Mission Abandoned?
George Bush has not accepted the mission history assigned him.
The attacks of 9-11, his Pearl Harbor, mandated that he (1) capture of kill Osama bin Laden and obliterate his al Qaeda group,
(2) remove the Taliban (al Qaeda's host) as a factor in Afghanistan, and (3) build in the central Asian country a credible political alternative which could deliver economic rejuvenation.
Instead, Bush elected to settle the old scores of his family casa nostra with Saddam Hussein. He wandered off the reservation (Afghanistan), hijacked the global war on terror, American patriotism, the American economy, and the sympathy of practically the entire world - all of this - to pursue his personal and capricious project: an un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI).
We are losing in the mission that history assigned America.
Just as we were on the verge of completing its essential, first part - OBL - the vital assets essential to its completion were whisked away to become IED-fodder in Bush's Iraquagmire. Special Ops units were the first to go. But the major component, ground troops, became all too scarce to deploy on the ground in Afghanistan.
That has been the major problem in Afghanistan. Without boots on the ground, counterinsurgency efforts do not connect up with the population. All politics is local. Remember? Without enough troops, counterinsurgency has to cope on the cheap by over reliance on air power. Inevitably airpower creates collateral damage which create more insurgents. You destroy parts of neighborhoods and families, you add the remainders to the host of your enemies.
And that's what's happening in Afghanistan now, as you read this....
The attacks of 9-11, his Pearl Harbor, mandated that he (1) capture of kill Osama bin Laden and obliterate his al Qaeda group,
(2) remove the Taliban (al Qaeda's host) as a factor in Afghanistan, and (3) build in the central Asian country a credible political alternative which could deliver economic rejuvenation. Instead, Bush elected to settle the old scores of his family casa nostra with Saddam Hussein. He wandered off the reservation (Afghanistan), hijacked the global war on terror, American patriotism, the American economy, and the sympathy of practically the entire world - all of this - to pursue his personal and capricious project: an un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI).
We are losing in the mission that history assigned America.
Just as we were on the verge of completing its essential, first part - OBL - the vital assets essential to its completion were whisked away to become IED-fodder in Bush's Iraquagmire. Special Ops units were the first to go. But the major component, ground troops, became all too scarce to deploy on the ground in Afghanistan.
That has been the major problem in Afghanistan. Without boots on the ground, counterinsurgency efforts do not connect up with the population. All politics is local. Remember? Without enough troops, counterinsurgency has to cope on the cheap by over reliance on air power. Inevitably airpower creates collateral damage which create more insurgents. You destroy parts of neighborhoods and families, you add the remainders to the host of your enemies.
And that's what's happening in Afghanistan now, as you read this....
posted by Vigilante at 6/29/2006 07:32:00 AM
2 Moderated Comments:
Maybe this is a case of unrealistic optimism but at some point this country is going to pull its collective head out of it's ass and look back at how badly Bush handled Afghanistan and wonder about the stupidity. But I'm not holding my breath. See you in about a week Vigilante, I'm off to Disney.
You go, Parrothead! I'll be looking for some fresh photos in about a week. Hope you come back with some fresh batteries, too!
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