we will give up out of necessity. Loss of lives and nothing to show for the cost. If you want to throw in the fact that the government of Afghanistan is fundamentally corrupt, that will no doubt make the task even more daunting. I think this is a mistake and compounded by the lack of commitment for victory. We did it in Viet-Nam and in the end, a helo off a rooftop in disgrace.

This says it all!

Insanity is defined as doing the same things over and over with the expectation the outcome will be different........... Albert Einstein

The White House Jobs Summit

A few weeks ago I wrote in my blog a letter to the President expressing interest in the Jobs Summit he was holding today. I was respectful in suggesting that if he really cared about jobs that he would continue the Bush tax cuts, stop spending any more of the stimulus money, cut the capital gains taxes and above all, delay at the least, the trillion dollar health care reform bill.

Well he has shown absolutely no indication of taking my advise. After all, what do I know. I do know this. Today's meeting will have the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), along with the presidents of the United Steel Workers and the Teachers Union and of course his biggest donors and the usual suspects like, Ron Bloom (Car Czar), Rahn Emanuel, David Axelrod, Valarie Jarrett and Larry Summers. What are conspicuously missing are small business owners, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Businesses and of course opponents of his stimulus spending. Why not invite these folks? After all, small business accounts for 80% of all private sector jobs and the biggest supporter of small business is the Chamber of Commerce.

There is a very strong message coming out of the White House today. They want the public to believe they are really doing something while actually promoting more size and power of the government. This is really about MoveOn.org, ACORN, the unions and more big government. Most of the public will listen to the lame stream media and believe this horse manure.