I listened to General Petraeus’s interview this morning on Meet the Press with the realization that he has lost it. Perhaps as the interview was taped last Friday, he had not yet taken in the fact that our essential ally against the Taliban — Pakistan has been totally devastated by the flooding there and is in no position to help us with anti Taliban efforts.
The American public is way ahead of our good general in its awareness that we are needlessly wasting American lives and monies while winning increasing hatred of us by the killing of civilians — more by the Taliban, but more resented with us — drones and all.
There is no way to win this game. It is Vietnam reiterated. We should make all the moves we can to get out with as little loss of lives as possible — ours and Afghans. These people are going to have to settle their own disputes. We cannot do it for them. I cringe at the treatment of women, but this is scarcely unique to the Taliban. Check out some of our other Muslim ‘allies’ on this score. Killing and abusing women is all too widespread and women are going to have to win their own battles — we can perhaps bring some here or send them to our allies to protect those who have been most outspoken. Most of our associates are far more open to refugees than we are at the moment.
Why Petraeus can’t sell it:
“As Gen. David Petraeus kicks off an extended media blitz intended to make Americans feel better about the war in Afghanistan — or at least give him some more time to fight it — he faces a foe more implacable than al Qaeda, or even the Taliban: Reality.
“That reality, increasingly obvious to national security experts and the general public alike, is that no amount of good intentions or firepower is going to advance our fundamental interests in Afghanistan — and that as much as Petraeus might be able to achieve in the next six months, or a year, little to none of it is sustainable and most of it is, even worse, counterproductive.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/14/why-petraeus-cant-make-th_n_681733.html
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“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]
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3 users commented in " Petraeus Is a Fine General — Who Has Lost the Afghan ‘War’ "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackEd, thanks for yet another well written article. Though I must say not surprised as you stated that it played out much like Vietnam. The death of all those brave YOUNG men + women and their young spouses and children left behind.
Thanks for the articles you write that are relevant.
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Mr. Kent in his article “Petraeus is a fine general…. shows me what a complete nut job he is first he says that General Petraeus is a fine General, and then says that he has lost the war in Afghanistan Mr. Kent obviously has never served in the military. In fact, I doubt that Mr. Kent is capable of knowing what end of the gun to point at the target.First, fine Generals do not lose wars. second,while Pakistan could be of great help in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan is not essential, We can defeat th terrorist in Afghanistan if we have a real man in the White House who will let the Generals take off the kid gloves and go to work winning the war. Again Mr. Kent says the same old untrue dribble that we are killing civilians. Our military does not intentionally kill people that are not shooting at them. Our Military only shoots at those people that are shooting at them or innocent civilians. I served in Vietnam in combat, and I know what I am talking about. Mr. Kent does not.
If, as he old the press, the ‘plan’ in Afghanistan is fundamentally correct then, a ‘good general’ should be able to jump in and drive the plan to fruition.
He sat in on the meetings that formulated the ‘Stanley Surge’, he – and Stan McCrystal – got what they said they needed to bring about a positive change by next July – a time line they agreed to. Now Petraeus is shilling for an extension and backpedalling his original objective.
So either he didn’t know what he and Stan were doing last year when the told Obama how things would be, or he doesn’t know what he’s doing now and we’re stuck in the cycle of war for war’s sake.
Question is, will Obamas have the moxie to pull the plug on these idiots? He should. But I’m guessing he won’t want to be the first black president to lose a war. But like Stan the Man, Petraeus will take his pension if he sees the scarlet ‘L’ hove into view.
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