Seemed like a no-brainer at the time.

I agree with those who said it’s impossible to get a firm hold in that country, and why Bush keeps sending our troops on such high-risk missions is beyond me. Maybe HE should put on the armor and go on duty in these war zones, since he’s so convinced he’s in the “right.” Of course, we all know he won’t!

And still no real clue to Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17347-2004Apr16?language=printer

I was thinking along the lines of active, overseas service.

But back to Iraq and Afghanistan, two entirely different problems with two likely outcomes. Pardon please my armchair theorizing:

Afghanistan first: Niblet, I tell you that Afghanistan can always be conquered. It just can’t be held! The Martians could come down and conquer every living country and Afghanistan would be the one they couldn’t hold! Everybody has taken a shot at ruling them from Alexander the Great, to the Moghuls to the Mongols, to the Maharattas to the British to the Russians to the USA. None have succeeded, those hill tribes and clans are tougher than old leather and we are not going to do any better than all the other “superpowers” did in their time. Look, even the Afghani’s can’t rule Afghanistan. So best to declare victory and pack up, before we get run out.

Iraq. Now that’s too complex for anybody to figure out, because there are too many players on the sidelines that have vital interests there. It won’t even come close to being another Afghanistan in that it CAN be pacified and ruled, its just whether we want to ante up the cost of doing so. My bet is that we will up to a strategic point and then bail out. A really brutal Clausewitzian calculus is going on right now (i.e. fatalities are being written off as the cost of a kind of strategic liability limitation) and that upsets my humanitarian side.

Try to understand that our soldiers fight and die in Afghanistan, and just because you don’t pay any attention to the scope of their sacrifice and discount the very real risks they face doesn’t make you more of a patriot. It just makes you look like a cocky fool. Come to think of it, perhaps this explains your affinity for the administration–birds of a feather, and all that.

Just a reminder. Those who oppose you do not hate you or your kids who volunteered or the nation. Most us us have served or have loved ones who have or are now serving. You are not special in that regard. We just disagree, and your overly emotional rantings and presumptions make you look wild-eyed and crazed. It is still a democracy, and insulting others does nothing to bolster your position. Likewise it does not harm the recipient in any meaningful way. It just says a lot about you!

Wow, and I thought I was a lavish over-generalizer!

Come on. Eisenhower was a liberal. Kennedy was a liberal. Nixon was more a liberal than a conservative (yes, young’uns, hard as that is to believe).

All handled national security just fine and all were veterans

Reagan was a conservative, no service: only war Grenada. Bush II is a conservative, no active duty service; only war Iraq/Afghanistan and huge messes. Don’t ask me. Ask the veterans and the 2-, 3-, and 4-star generals who have spoken out.

Believe me. Please believe me. We don’t have a chance of creating a stable democracy in Afghanistan and never did. Britain tried and they were far abler than we.

Every Spring our soldiers and airforce kill them easily. Hundreds of them at a time as they march nearly barefoot out of the mountains from neighboring Pakistan.

Why do you lefties keep relentlessly spouting this Spring offensive garbage?

A radio station gets burned and you are ready to say “because a radio station was burned, the war is lost”.

No wonder liberals can’t be trusted with national security. You are all cut & runners,whiners, and complainers, and YES I have two sons in the service, one in the US Marines and one in the US Air Force and I don’t want your thank you’s for their service, that would be an insult because I know 1) you do not pray for their safety and 2) you would not mean any well wishes.