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?
rafflaw 1, October 7, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Dredd,
Without the country wide protests and sit ins, the politicians would have had little pressure to end the debacle in Vietnam. People are wishy washy because very few of them have family in harms way.
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Of course I respect your opinion, and know that it is a valid concept that applies to some percentage of our fellow Americans.
Even conceding arguendo that it is valid for all people involved in the 99% it could apply to, that does not ipso facto concede protests as the factor that stopped Vietnam.
The protests went on concurrently with the war for a decade. My recollection is that only about one hundred people actually were convicted and went to prison for years for refusing induction.
And even if I conceded arguendo that “dirty hippy” protests did stop the Vietnam war, that is not axiomatically a concession that protests today would stop these wars.
One piece of evidence is that protests of the wars over the past decade did not stop these wars.
Occupy protests did not stop Wall Street either.
I would be interested to read any scientific literature published in peer reviewed journals that advance such a hypothesis though.
Sadly it took the country many years before the people realized it was necessary to go to the streets. Was it coincidental that the protests started and Nixon then ended the draft (not immediately “Anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of anti-war marches and gatherings throughout the country. On November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war protest in American history took place in Washington, D.C., as over 250,000 Americans gathered peacefully, calling for withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam…Nixon ended draft calls in 1972, and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year. (and he had prior to this started to withdraw troops)
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war
There is no scientific data that can prove the protests ended the war (that I can find quickly at least) but I would certainly theorize that a large proportion of the country, protesting now as they did then, would let the politicians know we are watching and we want action. I would also postulate that a lot of what has been goiing on, with the warrantless searches, indefinite detention etc, would not be if elected officials felt that the country actually cared. An apathetic, and quiet, populace gets what it deserves. That to me is the greatest tragedy of what started out as Occupy but got so diluted that seems to be all but dead. Hopefully we will see its resurrection.
Dredd,
Without the country wide protests and sit ins, the politicians would have had little pressure to end the debacle in Vietnam. People are wishy washy because very few of them have family in harms way.
leejcaroll 1, October 7, 2012 at 7:30 pm
But of there was a draft all our sons and daughters, or nieces, nephews, grandkids or kids of our friends, would potentially be in danger and what happened in the 60′s against Vietnam …
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What did happen a la The Vietnam War was the longest war up to then, with a draft.
“… would be seen no and I daresay we would see the end of this war.”
That seems to presume that the protestors stopped the war.
I would like to see some data to support that hypothesis.
Until then I will postulate that it is more likely that the 1% became bored of Highway 61 temporarily, and pulled up stakes to go count money they had plundered from the people’s treasury.
This video is included in the up-thread link I provided about being governed by psychopaths:
leejcaroll 1, October 7, 2012 at 7:30 pm
I daresay we would see the end of this war.
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How much prison space is there?
But of there was a draft all our sons and daughters, or nieces, nephews, grandkids or kids of our friends, would potentially be in danger and what happened in the 60’s against Vietnam would be seen no and I daresay we would see the end of this war.,
There will never be a universal draft with no exceptions. Don’t forget to pay your taxes. How about military service, is that a tax? I don’t care if gays and women join the military. Do you know what will happen to them in a real shooting war? Let’s speculate. Under the UCMJ you have the right to one hour of sleep a night, three meals a day, and adequate clothing and shelter, when available. Your Commanding Officer gets to decide what “when available” means. Guess what, you don’t got no stinking rights.
Put that in your sock.
rafflaw 1, October 7, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Dredd,
If there was a universal draft with no exceptions, politicians might think twice about sending their own sons and daughters into harms way.
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Psychopaths are not capable of caring for their own sons and daughters in the way of “normal people”, that is another myth:
(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths). Like General Smedley said in 1933 the 1% “Tories” are abusing “the 99%” … and there was a draft … but no one stood up to the 1%.
Those who went did the wrong thing, and they will do it again and again.
Another great general said:
(Napoleon Bonaparte).
I’m saddened that we have such inept , war mongering people in Washington.
My post that was put in mediation had b**ch in it not in a bad way, but was not allowed anyway.
Crappy software.
Anyway, General Smedley was the first to use the term “the 99%”.
His speech was given in 1933 … but would fit in exactly today.
Dredd,
If there was a universal draft with no exceptions, politicians might think twice about sending their own sons and daughters into harms way.
The problem with the public is not that they rah rah rah for wars, the problem is that they do not stand up to speak truth to power when the time comes to say this is a BS war to enrich the warmonger class and we are not going.
The Wartocracy has crazed the public into thinking, as Mike S mentioned above, being called “draft dodging war criminals” is worse than being “war criminals”.
If the Wartocracy calls you a warrior hero instead, it does not matter what you did to the invaded nation’s civilians.
A guy named “Smedley” figured all that out too:
(The Universal Smedley, quoting General Smedley Butler). The problem is that he would not say this up front to stop it, he said it afterwards as a “warrior hero”.
Thus the Wartocracy plods on plundering, killing, maiming, and destroying at will as people b**ch and moan in the aftermath.
The argument that a draft would stop war is equally unavailing because it is tantamount to saying “you should make us go because then we won’t go.”
So not being very informed, I would say we either step up and route the Taliban out of existence, or we bring our troops home. Either way our nation will survive.
And with our troops coming home, how about sending our politicians home as well; via the ballot box that is.
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Do you really think the ballot box means something? Big fat politicians might eventually find out they’ve been eating too much corn.
Those of us who are informed about WHY bush started the illegal war on Afghanistan, know that it couldn’t have happened without the false flag operation aka 9/11. Sadly, the NPR crowd here is wedded to the absurd
Official Conspiracy theory that posits that OBL and 19 young Arab men, mostly from Saudi Arabia somehow harnessed the power of Muslim physics
and caused the Twin Towers to be pulverized, and, well, you know the rest of the fairy tale.
Oh, you DO have some questions about what bush told you? Then why are you afraid of learning the truth?
Most certainly the distraction of the Iraq war led to this drawn out affair in Afghanistan. You can’t fight a war successfully on the cheap. You fight to hard to break the will of the enemy to continue, turn the population against the idea of fighting on, and get the heck out during which you have to take steps to make sure the problem does not return.
General Shinseki warned Don Rumsfeld and Sec’y Wolfowitz of what would happen during the occupation of Iraq, publicly noted as mostly troop levels but it was more widespread. The response the General received was a glaring attack against him personally.
I think that signalled to me at least the turning point at which the administration changed from letting the military and the CIA prosecute the Afghan and subsequently the Iraq theaters to managing it themselves. And it was personal, not rational.
Generals know what they are doing in warfare absolutely more than politicians with little military experience do. This is a lesson of history not just the present topic.
I still support the men and women who are involved in Afghanistan and I mail care packages to them still. These folks are brave but they are burned out many of them from multiple tours.
I would be for bringing them all home tomorrow if only one goal was accomplished, that is by us leaving now it does not embolden any significant terrorist perceived victory that causes us another war in the future.
I think since nearly half a generation has gone by over there for the Afghan military and police forces to step up to the plate, it has been certainly enough time to get it right. But, many of the troops I know tell me many of the Afghan Army soldiers are a sad example of a professional. It reminds me of the old saying of rifles issued to ARVN soldiers “Never fired and only dropped once.” They have had their chance, there is only so much we can do.
So not being very informed, I would say we either step up and route the Taliban out of existence, or we bring our troops home. Either way our nation will survive.
And with our troops coming home, how about sending our politicians home as well; via the ballot box that is.
rafflaw 1, October 7, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Justice Holmes,
If we bring the troops and treasure home, what do we do with the treasure that is saved?
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Leave it where it is.
http://www.iranwpd.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4151:iran-currency-market-remains-paralysed&Itemid=64&lang=en
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Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Justice Holmes,
If we bring the troops and treasure home, what do we do with the treasure that is saved?
Dear Matt, no one in the Middle East is likely to call us friend. Even our hand picked president of Afganistan won’t call us friend. Our “friends”, the Pakistanis don’t call us friend; our $ 16 billion “friend ” Egypt won’t call us friend. No matter what we do they won’t call us friends . We are a money bag with plenty of baggage. While we have never been perfect our involvement in the Middle East has brutalized our culture and destroyed our constitutional freedoms. Whatever the people of the Middle East want and I am sure many of the want peace, we cannot give it to them. We need to bring our service men and women home. We need to put a stop to private armies beholding to no one but a corporation from going around the world supporting dictators, running guns and making billions off the suffering of others . It is time for us to rebuild our country and our values and let others do the same. Bring our troops and our treasure home, now!