Same tired strategy
If you thought that by electing Obama we’d get out of the Shrubyian quagmires any sooner, you’d be sadly mistaken. It looks like Obama is following Shrubya’s brokeass ‘strategy,’ i.e. engagements without an exit strategy, no clear goals and a continuing drain of soldiers and cash.
In a move right out of the Shrubya playbook, Obama is replacing one general with another in Afghanistan, saying that it’s time for some ‘fresh thinking.’ Seriously, Mr. President, the only ‘fresh thinking’ we need is from you!! It doesn’t matter whom you put in the hot seat, he/she will continue to muddle along until such time as it becomes clear what they need to achieve in order to get out of the quicksand.
And in the case of Afghanistan, as long as the Taliban live free and untouchable just across the border this war will drag on for as long as we wish to expend the lives. Our ally Pakistan will neutralize the Taliban? Don’t make me laugh, Mr. President, they are already busy getting their asses kicked by the Taliban’s tribal hosts.
And in case you’ve forgotten, Shrubya already tried launching a ‘death from above’ strategy in both quagmires and learned the hard way that for every ‘terrorist’ you kill, you create dozens of pissed-off new terrorists.
If you want to eliminate the Taliban threat to Karzai and ‘new’ Afghanistan, you need to take the war to them…on the ground…where they are. If you can’t or won’t do that, then get us the hell out of there. Fresh thinking, Mr. President, fresh thinking!
Tags: afghanistan, bush, collateral damage, Iraq, Karzai, Obama, Pakistan, Taliban, Waziristan
May 12th, 2009 at 8:51 am
greenboy, I agree it has to be a long slog on the ground to defeat the Taliban. Does that mean, though, that if we take the war to them on the ground, we cross the border (such as it is) and make incursions into Pakistan?
What a mess.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I really wonder to what an extent our foreign policy is dictated by the CIA and the Pentagon.
General (“bullethead”) Odierno talks about our being in Iraq in the year 2025.
WTF??
When someone becomes president, are they then privy to all the US secrets?…like who really killed the Kennedys? Is it possible that Obama believes *he* could be offed if he doen’t go along with the war agenda?
May 13th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Athenawise,
Here is my logic. If the Taliban + Al Qaeda main leadership are in W. Pakistan, and if Pakistan won’t/can’t defeat them, and won’t let us in to the region to do it, how can they be defeated?
The Status Quo appears to be some sort of Vietnam-like containment, i.e. we keep a continuous troop presence at the sufferage of the Karzai government in the border regions, and we play ‘whack-a-mole’ whenever obvious targets pop up, with the occasional, illegal cross-border airstrike into W. Pakistan on the basis of our glorious ‘intelligence.’
Neither the troops, the napalming nor the cross-border bombing worked in Vietnam, so why should they work here?
I figure Obama is a sharp guy, so it should be pretty apparent to him that we are only sinking deeper into the quicksand. He’s also pretty much got a mandate to pull us out. So why the hell doesn’t he pull out? Is he afraid of being called the President that lost Afghanistan? Or Iraq?
May 14th, 2009 at 8:25 am
greenboy, your analysis is right on the money. I was thinking along the same lines. Thanks. As I said, what a mess.
May 14th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Athenawise,
Well I was kinda hoping I’d spur Swopa and/or Fubar into weighing on on this, I don’t think my analysis is all that insightful. The trillion-dollar question is really – “Why is Obama doing this?” Convinced (per Swopa) or duped (per Sarik) by the Pentagon and CIA? Does he have better intelligence or analysis than I have – some ‘secret plan’ to win this via diplomacy or other means (e.g. pictures of Pakistani leaders having sex with goats?) Does he feel that he has the capital to keep a Vietnam going for four years and still win re-election for himself and the new Dem majority in Congress?
I’m frankly puzzled.