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Afghanistan Strategy Not Working, US Commander McChrystal to Tell Obama
The current US military strategy in Afghanistan is not working, America's top commander is expected to admit in a review to be presented to Barack Obama in the next few days.
Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal. McCrystal's report does not mention increasing troop numbers, but the implication is that more soldiers will be needed to turn around an unsuccessful strategy.(Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP) According to reports leaked to the BBC,
General Stanley McChrystal will liken the US military to a bull
charging at the matador-like Taliban and slightly weakened with each
"cut" it receives. The review is also expected to confirm that
protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban must be the top
priority.
US officials have spoken openly about the failing war effort in Afghanistan and McChrystal's report will be a distillation of their strong misgivings. He says the aim should be for Afghan forces to take the lead, but that the Afghan army will not be ready for three years and the police will need longer.
The report does not mention increasing troop numbers, but the implication is that more soldiers will be needed to turn around an unsuccessful strategy. Officers in Afghanistan consider much of the effort of the last eight years wasted, with too few troops deployed and many of them placed in the wrong regions and given the wrong orders.
Any recommendation of a troop increase would come against a background of growing scepticism about the war, with the latest Washington Post-ABC news poll showing that 49% of Americans now think the fight in Afghanistan is worthwhile. Obama appointed McChrystal to turn around a war that is sucking in more and more western troops with litte discernible progress against the Taliban, which has proven to be much more resilient and organised than expected.
"Over the next 12 to 15 months, among the things you absolutely, positively have to do is persuade a sceptical American public that this can work, that you have a plan and a strategy that is feasible," Stephen Biddle, a military expert who advises the US-led command in Afghanistan, told the McClatchy-Tribune news service.
Another leading counter-insurgency expert said Afghanistan's government must fight corruption and deliver services to Afghans quickly, because Taliban militants were filling gaps and winning support. The Taliban were already running courts, hospitals and even an ombudsman in parallel to the government, making a real difference to local people, said David Kilcullen, a senior adviser to McChrystal.
"A government that is losing to a counter-insurgency isn't being outfought, it is being out-governed. And that's what's happening in Afghanistan," Kilcullen told Australia's National Press Club.
Afghanistan has been in political limbo since the presidential election on 20 August, with partial results so far placing President Hamid Karzai in the lead, but not by enough to avoid a second round against his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. The election, which the Taliban failed to disrupt with rocket attacks, has been marred by allegations of fraud with around a third of the votes counted.
Gilles Dorronsoro, an Afghanistan expert covering the elections for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington thinktank, said the Taliban controlled the countryside and had a strong presence even inside cities such as Kandahar and Ghazni.
"Outside the major cities, Afghan administration is non-existent. As President Obama must realise, whether Afghanistan is led by Hamid Karzai or anyone else, the problem for the international coalition is not one of insufficient force; it is insufficient government," Dorronsoro said.
Obama has already sent nearly 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, raising the total of US troops to about 68,000 by the end of the year. In all, Nato has committed about 100,000 troops to the war effort. McChrystal is widely expected to ask for even more forces, as he tries to implement the kind of counter-insurgency strategy that prevented Iraq from descending into all-out civil war two years ago.
While Obama has to wrestle with Afghanistan, there is also renewed concern about Iraq, where suicide bombers have stepped up attacks that have killed hundreds of Iraqis as political tension mounts ahead of January's elections.
- Posted in
57 Comments so far
Show AllHere is a lyric from an old song for that the Afghans might want to use:
"You can't even run your own life,
I'll be damned if you'll run mine.
Joe
Ya know - there's probably (just a guess) 100 other countries singin' that same damn song.
I don't think we should be singing--I think we should be thinking--what the f*&^ are we doing this for?--get out of there now with the truth--we can't afford this wasteful murderous, illegal and immoral, costly and destructive adventure into chaos.
I don't think we should be singing--I think we should be thinking--what the f*&^ are we doing this for?--get out of there now with the truth--we can't afford this wasteful murderous, illegal and immoral, costly and destructive adventure into chaos.
"And it's 1, 2, 3 - what are we fighting for?
Don't tell me I don't give a damn. Next stop is Vietnam".
Is this story sounding familiar?
yep,
"The Taliban were already running courts, hospitals and even an ombudsman in parallel to the government, making a real difference to local people, said David Kilcullen, a senior adviser to McChrystal."
We are supporting the wrong side, the corrupt.
5,6,7,8-open up those pearly gates
There's too many "useless eaters" anyway
Sitting in the middle of the Vietnam war in 1970-71 I would read stories in Time and Newsweek along with propoganda (weekly briefs)from military elites telling those of us on the front lines how things were going. We would look at each other and roll our eyes, and in private conversations note that is definately not what is going on here.
ALmost forty years later, the Powers-That-Be who privately acknowledge the failure in their inner circle, give it another face in public.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In 1970-71 I was about 14 years old. This country (USA) was forcing people to kill other people only because they had a different economic system than us (i.e. communism v. capitalism). Does that make sense to anyone?
But anyewho - I was scared to shit that I was going to get shipped 1/2 around the globe for something I didn't give a crap about.
Because there is no legitimate purpose for this war, it by definition has already failed, and throwing more troops into the meat grinder won't change that.
"the problem for the international coalition is not one of insufficient force; it is insufficient government..."
... in the U.S., that is.
Afghanistan is a land mass controlled by various factions and warlords in various regions, not really a unified nation-- nor is it ever likely to be. Trying to organize them into some outsiders' vision is a fool's game.
By trying to extend the Empire by grabbing 'strategic' bits of land here and there, we only wind up weakening ourselves.
To recap from the article:
"The current US military strategy in Afghanistan is not working..."
"Officers in Afghanistan consider much of the effort of the last eight years wasted, with too few troops deployed and many of them placed in the wrong regions and given the wrong orders."
"A government that is losing to a counter-insurgency isn't being outfought, it is being out-governed."
"the problem for the international coalition is not one of insufficient force; it is insufficient government,"
Sounds to me like:
In the eight years since Bush showed the evidence to Blair and our nation attacked in revenge over 9-11, we have completely screwed up in Afghanistan by wasting men, money and resources. The only thing we have to show for it is a corrupt, unpopular government, to which the Afghanis apparently prefer the Taliban.
Solution? Send more money and arms? If we aren't winning the hearts and minds, if the government we're propping up there is a failure, then maybe what we need to send is more government. Let's send Congress! They can have ours, really. Old Harry Reid and the relics from the Repo Party will have Afghanistan straightened out in no time. we can parachute them in. It'll be a twofer.
It would be great to send in the clowns--please don't forget O'bommer and his pals in the white house--I can just hear these new chicken-hawks squawking like hell, "Please mr. "W" we don't want to go.
Somebody answer me this. We go invade countries, and it takes 10 or 12 years to train an army and police force.
Yet an insurgency just pops up out of the middle of nowhere and kicks ass on "the worlds most lethal fighting machine"?
Not once, not twice - but quite a few times. Huh?
If you were invaded, would you want the invading country to train your army and police? And if the new army and police were trained, would you not expect some of them to use that training to turn against the invaders? Would you not expect the strength of patriotism to outperform that of a mercenary army with no clear mission? Anyone who knows the history of Vietnam knows where this is going.
In 1947 when I lived in the Netherlands we befriended a young Indonesian fellow (in those days they were still called "Indisch" instead of "Indonesian") who was being trained as a sailor at the base of Den Helder to serve in the Dutch navy. When he had to return to the still occupied Dutch East Indies we asked him what he was going to do. His reply: "help kicking the Dutch out of my country."
"If you were invaded..."
Exactly - does the movie "Red Dawn" come to mind?
Re Unforgiven666 August 31st, 2009 2:20 pm, who asks,
"...does the movie "Red Dawn" come to mind?"
The same kids who cheered that movie are now ducking and covering in Iraq and Afghanistan, wondering "why do they hate us?"
It's a triumph of manufactured cognitive dissonance.
If a bull in the china shop is not working, try two bulls in the china shop...
We got the best government money can buy... for those with the most money.
McChrystal . . . says the aim should be for Afghan forces to take the lead, but that the Afghan army will not be ready for three hundred years and the police will need longer.
It is too bad that the people in the shadow U.S. government cannot be exposed, as they are the ones that have shaped U.S. foreign policy for many,many years. They are people like Cheney that have no conscience and rationalize killing and torture in order to attain their egregiously, greedy and nefarious goals. Cheney and the rest of the criminals in congress are just the puppets for the people in the shadow government who really pull the strings, on Obama and the rest, as they have complete control of American foreign policy and until they are exposed, nothing will change.
Isn't it funny that the Taliban wins by taking care of the Afghans, and we come full circle to realize that we have to do the same thing.
The problem is OUR government at home can't get it together for their own people. What makes us think that THEY or anybody else wants to live like we do. (economic slaves!)
It sure would be a lot cheaper if we just supported a just government with a fraction of what we spend now.
Any government the U.S. installs will rule by fear, intimidation and disinformation, just like at home. Just like Iraq!
If we succeed in "conquering" Afghanistan, they will need an army to stay in power.
**********
AP -8/30/09-
MINGORA, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber killed at least 15 police recruits Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley in the deadliest attack since the army regained control over the northwestern valley from the Taliban, officials said.
Authorities were investigating reports that the attacker - possibly in uniform - may have hidden among the dozens of recruits, two officials said.
The blast in the yard of the police station in Mingora, Swat's main town, came one day after the army said it had destroyed a major training camp for suicide bombers. It indicated that while the Taliban's hard-line Islamist rule may be over in the valley, life is far from normal even as hundreds of thousands of residents who fled the fighting are returning.
Volunteers for a new community police force were holding their daily drills in the yard adjacent to the station when the attacker detonated his explosives, local government administrator Atifur Rehman told The Associated Press.
Yep, it will look like Iraq!
McChrystal: Current strategy failing disastrously. Must do much more of same starting now!
"MISTER PRESIDENT...our strategy is failing....we can't tamp down the brush fires with extinguishers...so we have to Suck the OXYGEN OUT of the whole place with much larger bombs....MUCH, MUCH larger, sir".
Same old story with a new reality, America is bankrupt. Bye bye empire.
More wisdom from Bill Moyers, who was on Bill Maher's show:
“I’d think it would be a tragedy beyond description for this young, bright, exciting President to be drawn into an endless war in the same way that the last young, bright, exciting President was drawn into – intervened in Vietnam. I was there when Kennedy chose to send advisers to Vietnam – and was there when LBJ escalated – they both acted from noble intentions – actually they did – they wanted to stop Communism in Asia and spread democracy – but the advisers soon became bombers and the bombers became grounds troops and pretty soon, it became a regional crusade – and 12 years later, billions of dollars, and millions of lives later, including 60,000 American troops – we lost – because the U.S. is not good at that sort of thing.
Here Obama has 68,000 troops over there and the Generals are asking for another 20,000 -- maybe 30,000 more troops -- saying it’s not enough. The military and the hawks will always say "not enough." Obama has to say "enough" -- or he’s going to be drawn into it.
Now they’ve shifted the mission of troops: to protect the villages of Afghanistan. 100,000 Americans can’t protect the villages of Afghanistan – and now they say we’re going to be there to build a nation – we’re not good at building other nations – we’re hardly good at building our nation. If you're an Afghani and look up and see Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California legislature coming to build your nation, you’re going to run – you’re going to put up a No Trespassing sign. We need to come home.”
"Here Obama has 68,000 troops over there and the Generals are asking for another 20,000 -- maybe 30,000 more troops ..."
But, this is a NATO mission. Because as a member of NATO if one country is attacked it's as if every country is attacked.
Guess what - there were two buildings and two airplanes involved. I didn't have any money involved in either. Why should I even give a crap?
I don't.
Now tell me, what's wrong with two million Afghani heroin addicts not voting for the local heroin warlords?
First, 2 million addicts out of a total population of 28 million is 7% of the national population. Do you suppose that the remaining non-addicted population isn't outraged that anyone would do this to them, sell heroin to their family members and kill them for a little money? What kind of a religious denomination would do such a thing to their families and to their nation?
Next, there wasn't any real voting. Most of the voting that took place was well-rigged.
Then there's the part about voting for the heroin warlords.
Afghanistan is not a failed state; it just doesn't have the same measures of successful statehood that, say, Denmark or Sweden has.
US Strategy Not Working - Well, Duh
The Pashtuns have been repelling better invaders for thousands of years.
Yeah, Alexander the Great was the last army to conquer Afghanistan and it was not long before they ran his army out of their country.
George Bush and Dick Cheney's psychotic chickens coming home to roost... and Obama's in the coop welcoming them.
What a frigging disappointment he's turned out to be.
O.T.
Adele Cannon passed away on August 12. :(
Adele Cannon was a long-time Communist and California
Peace and Freedom activist. She was state treasurer of
the Peace and Freedom Party for many years, and the P&F
candidate for Congress against Henry Waxman in the 2006
election. Her husband, Oneil, (who is now in his 90s)
ran Fidelity Letterpress for many years and provided
cheap printing for movement publications. Together, they
founded the Paul Robeson Center in South-Central L.A.
Their commitment and dedication to the struggle for
justice and socialism made them fixtures on the Left in
the Los Angeles area, and California, for many decades.
The surge in Iraq resulted in millions of Iraqi civilians displaced. It is about 2 million internally displaced and 2 million who have left the country. They are refugees, without a place where they feel they belong. Some have no jobs, no school, no friends and no security. They must feel disconnected. Why has the surge been glorified as a success when it was an illegal ethnic cleansing of a large fraction of the Iraqi people.When other countries do this we use it as an excuse to invade them.
Now Obama thinks that is the answere in Afghanistan?Did the Afghanistan people have an opportunity to vote for the withdrawal of US troops or did all candidates support the American war? We actually heard nothing about the people who were up for election . Such as, what was their platform? Were they all fanatics like the Taliban or were there some progressives. The Afghan people must leave when fighting starts, where do they go? Who supplies them with necessities? We are told very little about this mass horror called war, done in our name.
You hit on a point that the media ignores time after time. The media portrays the reduced violence in Iraq due to the surge, when in fact, it was due to most of the ethnic cleansing already occurring resulting in homogenized neighborhoods and less need for the violence behind the ethnic cleansing.
it's an excuse to prolong the US occupation.
"3 more years before they are ready" says UNCLE SAM patronizingly ...as IF the AFghanis have SOMETHING to "learn" from americans.....
when in fact - it's the americans who have PLENTY to LEARN :
they are just ONE MORE HUBRISTIC EMPIRE that thinks it can "stay" to "civilize" people who don't care a HOOT what Americans THINK or WANT!! and will eventually settle their scores among themselves while ALL factions are united in ONE thing concerning Americans:
SNEERING at Americans for occupying their country .
who is McChrystal trying to fool? if he thinks he can fool obama and the american people, FINE.
but the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS is what the natives of the region THINK.
and to THEM --- FOREIGNERS are OCCUPIERS - particularly the Americans. and they are TO BE KICKED OUT.
McChrystal, obama, the westeran "alliance" are making the biggest mistake of all:
Thinking that THEIR opinion or desires "for afghanistan and central asia" MATTERS to the taliban or al qaeda or afghans and tribes...
as an afghan civilian was once asked by a reporter - his answer sums it up :
"the americans are here not because they want to help us...they are here to take advantage of our land".
PERIOD!
"MyChrystal is widely expected to ask [Obama] for even more forces [in Afghanistan], as he tries to implement the kind of counter insurgency strategy that prevented Iraq from descending into all-out civil war two years ago."
Wait! Wasn't this John McCain's policy prescription and stump speech rhetoric during the presidential campaign of 2008?
Didn't Barack Obama pledge to completely review our failures there and take a whole new approach?
Okay, I won't quibble over the difference between an all-out civil war and a modified, limited hang out partial civil war. But enough with this "spectacular success of the surge" crapola.
Violence in occupied Iraq spiked in mid-2007, and continued decreasing throughout 2008, because a decline in the daily carnage worked to the immediate, temporary advantage of all the major players in the region. This coincided with the American electoral cycle not because of mere coincidence.
The Iranian government benefited because a drop in violence eliminated a major Bush/Cheney talking point being pressed in the neocon propaganda machine to justify a US attack upon Iran. The Maliki government got to solidify its domestic hold on power in Baghdad, to the benefit of Iraqi Shiites and the Kurds. Iraqi Sunnis and former Baathists got a much needed breather from the fighting, with a chance to regroup and rearm courtesy of the financial and political support of the US occupation forces (the great Anbar Awakening). Moktada and his grassroots Shiite followers also took a ceasefire timeout to reorganize, enjoying the protection of the mullahs in Tehran. Even the beleagured Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire got some temporary respite from the bombings, ethnic cleansing and bloodshed.
All this enabled the outgoing Bushies to put the best conceivable face upon their disasterous, failed foray into Mesopotamia. The "success of the surge" was to frame the fall, 2008 debate about Uncle Sam's wars abroad.
See folks, militarism does work if you only stay the course. There's light at the end of the tunnel. Victory even. We told you so. The Pentagon's hi tech soldiers and our proactive, gloves off team of black ops/Blackwater spooks can work wonders to bring stability out of chaos, if only the public will just give them a free hand and a grateful nation's continued unwavering trust.
Well, that line of self serving bullshit didn't work in the light of day out on Main Street for the McCain/Palin campaign either. The American people instead elected the candidate who had unequivocally called Iraq "a stupid war."
Isn't it doubly ironic, then, that this current breaking news story about what's gone wrong in Afghanistan shows General McChrystal, in an old file photo, standing in front of a laundry list of the declared objectives of the US military mission in occupied Iraq?
Go read the nine points in the background just behind McChrystal's right ear.
Then tell me again why we should pattern Af/Pak military strategy after what has proven so successful in Iraq.
Bill from Saginaw
So obama sold the idea that there is SUCH a thing as a "SMART" war -- coz he could call the Iraq invasion a "stupid war"...eh?
it should really be:
DUMB wars, Dumber Wars, Dumberer.....Wars....
it just gets stupider and stupider
obama is symbolic of the American Empire:
the american empire thinks it can ESCAPE history's fate for empire...especially one as grasping and overtly manipulative as the USA ...
just as Obama thinks HE can ESCAPE the history of FAILED US War Presidencies before him...
i thought this guy was an IVY leaguer or something? or a COLLEGE GRADUATE of AMERICAN HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION?
McChrystal's quick on the uptake, eh?
For argument's sake, let's call it the 'war on terror', since 'they' still call Iraq/Afghanistan that:
8 years.
Over 400,000 US/COW/NATO/ killed and injured, over $4 trillion spent.
vs.
Taliban surging stronger than ever.
Yea, I'd say the so-called 'strategy' isn't f@#king working...
,,,over $4 trillion spent IS THE STRATEGY!!!
"War is its own reason for being."---Geo. Orwell.
www.earthlingenterprises.com
War is the preferred way to turn public money into private money. It's all about the money.
The (lack of cogent) strategy isn't working? I knew that. A long time ago. You don't need a Chrystal ball, just common sense and a rudimentary understanding of history.
Now may I have your salary, General McChrystal and think-tank gurus?
Joe
The main thing I can't understand about President Obama is his Afpak war recalcitrance. Is he appalled at the thought of another attack on the United States and so thinks the best answer is to fire bullets and drones indiscriminately in every direction? I am deeply moved by the Silver Spring testimony of a certain Winter Soldier, who said that not only do we kill the wrong people but that we ALWAYS kill the wrong people.
Three times in the past two weeks I have gotten into horrible discussions with people who think the Afpak war is the way to go. Apparently they think we're killing the "right" people. But when you scratch at the information they use to justify their view, you find that they are deeply influenced by the James Bond movie DOCTOR NO. Osama Bin Laden is in a cave so huge that it contains an entire fleet of airliners revving jet engines. And out the rear of the cave, behind a false wall, exends a wormhole through which the planes will fly to San Francisco. And the cave is chock full of terrorists. They're all in one place! So with a single, well-placed bomb we can rid the world of terrorism forever.
So what is the answer? said one of my antagonists, a man with whom I had just been having a delightful discussion about other subjects. That "we come home and bury our heads in a sandbox?"
Come home, yes. Bury our heads in a sandbox, no. Take care of problems at home, yes. Quit meddling where we don't belong, yes. Quit recruiting new members of the Taliban through our presence, yes. And quit broad-brushing or profiling "the Taliban," a name that sounds like "Caliban," a famous monster in Shakespeare who is like Haji in Iraq or nigger in the old America. Apparently "the Taliban" contains all sorts of people, and they don't fly airliners and fire another squirt gun into the face of another school girl every five minutes.
Apparently (the information is sketchy), the acid squirting happened twice or so and nobody is sure who did it. Dexter Filkins, the former New York Times reporter, raised all the money necessary to fly the most disfigured girl to Texas for restorative surgery. Her family won't permit this, however, because they are afraid of reprisals.
This is typical. As long as we keep our insane military presence in Afghanistan no one can do ANYTHING. And I'm very sure that the presence of our wrong-shooting, wrong-bombing soldiers and contractors isn't helping Greg Mortenson of the Central Asia Foundation to build new schools.
.
The U.S. Military is broken. The U.S. Economy is in the toilet. And ALL of the current Generals haven't a clue on how to win a war in the "Graveyard of Empires".
President Obama cut our losses NOW. Bring our troops home...........ASAP.
.
Is any of this truly worthy of reporting as news? Who in the world hasn't realized by now that, DUH! the war in Afghanistan ain't going well?
Re Trailing Begonia August 31st, 2009 10:11 pm, who asks,
"Is any of this truly worthy of reporting as news?"
Sometimes it's useful to know when the dominant narrative begins to catch up with reality.
And so it goes over in the "Graveyard of Empires".
So who/what would want US to stay the course?
So who/what is making the money off war/pipeline?
So who/what would like to see our nation/all nations brought to their knees?
THE CORPORATIONS.
Nations just get in the way of the corporate agenda of complete global dominance.
CORP IS BORG.
if people go to Asiatimesonline...they can read much more in-depth news - the real way -
i'm pasting just the first paragraph of an article...think of it as "opinion paragraph" here ...but mainly to emphasize taking note of the author (certainly not some "washington clone media US propagandist") --
putting it rather kindly:
"the afghans will be seeing the *too soft technocrats* (prefered by washington to replace karzai) as *the WIVES OF OBAMA*".......
the point here is not that they are going to be, by washington's desires - WEDDED to washington as they thought Karzai would be -
but that the IMPORTANT and ONLY matter of relevance , ultimately, is AFGHAN VIEWS, NOT american views or desires.....
and that to Afghans WASHINGTON/led or coddled or even "cooperative" Afghan leaders ARE going to be considered nothing less than traitors and worse - by their cultural standards -
"WIVES" -- if they , as might be expected, are going to be MEN.
not only is the American Empire digging itself deeper into the Graveyard of Empires...
the MACHO american Empire (" children go to Baghdad..REAL men go to Tehran " -- as the Neocons loved saying about their imperial adventures ) -
is about to meet what REAL MACHO is really like....just thousands of years old of brutal REALITY.......despite its "technology and technocrats"......
OBAMA needs to FLY in to afghanistan and see what they have in store for HIM....should he and McChrystal get lost in the crowd away from his MACHO american Big Boys.....
THEY might get turned into WIVES by the afghanis when it comes down to man to man minus their fancy bombs and drones..........
===========================
excerpt from asiatimesonline article
Wizards and wives drive Afghan election
President Hamid Karzai, called the "wizard" for his ability to outwit opponents, insists he is the rightful winner of the Afghan presidential election and won't face a runoff just to satisfy American demands. His challengers - Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani - are too-soft technocrats that Afghans may come to call "Obama's wives". As days pass, the standoff gets messier and messier. - M K Bhadrakumar (Aug 31, '09)
"The review is also expected to confirm that protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban must be the top priority."
We bomb them for their own protection.
Bring America Back !!!!
***Just listen to the Military Minded Neocons crying for HELP!
***The MI Complex just cannot come out and admit they've lied about the Taliban Threat for 8 years, and then recommend that we get out of Afghan.
***The Team Obama is NOT smart enough to take up on this and
GET OUT of both Iraq and Afghan and STAY OUT of Iran !!!
This is the perfect opportunity for Barak to be the saviour he was elected to be and get our troops back home. He's alrready swallowed too mucn of King George bilge to see the
obvious
****Russia told us NOT to get involved in Afghan== our leaders not smart enough to listen, and get out !!
****The United Nations and key allies told us NOT to invade Iraq, but our leaders--caught up in massive lies and war crimes, would not listen and STAY OUT !!!
****France told us to stay out of VIETNAM, based upon its own failed experiences, but our leaders did not heed the good advice and entered the only war in US History which we LOST disgracefully.
At Woodstock we can echo the refrain==When will they ever
learn; When will they ever learn ????
We the Sheeple must make them learn and listen, Finally !!
"The review is also expected to confirm that protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban must be the top priority."
Another song lyric from the Vietnam era:
"Although this isn't really war,
We're sending 50,000 more
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese"
The main difference here is that we helped foster the Taliban, whereas the Vietnamese NLF was their own creation. In any case we cannot succeed as puppetmaster of the world. We lose so much money, life and domestic happiness by trying.
Joe