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Monday, October 5, 2009

And So I Rant.

I'm reading some news this morning and I find myself getting madder and madder. First, some headlines reaming the General in command of Afghanistan because he's going all over talking about how more troops are needed over there or we're going to lose the war. Critics are saying it is "better for military advice to come up through the chain of command." Well, maybe if the President would grant the General an audience it would come up through the chain of command! Did you know that The President has spoken to the Commanding American General in Afghanistan one time since he's been president? One. Time. Never mind the obvious practicality of talking to the guy in charge of a war -- what kind of message does that send? What does that leave the troops fighting this war to think? What message is that sending to the widows? the orphans? their buddies left behind?

While the President and his wife are flying in luxury to European capitals to wine and dine with foreign delegates and champion the cause of our athletes, American troops are dying while the President contemplates strategy and declares that his decisions will not be driven "by the politics of the moment".

How about by some discussion with the people in charge? How about with some recognition of how guys are dying while he takes his sweet time trying to figure out what to do, as a guy who has no experience in knowing what to do with a war?

More headlines referred to a latest attack on some remote posts near the Pakistan border. Eight Americans were killed and four Afghans, with 11 more Afghani police taken hostage by the militants before they fled. The Taliban claimed responsibility. These outposts "are among many in Afghanistan's remote and volatile regions that U.S. forces plan to pull back from in a bid to turn the war around".

Turn the war around to what? The other side? "The new strategy calls for U.S. troops to pull out of these remote areas and concentrate instead around Afghanistan's population centers."

What do you think is going to happen if we abandon the "remote" areas? Is there something I'm missing? Some pieces of information that I don't have privy to that would change what seems so obvious? If we patrol the cities, and leave the rest of the country to the Taliban, what's going to happen as soon as we leave the cities? What motive do decent Afghanis have to work with our efforts to bring peace to their country, knowing that just a few miles away, Taliban forces are just waiting for us to leave, and to grant punishment on those who cooperated with us while we were there? What's happening to those 11 Afghani police forces who were kidnapped this weekend during the raid on their post? What ordeal are they going through right now, as you're reading this? If they're even still alive. And all because we didn't have enough guys out there to watch their back. And now they're talking about taking those few guys away, too.

Well, we should. We should just take the whole lot of them away, unless we're going to hunker down and do what it takes to do this right. Right now. The outcome is inevitable if we don't, so why waste any more lives fighting a war that our President doesn't even consider important enough to make a decision on. It's disgraceful. Disrespectful. Above all, disheartening.

Here I haven't been heard from on this blog for a couple of weeks and you come back for this. Well, I was mad. And already I'm calming down, but while I was still mad I thought, "I'm going to write about this, da#@it, and get it down. Because later when I'm not so mad I won't want to." And that's what happens. We get mad, but then we get over it. Because we have our own lives, our own responsibilities, our own pressing daily minutiae. I don't think we get over it, but we do get on with it -- on with things we have control over. And the war in Afghanistan isn't one of them.

8 comments:

Tam said...

A POST close to MY HEART for many reasons! My Husbands Old Battalion is there right now. We have lost quite a few soldiers there! His Old Battalion has lost more soliders in Afghansitan than they did in Iraq!

You can imagine all that I would love to say here and you are right about getting mad and then I calm down and do not write about IT!

GREAT POST GREAT GREAT POST!

Tam said...

Can I say one other thing? I hope that we are not inundated with public service announcements from the First Family about Happy Holidays and all that stuff! It irks me to read about the FIRST KIDS and what they get and do when we have Soliders dying and their KIDS will not be as fortunate as the first KIDS! OK I know that was very bad but seriously it was something on my chest!!! I hope the Media thinks about that before they say OOO this First KIDS want this or Got that and blah blah! OK so that was a small rant.....

OK did I mention great POST!

Retriever said...

Great post. I daren't say what I think of the big O, but you go, girl! I wickedly imagine him having to serve over there under the hardship and danger of our troops there, and imagine him wanting to be brought home RIGHT away.

Cherilyn Dahlsten said...

Glenn Beck says, "To not fight a war to win is immoral." I totally agree.

MOMSWEB said...

I don't think our country can handle sending more troops over; it just doesn't make any sense at all. You have a right to be angry.

Glad I dropped by! Have a great week!

Landers Family said...

Amen sister! Thank you for taking the time to write what I think/believe every time I listen to the news/radio....AMEN

Olson Family said...

Let it out. And I pray that those who are there and in various other locations in the world are not forgotten!
I don't know what else to do about the direction and leadership of our country except to pray - and vote every chance I get!

G'ma said...

Your rant took my breath away. I have been praying and stewing over the situation. I went to sleep last night mulling over what would happen if we were to pull our troops out altogether. It seems there is a cry out to do just that.

People have such short attention spans. I have so much to say on this that is probably not the forum.

My Dad used to have a saying, "bleep or get off the pot"! Everyday that goes by while the decision process is ongoing, more of our troops are dying or put in harms way.

Bottom line is, the terrorists, by what ever name they are known, have to be stopped.

I wish the whiners could talk with a woman who lives in the neighborhood. She was on the 42nd floor of the first tower when it was hit.