I think what we're seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan today are the culmination of the wars instigated by President George W. Bush in a knee-jerk response to the events of 9/11. He appears to have truly believed that if we clobbered the dictators and religious fundamentalists in those nations, we could bring democracy to the people there and leave free nations behind when we left.
Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East could have told him he was living in cloud cuckoo land to think that, and many did - but he and his advisers refused to listen to them. They closed their ears to advice and their eyes to the evidence on the ground, and pressed on regardless. In the process they've cost this country thousands of lives and tens of thousands of wounded service personnel, many maimed for life.
Their sacrifice has been in vain.
I think anyone in his or her right mind will acknowledge that a nation should only go to war when pressing and otherwise unattainable national interest is at stake. US national interest was not at stake in Afghanistan (although the Taliban and Al Qaeda definitely deserved punishment, which they received). It was not at stake in Iraq either. We should not have occupied either country, but left it to the locals to sort out. By acting as we did, we've simply created the current playing field, where others are reaping the harvest sown by our actions there.
I blame President Bush and his Administration for unwisely rushing in where angels would have feared to tread. I blame President Obama and his Administration for rushing in the opposite direction, seeking to 'get out of Dodge' without regard for the mess that would cause or the power vacuum it would leave behind.
Thousands of dead American servicemen are spinning in their graves tonight at the sight of all they fought and died for being basically thrown away. I wonder how their families are feeling about their sacrifice? And I wonder if the 'entitlement society' gives a damn?
Peter
The entitled don't know OR care... You know that as well as I do...
ReplyDeleteOld NFO beat me to it. They'd have to know before they could care, and they wouldn't care if they did know.
ReplyDeleteWell, they control the oil. Unrest starts, oil price goes up. Oil goes up economy goes down.
ReplyDeleteI think they thought they had a window to create a more stable middle east. They took the opportunity.
That an Saddam scared our friends. Who really likes a bully.
It did not work. Now we will have a more dangerous world. But if it would have worked.
We need to hold to account Muslims. Smack them in their glass jaw over and over until they realize how civilized people act.
Their sacrifice has been in vain?.
ReplyDeleteNO!.
Their sacrifice has not been in vain.
The American Soldiers who were injured and died, clearly and surely did not fail, they were Doing Their Duty, as they SWORE TO DO.
They gave their Word, and damn-well kept it.
Which cannot be said, of those in whatever Public Office, who deliberately, and with forethought, wrote 'their words' of decision that used the American Soldier's 'word', honour and dedication to duty, in such a cavalierly, dispassionately, dismissively thoughtless use of lives.
For their own advancement.
Ever it has been, always will it be.
If the valiant went to fight for freedom and to make America safe from terrorism....they can return and see that 51% of America surrendered their nation to a lawless terrorist regime bent on enslaving their children.
ReplyDeleteGas prices go up
ReplyDeleteThe Dems have been saying for years that gas prices are too low.
economy goes down
Didn't you know that the US economy is the major cause of global warming? This is a good thing.
Sorry Peter but we disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe troops from around the world did what they were told to do and left the Iraq with a chance to succeed.
If you won't fight for something then you don't deserve it.
Iraqi people and army have not shown me that they are willing to do much for themselves.
Gerry
My combat vet kin said wistfully, "I wish they would have waited a few more years to give away Iraq and Afghanistan. It's still too fresh." He did mention being glad to fight the foe in their backyard and not ours.
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan was complete at most 18 months after we started kicking the Taliban out, say 2003. But mission creep and nation building took over.
Iraq was, by all major intelligence agencies, a terrorist training ground and had WMD they would use (had used) and provide to anyone. Tons of yellow cake, radioactive tunnels, and massive truck convoys to Syria later, we didn't find "any".
Maybe we shouldn't have gone to either place.... but we did.
And we voted in an admin that wasted the investment of blood and $.
I'm with Paul, they only understand force it seems. God told the truth about Ishmael's offspring.
Yes, the problem was not kicking the Taliban & Saddam out, but staying afterwards.
ReplyDeletePeter's observation also includes the soldiers who died in Desert Storm in '91, that was the precursor to the insanity we have today.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-09/trend-increasingly-more-russian-companies-set-drop-dollar-switch-chinese-yuan