Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-(rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
A short time ago, our country and its military reached a sad milestone in the war in Afghanistan. We have now lost 2,000 members of our military during our almost 12 year war in Afghanistan. In light of that sad news, a Republican Congressman, Rep. Bill Young of Florida, received a letter from an Army soldier on his third tour in Afghanistan that caused him to change his mind about our continuing involvement in Afghanistan. That soldier, Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton wrote the letter to the congressman, shortly before he and a comrade were killed by an IED that journalist Bill Moyers recently discussed.
“BILL MOYERS: Matt Sitton knew the war in Afghanistan was going badly. He knew because he was fighting it. 26 years old, with a wife and child back home, Staff Sergeant Sitton was on his third combat tour there. His third. Time and again, he and his men were sent through what he called “A minefield on a daily basis.” His comrades were being blown apart. At least one amputee a day, he said, “Because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives.”
Morale was low. The men struggled to remain alert. Sitton said he asked his officers to give them a break but was told to stop complaining. “I am all for getting on the ground and fighting for my country when there is a desired end state and we have clear guidance of what needs to be done,” he wrote. “but when we are told basically to just walk around for a certain amount of time…not sitting well with me.” At home in Florida, Matt Sitton had attended a Christian school run by the Baptist church attended by Congressman Bill Young. He wrote Congressman Young and told him what was happening. “I’m concerned about the well-being of my soldiers,” he said. “… I just want to return my guys home to their families healthy.” He ended, “If anything, please pray for us over here. God bless.” Crooks and Liars
As a father of a Marine Captain that served in Afghanistan from November 2010 to June 2011 and was embedded with Afghan National Army units, I can understand Sgt. Sitton’s concerns. To Rep. Young’s credit, I commend him for breaking with his party’s and many in the Democratic Party’s steadfast policy of maintaining our troops in Afghanistan. The recent surge in killings of our military members and the personnel of Allied nations by Afghan National Army and Afghan Police officers along with the constant IED attacks should be enough to convince anyone that we can no longer do much good for the Afghan people.
Rep. Bill Young has long advocated and voted for increasing our military presence in Afghanistan and he now thinks we should get out of the country as soon as feasible. “On Aug. 2, less than two months after he sent the email, Sitton, 26, was killed by an IED blast. He left behind a wife, a 9-month-old son — and an 81-year-old Congressman with a new perspective on Afghanistan. Young is the longest-serving Republican member of Congress, and he has continuously voted against troop drawbacks from Afghanistan, or even for setting a timetable for troop withdrawal. But after Sitton’s death, Young noted a change of heart. “I think we should remove ourselves from Afghanistan as quickly as we can,” Young told the Tampa Bay Times this week. “I just think we’re killing kids that don’t need to die.” ABC News
It is sad that politicians have to wait until 2,000 of our finest have died, and thousands more maimed and injured, before they decide that enough is enough. However, in light of Rep. Young’s prominent place in his party, I am hopeful that a bipartisan effort can now be made to leave Afghanistan even prior to the deadline initiated by President Obama. How many more have to die or be injured before politics is no longer important?
I am saddened by the 2,000 deaths and the many injuries and I offer my prayers and condolences to the family of Sgt. Sitton and all the other families who have lost loved ones, but I also pray that Rep. Young can be the start of a movement to extricate our men and women from Afghanistan well before the announced timetable. How can we wait when the people who we are trying to help are killing us?
The Republican nominee for President has backed the Obama withdrawal timetable, but his Vice Presidential pick has criticized President Obama’s withdrawal timetable including the decision to withdraw 22,000 more troops in September as endangering the troops that are there and as a political shell game. Paul Ryan
Do you think that a prominent Republican Congressman can help move his party and the hawks in the Democratic Party to get behind an even quicker withdrawal from Afghanistan? Do you agree that we need to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible? Savings the lives of our brave military men and women should be a non-partisan issue, shouldn’t it?
Here is the link in my post put into moderation.
If you want to conquer a country you kill half of them, then the other half decide they’re you’re friends. That’s the basic reality.
We took our eyes off the prize. The first time my boy was there he was seeing real progress. The average citizen was seeing his life get a lot better and was ratting out the Taliban to him regularly. But that changed when the focus became our illegal invasion of Iraq. Once the buildup started there was no money for rebuilding project, less special forces support, reduced ammo and weapons. The boy saw the tide turn. It didn’t have to be this way.
Sadly all the sacrifice of all these young men and women have been wasted. The President who actually pulls us out & ends the senseless waste of our children will get the blame. The cowardliness of politicians to not want to take the blame for George Bush’s foolishness just compounds the tragedy it caused.
leejcaroll,
I had a similar transformation.
I used to think we could just up and leave, we had to stay and help them with training and rebuilding but with each new story of the killing of our people and the allies people, as awful as it would be for the majority who are not the terrosits and killers, it is time to leave.
Thank you, Kraaken. What BettyKath said. ❗
Well said Kraaken. I am even older and witnessed some of the protests and took part in some.
Thanks Mike.
Kraaken 1, October 7, 2012 at 4:12 pm
First off, thanks for this, Rafflaw. Lord knows this needs to be said; indeed shouted from the rooftops and in the halls of Congress untill the denizens of that institution are forced to take notice and to act. What totally amazes me and, indeed, ‘boggles the mind’ is the total lack of public protest about this issue.
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A little bit of blame the victim?
The public is a victim of the current Wartocracy that does not give a rat’s ass about what the public thinks, nor is it “American” at its core.
A 12 year war isn’t being fought to win, seems were trying to nation build in Afganastan. We as a nation no longer go to war to win, not since world war 2. Either get out or bomb’em out of existence.
Raff,
The answer to you question your question is we are doing it because two draft dodging war criminals got us into it and had backers who were hungry for the natural resources that the land contains. Bring the troops home now, honor them for their bravery in an insane cause and reward them handsomely for their service.
thanks, kraaken. well said.
Kraaken 1, October 7, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Try to speak with specificity. If you run off about the mouth, nobody is going to listen to you.
First off, thanks for this, Rafflaw. Lord knows this needs to be said; indeed shouted from the rooftops and in the halls of Congress untill the denizens of that institution are forced to take notice and to act. What totally amazes me and, indeed, ‘boggles the mind’ is the total lack of public protest about this issue. When I was a kid, I remember the Vietnam era protests; the draft card burnings, the peace marches, Kent State…I remember it all (yes, I AM that old). Where is the moral outrage that the Vietnam War sparked? Have we, as a Nation, degenerated to the extent that we no longer think that such killing is immoral and indecent? Why have we let those responsible for these atrocities (begining with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al.) escape punishment for the THOUSANDS of deaths that can be layed at their respective doorsteps, and, no, I’m not letting the present administration of the hook either with the re-signing of the NDAA, the so-called ‘Patriot Act’, DHS, drone strikes and the entire culture of paranoia and fear that has been established. To me, it is unthinkable that the generation that, effectivly brought an end to Vietnam (Lord knows it wasn’t the politicians) seemes to have now become the problem. As I have asked before on this blog, when is enough FINALLY enough? We passed the ‘eye for an eye’ (1 to 1 payback for 9/11) a long time ago. We passed the law of decimation (10 to 1) a long time ago. What is it going to finally take for people to wake up and say 9/11 is over and done with. It is history. While we shouldn’t forget it, we cannot allow our lives, or our children and grandchildren’s lives to be permanently destroyed, our fortunes decimated, and our liberties shreded for some benighted idea that doing so is ‘patriotic’ and makes us ‘more secure’. I seem to remember that Moscow during the Soviet Union was the safest place in the world; one could walk the streets at midnight, cross Red Square in perfect safety. But who would have wanted to live in that society? Yet, that’s what we are quickly becoming. Pogo is often quoted here; “We has met the enemy and it it US”. We have become what Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton was fighting. It’s time that we took the proverbial bull by the horns and said “Thus far and no further”..
There are enemies here in ‘murka that need killin’ … it is time we started buildin’ our nation for heaven sake …
http://youtu.be/Xdnf3rMdW5I
We shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. No damn pipeline is worth it.
Unfortunately it’s because people profit off of War……
Thanks Gene.
OS,
You are right about friendly fire. I just read that the border guard killed this past week was killed by friendly fire as well.
I’m too old for this stupidity. I wasn’t in the Army, I was in the Navy. My middle name is Matthew.
I got out of the Navy when I was 22. I think he wanted to walk the walk.
The first soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2001 was from our town. His photo hangs in the high school office. An important local bridge across the river has his name on it. His name is on the war memorial Walk of Honor in our downtown. His remains are buried very near some of my family members. His parents live a ten minute drive from my house. They would rather have him back than all the honors in the world.
He was killed by friendly fire. As someone once wrote, “Friendly fire, ain’t.”
We need to bring them home. Now. It is time. It is past time.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton deserves posthumous thanks for both his service and his sense of civic duty. He certainly gets it from me. Thank you, Staff Sgt. Sitton and condolences to your family in their time of loss.
Do you think that a prominent Republican Congressman can help move his party and the hawks in the Democratic Party to get behind an even quicker withdrawal from Afghanistan?
If not our elected representatives, then who?
Do you agree that we need to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible?
Tactically and strategically speaking we should have been out of Afghanistan years ago, preferably within a 1 or 2 years of entry timetable maximum. Our stated goals – destroying terrorist training infrastructure – could well have been managed in that time frame and in such a way as to discourage restarting it upon our departure. The drawn out way the situation has been handled? Will almost guarantee a return to allowing terrorist support infrastructure to thrive upon our departure.
Savings the lives of our brave military men and women should be a non-partisan issue, shouldn’t it?
Yes, without reservation.
Good article, raff. Well done.