punditman says...
Punditman is not convinced there is any strategy that will "win" in Afghanistan. But we are being told by the geniuses in charge that to "win" will require much greater sacrifice on the part of Western forces. Many more troops, troops in close contact with the population, troops at greater risk, sustaining much greater casualities. Supposedly the generals and politicians have the hearts and minds thing all figured out this time around.
Meanwhile, the lack of a robust anti-Afghan War movement indicates that most people in the West seem resigned to permanent war and a permanent war economy as long as our side is doing most of the killing and other people are doing most of the dying. It ill be ironic, indeed, if the only thing that brings the Afghan debacle to some kind of half-assed negotiated conclusion is Obama's planned escalation, which finally awakens the "peaceniks" from their Obamatized slumber. Is punditman making any sense? More coffee, please.
Punditman is not convinced there is any strategy that will "win" in Afghanistan. But we are being told by the geniuses in charge that to "win" will require much greater sacrifice on the part of Western forces. Many more troops, troops in close contact with the population, troops at greater risk, sustaining much greater casualities. Supposedly the generals and politicians have the hearts and minds thing all figured out this time around.
Meanwhile, the lack of a robust anti-Afghan War movement indicates that most people in the West seem resigned to permanent war and a permanent war economy as long as our side is doing most of the killing and other people are doing most of the dying. It ill be ironic, indeed, if the only thing that brings the Afghan debacle to some kind of half-assed negotiated conclusion is Obama's planned escalation, which finally awakens the "peaceniks" from their Obamatized slumber. Is punditman making any sense? More coffee, please.
That's why the bleak picture painted by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man in charge of NATO forces in Afghanistan should come as no surprise.
In a report made public this week, McChrystal articulated the obvious: Things are getting worse; the war is going nowhere.
