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Holiday Greetings: President and Man-of-Peace Obama has a Xmas Present for Afghanistan
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 19:00 — dlindorff
Merry Xmas Jarheads!! The Man of Peace, Nobel Laureate-to-be , President Barack Obama, your chickenhawk commander-in-chief, is shipping you out as a holiday gift to the people of Afghanistan.
You will be delivering bullets and bombs, with my name and the name of other American taxpayers on them, to the long-suffering people of Afghanistan by December 25, according to what Mr. Hope and Change’s told the nation in a speech delivered at West Point last night.
Back here in America, the land of the free and brave, come the holidays, we will be scraping together the cash to buy small gifts for our kids, hopefully without having to miss a rent payment or a mortgage payment. Fortunately, we’ve got Food Stamps, which are now, we are told, flooding the suburbs, and are “no longer a stigma,” so we won’t be hurting too much for Christmas dinner—though you still can’t use the stamps to buy eggnog.
It will be interesting to hear what your commanders tell you your mission is. The president is saying we need to keep Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, which he dishonestly called the "epicenter" of global terrorism, but from what I hear, there are no Al Qaeda operatives in the country. They all upped and left for greener pastures a long time ago—to places like Pakistan, Somalia, and maybe Europe and the USA. Hell, they can go anywhere. How do you spot an Al Qaeda guy anyhow? The fellows getting on the plane in Boston on 9-11 were clean-shaven and wore Brooks Brothers shirts, looking more like bond traders than bombers.
No, you will be targeting the Taliban. But the Taliban are Afghans, and look just like the people who are not Taliban, so what you’ll most likely be doing half the time or more is shooting up ordinary struggling Afghani peasants and shopkeepers, or members of weddings or funerals, whose angry relatives will then seek revenge by setting traps or ambushes for you.
From what I hear, we taxpayers will be forking over about $1 million for each of you for each year you are rotated into Afghanistan. You won’t see much of that money yourself of course, (most of the dough will flow to the war-profiteers who make your uniform, your gun, your ammo, your truck, etc.), but maybe it will feel good knowing that there’s that big an investment being made in you.
You’ll be called “our heroes,” too. I’m not sure why. I mean, it takes a certain amount of guts just to sign up for an outfit like the Marines, I know (my dad volunteered to be a Marine in WWII). But I just find it hard to see what’s so heroic about being part of the best-armed, best-trained fighting force in the history of mankind and fighting a group of poor, uneducated peasants armed at best with AK rifles and home-made bombs—especially when you guys reportedly outnumber your enemy by better that 10:1, and have the backing of completely unchallenged air support—F-16s, helicopter gunships, fixed-wing gunships and B-1 bombers.
That’s not a fight. It’s a slaughter.
I had a taste of this when I brought my son and a friend of his to the Army Experience Center, an recruiting experiment in Northeast Philadelphia where we were able to man a mock-up Humvee and race through a simulated village, firing our mounted machine guns at supposed Taliban fighters who would jump out at us, or plant IEDs in our path. At the end of the run, we were congratulated by the attending Iraq War vet/recruiter, for our number of kills and our low (25%) “error” rate—that was the number of civilians, usually women or kids, that we shot up in our haste to shoot first. We were told that such “collateral damage” was to be expected in war.
Merry Christmas Afghanistan!
Barack Obama says you’re just going there t
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 2, 2009; 5:01 PM
FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- U.S. soldiers at Fort Bragg, the sprawling Army post in North Carolina, reacted enthusiastically today to President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, saying they hoped it would end the war more quickly.
"The war in Afghanistan has picked up. We've lost a lot of troopers over there recently," said Spec. Meggan Zena, 26, of Louisville, over lunch at a food court packed with soldiers.
"I think sending 30,000 troops is the right thing," said Zena, who returned two weeks ago from Iraq with her 82nd Airborne Division unit, which would be up for redeployment in a year's time.
Down the road, soldiers attended a memorial for the latest paratroopers killed in action in Afghanistan, losses that are all too familiar to soldiers such as Zena, whose close friend Staff Sgt. Shawn McNabb recently died in a helicopter crash there.
The 82nd Airborne Division, together with other light infantry units such as the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division, has already served extensively in Afghanistan and will continue to be called upon -- in addition to Marine regiments -- to carry out Obama's revamped strategy there.
Thousands of Army paratroopers from the 82nd are in Afghanistan now, including a combat brigade dedicated to training Afghan soldiers and police and an aviation brigade carrying out critical helicopter missions over the country's rugged terrain.
Soldiers here said the message they hear from their comrades in Afghanistan is clear: We need more troops.
"Given the increased attacks from the Taliban, they need the extra people," said Staff Sgt. Heiberth Quintero, 23, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., who is often in contact with buddies from his old unit, the 82nd's 4th Brigade Combat Team, which is conducting the training of Afghan forces.
Quintero, who deployed to eastern Afghanistan for 15 months in 2007 and 2008, said he hopes the additional troops "will speed things up a little."
Family members also spoke positively of the buildup. "I support it 100 percent," said Ana Martinez, whose husband is serving with a mortar unit in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, said Martinez, who has been apart from her husband for four of the six months of their marriage, the deployments could both strengthen and weaken relationships.
Some soldiers questioned whether the escalation will prove worth the money and worried that it will almost certainly lead to more casualties. "The more they send over, the more they get killed in action, and the more they will have to send," said Spec. Martez Wadley, 20, of Millen, Ga., who is married and has a 4-year-old son.
Several soldiers spoke of Obama's announcement as a pivotal moment in their views of their commander in chief.
"He's a strong man. He's figuring out a lot of the problems we had when he took office," said Spec. Ronkevia Draughn, 22, of Greenville, N.C. "Hopefully, if they get [the insurgency] nipped in the bud, they can go ahead and end the war," she said.
"I could tell his heart and soul was in the speech," agreed Zena, a Republican who said she voted for John McCain last year because of his military experience. "Obama has really changed my opinion. I think he's going in the right direction," she said.
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Originally posted by:Man is Truth
Those dullards are not my target audience. This is for my peers.
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Originally posted by:LordLuvKnuckleOriginally posted by: crunkmooseOriginally posted by:Man is Truth
Those dullards are not my target audience. This is for my peers.
You mean the guy in the park who talks to himself all the time and the guy on the bus with tourettes?
I don't like the idea either... but we are already 8 years in and given the region and recent history we really can't just up and leave... much as I would like to.
I think we could leave. Basically Obama told The Taliban/Al Quwedaia whatever " look we are staying for at least 18 months and we are bringing in 30k troops."
If the Afghans were smart they would just behave themselves and wait it out.
The "War on Terror" is now Obama's and he is just goin to keep this shit goin. . . .now with Timelines.
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Originally posted by:Man is Truth
This is what I mean by your disassociation-
you are not in afghanistan. There is no WE there. Afganistan is an invasion of another people's living space- it is a clique of rulers demanding that men under their command KILL OTHER MEN. Stop talking about it like it is a game of Risk you fuckin loser.
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fun take on it ››
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