Comments on: Doomed

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:20:37 +0000

@Cannoneer No. 4
Michael Yon is a singularly impressive writer. He really gets to the nub of it.
It’s incredible that other journalists can be aware of him and just not get it.

By: Cannoneer No. 4

Cannoneer No. 4 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:49:19 +0000

It has become clear to me that we’re losing this war. But losing doesn’t mean lost.

When someone says they know what to do in Afghanistan, it’s best to remain skeptical. Some folks are flat-out lying, like recent attempts to deny the existence of a secret report documenting how 10 French soldiers who were killed didn’t have enough ammo or working radios. Others are telling us what we want to hear, like it will just take a few more troops and some border incursions into Pakistan to straighten out this mess.

There are a few honest players in Afghanistan, and I’m listening carefully to them. But please understand this much: In a land whose paradoxes can confuse and even crush powerful empires, any solutions – if they even exist – will not be simple or painless. — The Afghanistan paradox

By: Cannoneer No. 4

Cannoneer No. 4 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:59:25 +0000

Rush hour in Lashkar Gah. Over in Kandahar, an officer from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who is working with our Special Forces, told me that his country is putting $50 million dollars into an Afghan road project. Talking with citizens from UAE makes me want to skip town and head to Dubai where it’s safe and the Arabs are very hospitable, though many Afghans I talk with don’t seem to like Arabs. When my western friends talk bad about Arabs, I think of places like UAE or Qatar where we are extremely welcome and safe. The idea that we are in a global religious war is untrue. Certainly there are wars unfolding that have religious basis, but this is not World War III. We are not in a war against Muslims, and the vast majority of Muslims are not at war with us. Islam is experiencing a culture-wide religious and political civil war, much like the wars that accompanied the Reformation in Europe. We are trying to put out the flames of the Islamic civil war. Yet sometimes we make it worse. -- Michael Yon

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:14:55 +0000

@mika2k1
Her race?
I presume you speak of the English.
America has never aspired to conquer other empires. We fought to disengage ourselves from theirs.
End of story.

By: mika2k1

mika2k1 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:58:55 +0000

Bob Murphy,

The only thing you seem to understand are mindless pissing contests. Nobody is impressed by your swagger. Certainly not I. And btw, her race conquered more empires, empires hundred of times its size, than you have knuckles to walk on.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:19:23 +0000

@Fletcher
It seems quite odd that you keep advocating nuclear/apocalyptic solutions to the challenges western civilisation face.
You from a race that can’t even conquer your own estranged muslim neighbourhoods. It seems prudent and human in the case of any Englishman that you would start facing the challenges at home.
The UK’s biggest threat is within.
One of the biggest problems with the UK has always been that its elitists have always been bolstered by an appalling and mostly hereditary class system.
There was always less chance of knocking some sense into their heads and long ago, your aristocracy’s main focus to paraphrase Wretchard’s hoot of a phrase “turned to manners.
That should be your first order of priorities, Fletcher. Dealing with your own aristocracy and then applying UK law equally to everyone including Muslims.
And deciding whether the UK wants to continue being part of a loser alliance like the EU which will bring the UK down when it implodes.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:09:33 +0000

@Fletcher Christian
“…none of the survivors regret it in the slightest. And Islam dies – now, forever and ever amen. And then, just maybe, we can turn our faces toward the stars.”
Crap.
The same leftie limp dicks that postulate, theorise and self-flagellate now about war would be doing the same thing about space expoloration or any other such expansive projection of power.
I heard someone refer to the political Left as a cant cant.
They and that mentality are humanity’s enemy even more so than most tribal fundamentalists.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:52:58 +0000

@NahnCee:
“Ahem. America is sort of going bankrupt back home.”

Excellent emotive vent/lament, NahnCee.

But have you considered an even more costly event than what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Like a nuclear attack on one or more American cities?
It would make current outlays look like peanuts.
We’ve incurred our big costs with Iraq and they should start dropping very soon.
I agree about dealing with Iran. We need to fix that problem before they go nuclear.
And, in my estimation, we need to be there in Afghanistan and whomping on terrorists in Waziristan and places like that.
But Iran is the key. And the Wahabis.
Taking a longer term view we need to be competing with the Wahabis in providing education in areas where madrassahs are the only avenue extant.
Teach kids real skills and Koran spouting fools would soon look like the losers they are.

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:41:50 +0000

@Tim Lynch:
“I have been in Afghanistan for over three years and almost all that time has been outside the wire living amongst the Afghan people. We are losing here because we are not fighting according to our own doctrine.”

Why is that still happening in Afghanistan when the correct way to influence events in a tribal society was proven in Iraq? Man to man on a local basis with our power in reserve.

Do you think Petraeus’ promotion will have an effect on tactics in Afghanistan?

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:31:51 +0000

@mika2k1:
“So what was wrong with letting the Russians clear these areas of Jihadis?”
If you are talking the 1980s, the Soviet Union was the biggest threat to the west extant, not muslim fundamentalists.
What we did to them via our proxies in Afghanistan just about sealed the fate of the USSR.
And got even for what they did via their proxies in Korea and Vietnam.