Over 11,000 U.S. and Afghan troops encircled an area in southern Afghanistan called Marjah to defeat a just few hundred Taliban fighters.
Military leaders in the alliance acknowledged that the battle against these few remaining Taliban fighters in Marjah isn’t going as well as planned and have resolved that this engagement won’t change much for the Taliban in Afghanistan. The hope now, and the primary reason that American and alliance lives are being sacrificed in this battle, is that the perception of the war will change in the minds and hearts of the U.S. public.
All senior U.S. military commanders, and the vast majority of its officers, can trace the roots of their military careers to the Vietnam conflict. Cadets graduating from the world’s military colleges during the last 30 years have all studied in great detailed the disaster that was the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan and the British occupation before them. Alexander the Great concurred powerful empires, but failed in Afghanistan – a country that has never had a strong central government. Only a blind fool with an abundance of hubris can miss the similarities today and thereby condemn us all to repeat history.
Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The U.S. too will eventually leave Afghanistan, but not the Taliban, and the result will be that neither the world nor the beleaguered people of Afghanistan will be better off from yet another small but bloody page in history.
I do not believe it is an “abundance of hubris” as you say. Our society at large, the education that most citizens receive, and reflected in the general media, is simply not trained to see such patterns in history. Imagine how boring it would be to place news worthy items in such historical context. Who would listen? What of any history do most people remember from their education? Our educational system fails us. Our “independent” media fails us us. I agree, we too will leave that awful place and debate for ever over its merits or lack thereof.
yes you too shall bleed and bleed and then leave this place
I would just like to point out that there are more than 200 religions practiced in this world and in almost every single one of them there is an ethic of reciprocity, a “golden rule”, by which followers are supposed to live (even in the constructs of Satanism, this rule exists, and the only two “belief” systems which do not have some allusion to this rule are agnosticism and atheism, because the two contain no moral code) It is the only rule that is needed, yet it is the most difficult rule to live by.
both parties suck equally……Dems give you that gentle, caressing tug while the Repubs give you that violent, pull a watermelon through a hose tug
Republicans want want failure, they want things like the insurance companies to continue to rake in billions and to keep the unwealthy at a disadvantage. The infrastructures portion was what we needed to get us going in advancing our country to come into the present but the old conservatives who want to go back to the “simpler times” (ie. slavery, and racial discrimination via lower education). Our country and everyday people need help due to bad financial policy and they are just not getting it. Who is getting it? Big business. God bless America.
What if the purpose had never been anything close to stated? What if the purpose all along, was to start “warring” so that we may continue “warring”?
Whose pockets get fleeced through long drawn out warfare with no end in sight?
Ideals are sweet but understanding human potential goes farther in exposing what is possible. In a country where it is not custom to think for ourselves, no personal accountability is going to be claimed for being self governing. The people, obviously, choose a strong parent figure to bow down to, and that means responsibility for choice, for the use of freewill, is being denied.
The people are not psychologically ready for Democracy.
As in the Vietnam “War”, which was in fact, a “police action” when sold to the public, who is making money? Like LBJ and Bell Helicopter?
Maybe if we really wanted to go to war to WIN, we’d start a fight with Germany, since we already beat them twice?
Sue Ann,
I note in particular what you have written: The people are not psychologically ready for Democracy.
Interesting, do you mean not that the idea/concept/ideals of Democracy have failed or are failing, but rather, WE THE PEOPLE, have not stepped up?
Exactly, SE. A government OF the People, BY the People and FOR the People cannot exceed the sum of all its parts, namely us, the People.
Our Ideals haven’t failed. We simply need to associate Freedom and Democracy with personal responsibility and accountability. There’s no way to be “democratic” if we’re not 1st self governing.
The People in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t expressed any Desire to be self governing, so we can forget our Ideal of Democracy for them. It won’t work, not until the people themselves choose to be self governing.
Quite a few don’t even Desire being Civil, so the rewards of a civilization are moot points, too. Relating to others in ways that are “civil” are the cause and “civilization” an effect.
As much as our Ideal of Democracy is a shining star, it must shine its light so that others can see it, thus emulate it. Anything through a use of force is simply dominance and substituting one authority for another. People behave through the use of fear, not through willingness and for a Democracy, there must be willingness.
In our country, we have forgotten that pioneers in thought and adventurers founded our nation. Comfort has beguiled us. We’re suppose to lead our government, not look to our government to lead us.
Ponder the oxymoron “peacekeeper”. Why do I need to spend any time and energy keeping something that does not exist? Isn’t that like trying to build a vault to store all the money I don’t have?
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