03-19-2012, 05:34 PM
It goes without saying that there is no condoning the killing of civilians. But EVERYONE has a breaking point and this man obviously reached his. We have asked far too much of far too few with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether you agree(d) with the policies or not.
We are not in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban, but to ATTEMPT to help the corrupt, mistrusted, ungrateful "democratically elected" goverment of President Karzai maintain stability. We won the war once, let it slide and now should have no illusions that Western military forces are going to be able to keep a corrupt politician in office when his own people neither support nor trust him. It is not OUR job to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Its his. And he has failed miserably.
Like the Vietnamese, the Taliban and other opposition to the Karzai regime know that we are going to go home someday and that the writing on the wall says sooner rather than later.
Shortly after this incident, the Taliban withdrew from the preliminary talks that had just started. In a meeting with Secretary of Defense Panetta last week, Karzai said that he wanted all NATO troops removed from the rural areas, security in those areas turned over to Afghan soldiers, and NATO troops to confine themselves to the urban areas.
I think that we should honor his request immediately.
Support the troops. Bring them home.
We are not in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban, but to ATTEMPT to help the corrupt, mistrusted, ungrateful "democratically elected" goverment of President Karzai maintain stability. We won the war once, let it slide and now should have no illusions that Western military forces are going to be able to keep a corrupt politician in office when his own people neither support nor trust him. It is not OUR job to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Its his. And he has failed miserably.
Like the Vietnamese, the Taliban and other opposition to the Karzai regime know that we are going to go home someday and that the writing on the wall says sooner rather than later.
Shortly after this incident, the Taliban withdrew from the preliminary talks that had just started. In a meeting with Secretary of Defense Panetta last week, Karzai said that he wanted all NATO troops removed from the rural areas, security in those areas turned over to Afghan soldiers, and NATO troops to confine themselves to the urban areas.
I think that we should honor his request immediately.
Support the troops. Bring them home.