Pentagon officials are reacting with anger today to concerns about the disastrous state of the Afghan War, claiming that the war was on “the right path” and that Congress was being “too negative” about the conflict.
Several extremely high profile failures, including the public falling out with the Karzai government and the inability to successfully occupy the fictional city of Marjah or install a Karzai-backed government there, has many in Congress expressing concern about the overall war strategy.
But Gen. David Petraeus insists that the war is “like a roller coaster” and that the conflict is going in an overall positive direction, and then claimed that the war has in general gone successfully.
Yet this perpetual optimism is likely to be a tough pill to swallow, particularly coming less than a week after the announcement that the long-promised Kandahar invasion was being delayed indefinitely because, despite spending several months telegraphing the offensive, most of the locals still don’t support the move.
Indeed, Pentagon officials too were openly expressing concern about the direction of the war just weeks ago, and little seems to have changed. The only difference, it seems, is that the Pentagon is looking to press a $33 billion “emergency” war funds bill out of Congress in the next few weeks.
An apolitical military is what used to separate the US from banana republics. Just fight when we tell you to. You work for us. Stop trying to influence policy and public opinion and just follow orders. We don't pay you to have an opinion.
"An apolitical military is what used to separate the US from banana republics."
I don't know about that. The apolitical views of the German General staff in the 1930's and 1940's did not serve them well in the least. After the dust settled in may of 1945 many of them wish they had spoken their opinions louder.
Of course there is a healthy dose of hypocracy with the US. The military is allowed to be as political as it wants…so long as those views mirror the political leaderships. But heaven help the General that takes a stand and gives a hearty "Hell no!" to the next war, The press would scream "Military Dictatorship!" faster than you can say 7 days in May.
The day I see any tax-fed goon, I mean… General, have the brass to actually risk losing his pension and all those golden MIC "goodies" and stand up and tell the TRUTH, then and only then might I believe them.
Yes. Leave Other Idiots to make the decision over life and death, war and peace. What you've confirmed is that there is really no honour in soldiering, the soldier is merely a tool of politicians (and their handlers), ready to be killed and to kill at their whim, brainwashed with foolish notions of "king and country" …
Yesterday, on this same board, I blamed the situation in Afghanistan on the 'lib media' as well – of course, I was joking. But it's interesting that those who are running the war actually believe their own lies, that everything would be just swell if only the cheering section were large enough.
On the same level, I'm also amazed that a foreign army could walk into Afghanistan and actually lose. Who would have thought?
God Bless America.
All militarism is a filthy perversion – how sick can this country get?
I have to remind myself that good ole Smedly "War is a Racket" Butler was a tax-fattened goon. As true as the words may have been in his small tome, he spent all those years, willingly mind you, in the belly of the beast doing what he was told to do, later telling others to do likewise, drawing his salary, and, once the time had come, his pension. Hmmmm? Why the late in life "epiphany" and the need to write anything contrarian? Because it was now "safe" to do so? How cowardly can you get! It took until pension time to come to his senses? The mind boggles. Then I see our modern day elitists vomit the same things once they've shed their duplicitous uniforms for civilian costumes. What utter lying frauds the lot of them!
So, you refuse to listen to the wisdom of someone who's seen this from the inside, precisely because he was on the inside? Very strange.
Did I say anything about "refusing" to listen to what he said? What I pointed out was the hypocrisy in complaining about something one profited from, and later in life, seeks to further profit from being ensconced in government. Did you see him turn down the money? No? On what moral foot does one stand to report on what he himself did and then say to those he helped rob to pay for his "adventures" , "I was a murderous SOB but, hey, keep the greenbacks flowing and, while you're at it, you fools, VOTE FOR ME"?
Cut the Pentagon Budget in half.
They've already destroyed the USA..
ALL of you tax dollars go for the wars.
NONE of your tax dollars go for social programs or infrastructure. Those programs just get added onto the 13 trillion dollar debt.
Too negative about fascist amerikas acts of terrorism, slaughter of thousands in Iraq and Afpak ? ! The empire gets sicker all with every passing day !
Sounds like they were dying to say "light at the end of the tunnel", but that expression has been banned from the lips of Pentagon spokespeople since its famous Vietnam usage.
In the future, 'war is like a roller coaster' will be equally banned due to its association with this disastrous Afghan war.
If you read the news carefully, the insurgents are occupying bases that we've 'strategically retreated' from. Major bases in Kabul and Kandahar have come under direct attack. Karsai couldn't have his 'peace jirga' without it being rocketed.
Our one success has been conquering a fictional 'city' of Marjam that turned out to be a village with farms around it. Even then, we don't seem to be able to control the area after our amazing 'victory' there.
The Pentagon has been promising a Kandahar offensive, but they don't seem to be able to even launch it. Instead, the guerrillas are attacking their major base in the area.
If this is a roller coaster, then we appear to be on that long, long drop after the first hill.
And, any roller-coaster always ends up exactly where it began. Is that our goal for all of this expenditure … to end up with Afghanistan exactly like it was in 2000?