Comments on: Why we let our young soldiers die in Iraq and Afghanistan

By: CalBoomer

CalBoomer — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:16:46 +0000

There was a time when we, most of us anyhow, understood we would do our best and not have another “Viet Nam”. Attached to that idea was the so-called “Powell Doctrine”.

It was “so-called” because it was never written down as a law and order to our troops but it stands today as it did in 1991, an idea of how NOT to get drawn into an war that cannot be won and have A CLEAR EXIT STRATEGY. (for reference see:http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/te achers/lessonplans/iraq/powelldoctrine_s hort.html)

Colin Powell should have taken his own advice and stood his ground in 2003 but declined to do so. Perhaps he would have been the 1st African-American president in 2004. But instead he chose to get behind the “Neo-Cons (emphasis should be on the “con”) He and our leadership let us all down. It just wasn’t Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell. It was Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and other Democrats who knew this was a hoax and voted to go to war anyhow so as not to look bad when they ran for president. Now they also have the blood of Iraq and Afghanistan on their hands as well as those who stood proud to serve and were butchered for the furthering of their political goals. “It IS Viet Nam again”. The combat death toll is down but civilian casualties in those countries is beyond the forgiveness of man.

When will Obama bring the troops home ? When we, demand he do so or when we have new – really new leadership in a bankrupt Washington.

By: GMN

GMN — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:44:00 +0000

Great article, Gregg!
The reason the US is in Afghanistan and Iraq is because We The People are lazy, complacent and brainwashed(by TV)and allowed it. There is absolutely NO real reason for our involvement in these ugly dramas, as well as in Vietnam, which is not a cover for the egotism of Politicians in Sodom-upon-Potomac…the article mentions what’s happening, politicians are afraid to admit they screwed up.
Many comments mention that there might be a bloodbath when we leave – has anyone considered asking the inhabitants if they’d like to take that chance? I bet many Afghans and Iraqis would sit up and grin and say, “We’d like to try…Just leave – please?”
The main problem,especially in Afghanistan, is that 40 years of constant war has left them with nearly no real infrastructure. The “Charlie Wilson’s War” film mentions this fact near the end, that a small amount of money, compared to the millions spent on AA Missiles, spent on schools, roads and water sources, maybe some clinics – would have been mostly the end of Afghanistan as a problem.
Political situations have a way of evolving, no matter what US politicians(a world away) want. If we leave, the situation would eventually stabilize – no matter what happens half the people in DC will soil themselves anyway.
The real reason our young men die in these places is because someone is making money from it. The “Bottom-Line” mentality runs our country and it has made our country not so great anymore.

By: atem

atem — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:02:31 +0000

Economists like to consider the “counterfactual”–what would have happened with an alternative course of action from that taken. Einstein called it a “mind experiment”.

Think about this counterfactual ‘mind experiment’:

We invaded Iraq, found no WMD’s (there never were any and President Bush knew it). We captured and subdued Saddam Hussain, but since neither he nor his long-abandonned WMD program posed any direct and imminent threat to the United States, we shook him vigorously, let him be, and departed after destroying the better part of his warfighting capability. In effect we reinstated the status quo ante: careful monitoring, no fly zones (remember them?), etc. He reinstated himself and his Baath Party thugs. So be it. It’s not our business to make the world safe for nice, benign governments, but rather to protect ourselves from clear and present dangers. That’s what we’re spending seven hundred billion for each year.

Further, we wiped out the Al Qaeda threat in Afghanistan at the outset (using the Northern Alliance–remember them?), and we set up the same kind of close observation monitoring as established in Iraq. Any funny business in future from the Taliban making nice with Al Qaeda–we bomb them till the ‘rubble jumps’ (to use Churchill’s phrase). Taliban wasn’t so wedded to Al Qaeda as to risk getting bombed back to the stone age prior to the stone age in which they currently exist.

Therefore, we would have had Saddam in power in Iraq, and a careful Taliban (or mix-it-up with others) in power in Afghanistan.

Now add to the mixture an AGGRESSIVE IRAN WORKING HARD TO REALLY DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITY!

Having taken the counter factual course, we would have had a sworn enemy of Iran (Saddam and Company) right across the border from Tehran! And anybody who can think back a brief thirty years will recall that Saddam clobbered Iran for no particular reason other than pure enmity!

What do you think the counter factual circumstance would be now? We’d have ‘our boy’ Saddam in power in Baghdad. He’d be gearing up his formidable army to wipe out the Mullahs in Iran, and very likely we’d be real cozy with him behind the curtain, re-supplying him with armaments to go after Iran and its nuclear ambitions! Saddam would be ‘Our Bastard’ once again! Our boy Saddam would NEVER STAND FOR A NUCLEAR-ARMED IRAN ACROSS HIS EASTERN BORDER!
AND HE WOULDN’T THINK TWICE ABOUT LOSING A MILLION MEN TO CRUSH THE MULLAHS!

What’s this all prove?

The bright boys in D.C. haven’t been capable of strategic geopolitical thinking since the end of the Cold War. They don’t run the alternatives through the ‘thought mill’ before running off to war.
They don’t do ‘mind experiments’ before sending our boys off to war and into a sodden mess which will cost us dearly in blood and treasure before we skedaddle as in Vietnam.

And here’s one more likely consequence of the counter factual reality: Baghdad and Tel Aviv would be bosom buddies–Bebe Netanyahu and Saddam ON THE SAME SIDE–BOTH INTENT ON A KNOCKOUT BLOW ON TEHRAN! AND WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO LIFT A FINGER! Just smile like the Cheshire Cat in the background.

Where’s Rod Serling and the Alternate Universe when you need him?

By: hotlatinakuhl

hotlatinakuhl — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:20:34 +0000

I am a 32 year old mexican woman who was married to an american soldier, i’ll always be proud of him and US soldiers dead or alive, yes i may not be an american born but i’ve embraced the language, the culture and most importantly i’ve embraced the army’s heart, their braveness and committment, they need to be home fighting for their country not someone else’s war which was since the beggining a cover up… my heart and prayers are with all the soldiers, their wives, their children, their parents… gob bless y’all, may god keep ya’ll safe…

By: Imo

Imo — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:17:47 +0000

The United States has made too mistakes in war. We should never fight another countries war.We should fight
only to protect our own country.Sure we should have gone
after the people who did 9-11 but they killed themselves.We should bring all troops home and guard our borders. Stop the drugs from coming into our country
and screen every person wanting to come into America.At
this moment I understand we do not know who is here and
when they arrived. Lets face it we have a very inexperienced Person for a president(another mistake)But
we have the house and senate to take care of that problem
if they would do their Job.They are not!!!
So we must replace them when the time comes. JUST MY OPINION.

By: roffa55

roffa55 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:25:35 +0000

no one asked him self this question: why america chosed theese poor cuntries:afghanistan,iraq,lebanon,iran,l ibya,somalia,south philippen,sudan,west china,pakistan(arabian islamic countries!!!)and choosed the dangerist wipons to destroy them(tora bora),firist gulf war!!second gulf war!!!and as a clint of israeli war on gaza strip!and why theese weapons companies pushes to distroy civilisation and the relations between civilians!!!! it is a war aganist both arabs and muslimans all over the world!!

By: mckibbinusa

mckibbinusa — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:37:39 +0000

The US is great at projecting military power — China is great at projecting economic power — I weep for our losses both militarily and economically…

By: linggy

linggy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:23:12 +0000

Amazing! Aside from a few pro-war types here almost to a person everyone who commented so far agrees with the writer of this article. Many, including myself, feel the business aspect of war–with outrageous amounts of our tax dollars going to war profiteers–is perhaps the prime reason for these wars in the first place. It also seems that these corporations along with wall street and the giant banks are controlling this country. We the people have no say anymore. Yes, we vote but there seems little difference in the parties in what they do (not what they say). One of Obama’s first moves was to send thousands more to Afghanistan and what happened to closing Gito?

By: Arnie2407

Arnie2407 — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:20:50 +0000

I am a soldier, an Infantry soldier. My job in iraq the 3 times Ive been there was to find the enemy and kill or capture them…..at least at first. My last deployment i spent more time talking to locals, looking at public works projects, training iraqi soldiers and paying locals who stood gyard on places around Iraq. I was trained to do none of those things. What you are all seeing is the dfeeply embedded American mentality that once we kick the crap out of a country we most also build it back up. Like we did with Germany and Japan. People war is violent and it should always be a very last resort. But if we are going to under take it in this day and age we need to go in with clear objectives. take Iraq for example. Go in, get Saddam find his WMD’s and leave. staying in a country will only bring out an insurgency we cannot win aginst. Who cares if when we leav the country is a wreck. Don’t give us cause to go there and you won’t have to worry about it. I am tired of paying for The Marshall Plan. And my friends were not worth anything that can now come out of iraq or afghanastan.

FOR: Joshua Madden Keith Fiscus Jon Schoolcraft and Greg Rundell

By: pesheff

pesheff — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:06:22 +0000

“we have not stopped Afghanistan and Iraq from being horrible places” – just one correction to the otherwise brilliant article: these places actually deteriorated when the wars and occupations started and are getting worse! Why doesn’t anyone talk about the 100 of thousands of lives of the local people that were lost in this “moral” war on terror? Now Pakistan is being plunged into chaos b/c of this?
I don’t think that America is in control of its military anymore-I think they’re the hitmen for a much more sinister global ruling elite. America was not founded on the principles of an empire!