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McChrystal's (ball folly and) Myth.
by Jeff Huber at Antiwar.com
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There is no such thing as a "victory" in the kinds of wars we're fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The best one can hope for in these types of conflicts – counterinsurgency efforts in far-flung corners of the globe with fuzzy objectives and vague necessity – is to not be seen as having "lost." For that to happen, unfortunately, you have to stick around for so long and fade away so gradually that, by the time you leave, nobody notices you're gone.
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(NO, the USA can leave immediately and still "win"
1. The American military is in Afghanistan because of Afghan Opium/Heroin worth about $50 --$80 billion a year once it is sold in the streets of Europe and North America, transported by American military planes....."Opium wars" redux.
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The British armed forces have cherry picked Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan to base their "counter-insurgency" operations, which is coincidentally the highest poppy growing area in Afghanistan, and since their presence there, production of Opium/Heroin has increased, a few hundred fold and heroin is now far cheaper in the streets of Britain, so we can make some basic deductive assumptions around these facts.
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The American taxpayer pays for the operation in Afghanistan, and fights these wars, whilst a few criminals in the Pentagon and civilians allied to them profit from them.......the cliche quote......"War is a racket" by General Smedley Butler. In such a scenario obviously most people trying to justify such costly operations would be groping around with cock and bull BS excuses to be in Afghanistan......including the likes of McChrystal, which for rational Americans would not make sense.
2. Iraq was about the Israeli desire for historical revenge for the Jewish peoples enslavement by the Assyrians, and the elimination of a regional rival with potential nuclear programs, and WMD programs generally. Iraq by 1990 had 1.1 million men under arms, 6000 tanks, 4,000 artillery pieces, 550 jets and extensive WMD programs as a result of the Iran/Iraq war, and exclusively in response to much larger, more populous, more powerful Iran.....but Israel was scared/shitting in the pants about this Iraqi might and wanted it neutralized via America.
There are some indications that Saddam was an American installed agent, indicated by the fact that he sought American "permission" to invade Kuwait in 1990, amongst other information, which the American ambassador April Gillespie gave informally, when she met Saddam in July 1990.)
The neoconservative apparatus that got us into Iraq for reasons we still haven’t decided on threatens to keep us in Afghanistan indefinitely for reasons yet to be determined. Everything we’re doing in Central and Southwest Asia supposedly has something to do with eradicating al-Qaeda, yet there is
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(al-Qaeda as an "organization" with a coherent structure and a clear doctrine does not exist in the Vietcong sense, ANC sense, or Hezbollah sense, never did, but is an elaborate hologram to justify American military operations in certain countries.
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12,000 mostly Arabs were trained by the Americans/Israelis/ Pakistanis during the 1980's and into the 1990's, initially fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in a "Jehad". Of these approximately 7,000 went back to their own countries settling down into civilian life, getting married etc....doing the 9---5....or causing problems for those Muslim countries.....Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia,Yemen, Indonesia......and so on.
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Of the remaining 5,000 in Afghanistan, these courtesy of Iran/America were covertly shipped to the Balkans to fight "infidels" in Bosnia and Kosovo, and act as the Taliban's shock troops to consolidate the country in the 1990's.
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It is these 5,000 men who were labelled as "al-Qaeda" from 2000/2001, but nearly all of them fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then in Bosnia, Kosovo NOT as al-Qaeda, and NOT linked to Osama Bin Laden directly under a clear command structure, taking orders from him.......and NOT involved in any terrorist ops targeting Western assets or civilians. These men if they have been guided by anyone it is the ISI/Pakistan military, which operates under the direction of American/Israeli intelligence/military.
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Thus it is more exact and correct to say that "al-Qaeda" is a Western/Israeli intelligence hologram front, assisted critically by the ISI. Of these 5,000, many are now dead, a few captured and the rest either in Iran, Pakistan or have returned to their countries of origin.
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So in summary .......
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1. The 5,000 who served in "al-Qaeda" could be termed Islamic fundamentalist like Osama, with similar ideological backgrounds........fighting infidels and saving Muslim lands.
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2. However they are not "al-Qaeda" because there is no evidence that such an organization with a clear command structure ever existed, beyond Osama's immediate fellow travelers of a dozen. There is no clear evidence that the 5,000 accepted Osama as their leader, or took any orders from him.
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3. The terrorist ops in NE America 2001 9/11, Madrid 2004, and London 7/7 2005 and the attack on the USS Cole 2000 seem to be the work of Israel, usually assisted by friendly local security people allied to Israel........MI-5 etc..... to create a certain narrative which supports ISRAEL'S overall geo-strategic plans ("A Clean Break" 1996,"PNAC" 2000) "Israel's enemies are the West's enemies,so we are in this fight together" basic paraphrased response to a Israeli agent captured in the vicinity of the Twin Towers in 9/11, 2001..........There is no clear indication that the 5,000 of "al-Qaeda" were ever interested in terrorist ops which targeted civilians, especially Western civilians, but rather they were more concerned with fighting irregular warfare against armed opposition groups in the conventional battle field, in Muslim countries.
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4. The 5,000 membership of "al-Qaeda" were trained/armed/supplied by America/Israel and Pakistan ............................and seemed to have been guided from the beginning to the end as useful appendages to the "Clash of Civilization" meme, and consequently as the justification for invading Afghanistan, and to an extent indirectly Iraq...........Somalia........threaten Pakistan....and so forth.
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9/11 2001 was a joint Israel/Israeli-American agents operation to justify the current open ended wars, and blamed on "al-Qaeda". The FBI do not think Osama was responsible for 9/11.......and Osama in his last real interview to a Pakistani paper in October 2001 stated that he did not carry out 9/11.
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SO, Osama was never the leader of these 5,000 men....used extensively by the USA in various theaters, and trained by America/Israel/Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden never sat down with all of them in Afghanistan, and said "lets attack America, so that the American's can occupy several Muslim countries for Israel".......Osama until he died in December 2001 in Pakistan was an American agent, performing their guided theater, surrounded as always by a dozen followers and no more)
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THUS.......
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Osama Bin Laden, code named "Tim Osman" by his Western intelligence handlers was a Western trained security operative, a go-between/coordinator for Western intelligence with the numerous "jehadi" operatives. The man sought publicity, Western and domestic, wearing his exotic clothes and even more exotic speeches.....giving interviews to newspapers, magazines,television channels and so on...thats how you build a terrorist hologram for your Western Intelligence handlers.
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These direct media interviews and footage of his movement with his rent a followers suddenly stopped in late 2001............thus the widely held belief that he actually died in December 2001. Since late 2003 all we have had is fake video presentations by him in a studio, and taped speeches.
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So deductive summary....
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Osama Bin Laden/Tim Osman, the Western intelligence operative died in December 2001, or killed in that year so that he would not give too many further live interviews stating that he did not carry out 9/11......why would a diehard Jehadi lie about such a deed anyway? If he really did it, he would obviously take credit, surely?
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The video, and tape recordings of Osama since late 2003 are fake. So somebody is going to great lengths to present fake information, and subsequently verifying them as authentic. If this is indeed the case it is not a great stretch to imagine that "al-Qaeda" was never a real global terrorist organization, and that "al-Qaeda" did not carry out 9/11 . Osama denied he carried out 9/11 in October 2001 to a Pakistani newspaper; Benazir Bhutto in her November 2nd 2007 interview with David Frost states Omer Shaikh,the British intelligence operative killed Osama in late 2001.....and finally the FBI do not think he carried out or ordered 9/11.
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The American government since 2001 has never produced substantial proof that "al-Qaeda"carried out 9/11.
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If Osama did not carry out 9/11, and "al-Qaeda" did not carry out 9/11, then who did? All the information leads towards hardline Likudnik Israelis in the state security structure of Israel working in tandem with like minded people in the USA........and to understand who.... All you have to do is read the "Clean Break" document 1996, and "Project For A New American Century" 2000....to get a finger at the REAL perpetrators.
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For the sake of keeping fewer than a dozen evildoers out of Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his legion of supporters in the Pentagon, Congress, and the media insist we need to bring increase U.S. troop levels to over 100,000, and the overall coalition force level to a half-million, the number of troops we had on the ground at one point in Vietnam.
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(unless we are looking at a buildup invasion force against Pakistan in the future........and more war.
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Whilst the occupation forces aren't clearly fighting"al-Qaeda" they are fighting the Taliban.........that part Jeff is not a myth.
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So lets look at the Taliban.
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The Taliban is the love child of the USA, whilst Pakistan is the midwife and mentor which gave it birth in 1994, and the Gulf states as always the funders of this latest piece of American/Israeli mischief, allegedly, laughably in hindsight to bring peace and stability to war torn Afghanistan .
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Numbering about 10,000 drawn exclusively from the ranks of the ethnic Pashtuns, lightly armed with AK-47 and not much else: poor military training; poor logistics; poor C&C; no heavy equipment; poor leadership; no real overall general strategy; no aircover.............and inevitably consequently to date losing every engagement against the Coalition forces, so a turkey shoot.
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But touted as a real threat to the puppet Kabul government, and to the American homeland by implication...."we are fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them over here in our country".......The Taliban sticks to fighting in Afghanistan, and the Pashtun parts of Pakistan........10,000 verses 500,000 soon to be Afghan and coalition security forces, AND 1,100,000 Pakistani security forces,controlled by the USA
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Under International law if any of the 192 GA countries are occupied by foreign armed forces, then the people under foreign occupation have the right to seek "self-determination", and can organize themselves as a resistance movement against the foreign occupation force........the law is clear in this area. So for example if America is occupied by a foreign military power, Americans can organize themselves into a resistance movement, AND seek material assistence from Canada or Mexico......under international law Mexico and Canada would be duty bound to provide food, shelter and arms with training for the "American Liberation Movement".
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This law evolved over a period of 60 years, after world war II, when many people around the world, under colonial rule were struggling for "self-determination"........and the international community, including First World countries, with Socialist bloc countries came to accept the fundamental principle of "self-determination".........People had the right to govern themselves, and not be occupied and exploited by foreign alien entities. For the rule of "self-determination" to apply to any nation, only a significant portion of the population must be united in the resistance movement, presumably over 50%............does the Taliban have the support of over 50% of the Afghan population? or a significant portion, because if they do then it is a legitimate resistance movement seeking "self determination" for the Afghan people.
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Then in such a scenario, under clear international law accepted by rich and poor countries alike over 60 years, the Taliban have the right to seek shelter, logistics and arms from the governments of Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and China..........these governments and nations which are neighbors of Afghanistan have a duty under international law to provide all manner of support to the Taliban.
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However there are problems with this .........and the question of the Taliban.
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Problem number 1 was/is the Americans and especially Bush II regime which emphasized American exceptionalism.............America by implication is above the law; as the sole hyper power it does not have to follow international rules.......second by implication again, because of the crimes committed by "al-Qaeda" allegedly was so great in 9/11 (remember the FBI do not think Osama Bin Laden committed 9/11, and the USA government have not offered detailed evidence linking "al-Qaeda" to 9/11)......America in revenge can do as it pleases, including absolving it of any international obligations.........under this new Bush doctrine America can threaten Afghan neighbors who support legitimate Afghan resistance movements.
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The second problem is with the Taliban itself. It is a hardline Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group which even the mullahs of Iran labeled "fossilized dinosaurs"......there are 192 nations on earth, and it is quite right that morally, socially, culturally, economically every nation on earth should attempt to modernize themselves, and look forward in history....which means striving for democratic governments that are transparent and accountable to the people, elected legislatures, the rule of law which is not arbitrary, a vibrant civil society, an incorruptible neutral judiciary, economic elevation for all.........all the good wholesome things which every people of all shades agree on should be available to ALL, enshrined in the UDHR, and ICCPR and ICSECR........BUT somehow I don't think the Taliban would sign on to such universal notions and attempt to deliver on such things....in fact quite the reverse.
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Another problem is with the Taliban again..........Is the Taliban created by the USA, through the Pakistan military a true home grown resistance movement that seeks in the jargon of international law, "self-determination" for the majority of its people? For example like the ANC, based in Mozambique initially, or the Vietcong based in North Vietnam....................OR as hinted is it more likely that it is yet another "Controlled opposition" group used as the fifth column by America to justify American occupation of Afghanistan?.....My personal opinion is that the Taliban are not a true resistance movement that has the best interests of the majority of Afghans, fighting for "self-determination"....though obviously the rank and file of the Taliban may feel that they are fighting for their country.
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The final problem with the Taliban is that it has powerful enemies around Afghanistan, which will make it near impossible for them to regain power..........if and when the Americans finally have satisfied their lust for narco-profits, and leave Afghanistan. Shia Iran does not like Sunni hard line Taliban, and came to near blows with them in 1998 when Iran massed 250,000 troops on the Afghan border, after some Iranian diplomats were butchered in Mazar-i-sharif. Iran backs the Northern Alliance against the Taliban; has fully cooperated with the USA since Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 and is investing heavy into various projects to bolster the current puppet government in Kabul; Ditto Russia for historical reasons.....sees the Taliban as the extension of the mujaheddin which fought against their soldiers and killed/MIA 20,000 of them, and wounded 50,000...resulting in a humiliating retreat for the superpower; ditto India who does not wish to see Pakistan achieve "strategic depth" viz India in Afghanistan, which makes the Pakistanis confident into renewing attacks against India, especially in Kashmir.
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India views the Taliban as the proxy of the Pakistan military which is absolutely correct, but is also a half analysis. To be more precise a better perspective from which to make ALL intelligence assessments of Pakistan,over a longer time span would be to view the Pakistani military as an annex of British intelligence, and the American military, especially since 1954 when the $1 billion Security Pact was signed with the USA by Mohammed Ali Bogra/General Ayub Khan with the Eisenhower administration. Since then the Pakistani military have been acting as the regional proxy of the USA in security ops against Iran, Afghanistan, China, INDIA and against the Pakistani people themselves. Senior military officers are sent to the USA for training. At present the Pakistan military run Pakistan from the back seat deciding on ALL security issues, and a substantial portion of foreign policy.....whilst Zardari, the American installed puppet busy's himself with looting the state coffers, and gives the veneer of democratic legitimacy to the Pakistani state.
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Thus the number one enemy of the Pakistani people, and for South Asian stability, harmony and development is the Chamar Chamacha Chauds in the Pakistan military (aka: Raj Pooooonjab Police Force). It must be dismantled and destroyed....and a new military instituted in its place that reflects the true beliefs, values and interests of the Pakistani people.
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My personal view is that the Americans should leave Afghanistan asap, BUT the Taliban should NOT take power after they leave.......sufficient support must be given to alternative groups in Afghanistan..........but such good will intentions and outcome will not come from the Americans, busy with their narco enterprise.............and certain sado-machoistic penchant for attacking Afghan wedding parties and celebrations....Afghanistan has banned gay marriages)
The half-million figure comes from the counterinsurgency field manual (FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency [.pdf]), which calls for 20 to 25 counterinsurgent forces per every 1,000 locals, and Afghanistan contain a tad over 28 million locals. Your cat can do the math from there. What your cat can’t tell you is the thought process behind the conclusion that it makes sense to pit a half-million persons under arms against a force of eight or ten persons who aren’t in the vicinity of where you plan to place your half-million armed people.
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(If you love war and think YOU are the center of the world, attacking wedding parties, attacking civilians, strutting around in uniform, feeling self important, giving media presentations to the world, heroin, opium........bloated Pentagon security budgets which are untraceable in the trillions........then of course any obvious cock and bull will be offered)
That’s because your cat’s thought process isn’t as short-circuited as the cognitive quagmire going on in the minds of McChrystal and the people backing him.
The short version of this loopy logic equation goes like this: you put McChrystal in charge and he’s asking for what an official doctrine manual says he should ask for, so you have to give it to him. This skips over a trail of false assumptions that, lined up end to end, would span the Khyber Pass.
The requirement for a half-million to ten superiority ratio should have been laughed out of the discussion the moment it was mentioned. The counterinsurgency manual’s dictum that we must "convince the people of the government’s legitimacy" contains two dismal flaws in the context of Afghanistan (and Iraq as well). There is no convincing the Afghan people of the legitimacy of the Hamad Karzai government or any other government we replace it with.
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(He has been in power approaching 8 years with nothing to recommend him, his brother is the biggest narco dealer in the country after the American/British military, and his deputy is a notorious criminal war lord........which ALL Afghans know about, guarded as always by American security overtly..........and we talk about "convincing" the Afghans of the legitimacy of their leader? Ordinary Afghans live in Afghanistan, they know the real score. A Pentagon manual isn't going to teach them otherwise)
The biggest flaw in the pro-McChrystal plan argument is that the counterinsurgency manual reflects tried-and-true tactics and strategy. There has never been such a thing as a triumphant counterinsurgency conflict. These types of wars have all been indecisive and draining quagmires; the sorts of conflicts that Sun Tzu warned us about over two thousand years ago when he said "No nation ever profited from a long war."
Yet it is that the military-industrial-congressional complex has adopted the "long war" concept, a gem of tank thinkery straight out of Orwell designed to keep America on a permanent wartime economy and in an endless state of fear and loathing of enemies vaguely defined and overly demonized.
Lacking a peer military adversary since the end of the Cold War, the American war mafia, headed by Bill Kristol’s Israeli-centric neoconservative cabal, casts about desperately for a "new Pearl Harbor" to justify its existence. The 9/11 attacks gave them the "catalyst" they needed to justify the invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It remains to be seen if we’ll be able to pull out of the flat spin they have flown us into.
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(We can add AIPAC, Israel, the American Jewish media..........I suppose this goes as far as possible in such a site implicating Israel for 9/11............"A Clean Break" document 1996, PNAC 2000)
The greatest fallacy in the counterinsurgency doctrine is the notion that we can partner with the host nation to establish order and security. As U.S. Army Col. Timothy Reese recently observed, our years of effort at establishing a competent and reliable government and security apparatus in Iraq have come to naught. The "ineffectiveness and corruption" of Iraq’s government, he wrote in a recent memorandum, "is the stuff of legend." Of Iraq’s security forces, he wrote, "corruption among officers is widespread."
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(No honest Iraqi would work with the American/Israeli occupation forces after what has transpired in Iraq under their control......1.2 million dead civilians and 4.5 million refugees....so you hire thief's, murders, liars and pimps...........the only problem with hiring thief's, liars, murderers and pimps to do your work it is that they are not very good at running countries for some strange reason, and $ billions disappear, and you ask why? Iraq, Afghanistan, PAKISTAN)
Laziness is "endemic," Reese said, and "Lack of initiative is legion." These and other compelling reasons are why Reese recommended that it’s time to "declare victory" in Iraq and go home.
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(Reese sounds like a racist fucker.............between 1757--1947, the British starved to death around 30 million "surplus" Indians who were deemed "lazy", including many Aryans amongst them..........the problem is not the"lazy" natives, but the occupation by alien entities who don't have the best of intentions for the hosts they occupy, and the use of local thief's, liars, murderers and pimps of these colonial countries under foreign occupation.
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Iraq is the "Cradle of Civilization"..........the base of human civilization from where humanity gets its basics of existence..........and then remarkably again under Muslim rule it became the center of Arab civilization. Before the invasion of 2003, Iraq had the highest literacy rate in the Middle East, and universal free health care......with 70% of the population living in cities, despite having psycho Saddam as its leader............"laziness" doesn't come into the equation; the ONLY problem is the American occupation of a Muslim country, and the presence of many Israeli security advisers in the country)
To think we can do better than this in Afghanistan is the epitome of delusion. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which we backed in a long war against Iran during the 1980s, was a real country with a real army and real institutions and infrastructure. Afghanistan has always been a fourth-world wasteland. When it comes to Afghanistan, our counterinsurgency manual amounts to little more than a ream of latrine linen.
The only reason we’re still playing political patty-cake about what to do in Afghanistan – or anywhere else in that part of the world – is to determine who gets the blame for "losing." A popular adage of war says it’s the losers who determine when they’re over. So, the logic goes, as long as we don’t quit, we can’t lose. Hence the "long war."
(Well Jeff, there's only so much wisdom we can expect from military men......unless there is an actual world war,the brightest and best in society don't head to the military in First World societies..............living in military barracks surrounded by a lot of gay men, studying war and fighting........in fact quite the opposite. What McCrystal says is predictable; that is what a military man in charge of operations in Afghanistan would say. What"we" don't want is the American military establishment defining and dictating American state policy,through the media and through their Think Tanks.............that undermines true American democracy if it exists. It is the job of the civilian elected political leaders in Capitol Hill who should give clear leadership and clear definition on all foreign policy, aggressively reviewing and analyzing all areas........taking into account general public sentiments.........rather then grunting on in a gay way with open ended wars.........and playing the falsely wound up patsy of Israeli geo-strategic folly.)
