Here’s What I, an Army Sergeant, Think of Obama’s Statement on Afghanistan:
By Soldier4Hillary on March 9, 2009 at 7:45 AM in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama
Soldier4Hillary has a few words after reading that Obama, in an interview with the NYT (NQ article here), says the US is losing the war in Afghanistan.
The thing is, Obama just got finished telling Marines they are going into Afghanistan. Just imagine, your President comes to *rally* the troops one week, and then turns around and says the mission is a failure before the troops even leave home.
So where the hell would anyone find any motivation for a mission when the president has basically stated, “you’re going; we already lost; and oh, there won’t be any money anyway. Cheers!”
The Canadian Prime minister summed it up about a week ago when he asked, how can you ask other countries for help when you haven’t outlined a strategy? I take it one step further and ask, “how can you call Afghanistan a failure when you spent almost two years saying that is where we need to be – and then just turn around and say it’s lost and we need to now reach out to the Taliban?”
It’s crazy. People are pulling their hair out over this because Obama inspires not one lick of motivation for the mission. The only mission now is that we will be *reaching* out to the Taliban and I don’t even know what that means. It’s a total contradiction.
Obama says one thing at Camp Lejeune and then something else later on. I have friends at Lejeune since it is not too far from Fort Bragg (my duty station), and some of the pictures taken from the event look as if those Marines are literally at a funeral. You can’t go and say a mission is a failure when you are about to send 17,000 more troops.
I don’t know what the hell they are thinking about up there at the Pentagon. Despite how people felt about Bush, I could never imagine him saying Iraq was a lost cause and, oh by the way, we are sending in 17,000 more people in a couple months. The DINO’s are sucking the life, the literal life, out of their own damn military. Come on!
If you are going to cut defense spending, say the mission is a failure and then commit MORE of us into Afghanistan, what does that say to those who simply salute and say “Sir! Yes Sir!” A good military commander would never tell his soldiers a mission they are going on is lost but we’re going anyway.
Another question is why the hell are all the retired Generals, people experienced in intel/security and, hell, even the ones at the Pentagon letting this narrative play out? Those of us in the field joke that someone has these people all locked up or held hostage somewhere in a soundproof room on some island. But now it’s not funny at all, because I honestly don’t understand. I don’t get it. I know Obama has advisers.
Gen Jones (Obama’s NSC) came out before Secretary of State Clinton left for her first trip and stated that there were going to be big changes. State and Defense would be working together with all of this new NSA type stuff and people were hyped. My brother even got to see SOS Clinton when she made a refueling stop at a hanger where they also had a military event with families. Clinton talked about the same things. Now, it’s like everything just stopped.
I will give a prime example - the speech from Camp Lejeune. Obama spent the first 14 or so minutes talking to Marines about Iraq and then Obama directly addressed the people of Iraq and gave an outstanding speech on how wonderful they are and their country is, etc etc. … All good. He didn’t talk about Afghanistan and for sure didn’t talk about sending Marines to a war we are losing. He does that to the NYT.
All I can say is if this is an example of motivating us for a mission it came up short.
SGT Patsy Rogers
Alpha Company Warrior Transition Battalion
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
http://www.anvp.wordpress.com
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