Harry Reid Likes Obama's No-Macho Afghanistan Plan

What you failed to report was whether Obama was drinking a glass of water while Reid was appearing to speak.

Disgusted of PA 1:51PM March 28, 2009

Afghanistan might be the textbook example of "you broke it; you bought it." We have spent ungodly amounts of time and money keeping this country at war with itself and others. If it wasn't to support the Pakistani ISI and the Afghan mujahideen during the war with the USSR, it was to support the Pakistani ISI during their proxy war with the Northern Alliance and the subsequent civil war, not to mention 2001 and beyond. Most Afghans are adamant that the US funds the Taliban, mainly because our Pakistani aid money goes right back to the people trying to derail our efforts in the first place.

People here might be more inclined to liberate themselves and support the notion of a representative republic (i.e. the talking points of sweaty-faced, overweight college republicans and other children of privilege) if they weren't scrambling to find food, shelter and recourse when they're robbed and beaten at roadside checkpoints. If you talk to an American soldier about what Afghanistan is like (as opposed to just mouth breathing about the heroic sacrifice for freedom and security that we're making), you'll probably hear something along the lines of "this place is like the middle ages." It is exceptionally far behind Iraq as far as human development goes, so go figure that the circa 2003-2007 brute force tactics that didn't work in Iraq totally didn't work in this country, either.

I can only speak for SW Afghanistan, where I am currently deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, but this place is poor to the point that all superlatives fail, and it almost unequivocally a feudal warlord society. The bullets that put holes in 19-year-old Americans and the guns from which they were fired were purchased by American taxpayer dollars from 1981-present, and the more you talk of big war / hard charging approach towards this conflict, the more you start to resemble the way the Soviets fought and lost the war. If Obama and Reid and the rest of the current administration are sending police trainers and agricultural experts, it's more than appropriate and long past due.

A softer approach that puts more US soldiers on the ground interacting with poeple and generally reinforcing the local government establishment might yield results. Go ahead and shake a fist at Obama and other spineless democrats -- just don't be surprised when, much like the last 30 years have shown, limitless numbers of munitions and ceaseless, thoughtless brutality do not win the war in Afghanistan.

Nate 5:00AM March 28, 2009