The Guardian: Afghanistan War As "Groundhog Day"

The Guardian:

The dimensions of the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan are becoming bigger and more daunting by the day. Once-staunch defenders of the "good war" are starting to break ranks. Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Afghanistan and current chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, questions in our newspaper today the central tenet of the government's case for fighting in Afghanistan: that it is the frontline of a war that would otherwise be conducted on British streets. Mr Howells said counter-terrorism would be better served by bringing the majority of servicemen home. Better, he argues, to concentrate on protecting our borders and gathering intelligence at home and abroad.

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[inorbit]

"Unfolding disaster?"

I thought it was already a full-fledged disaster.

I am encouraged by the fact that Obama is taking his time with this decision. I think it's due to the fact that he is deciding that unless the UN makes a new and big commitment to Afghanistan that the US will pull out.

[ZSV]

Afghanistan was the straw that broke the commies backs. It will do the same to us just worse now that we have made war profiteering the number one business in america. With all our financial problems and two wars the banks and these war profiteers will bankrupt the federal government. Private prisons and healthcare corporations will bankrupt states with help from corrupt local officials. We really need to start thinking of us here not corporations. They certainly aren't thinking of us!

[Horst]

Give Obama a break...he's learning on the job. He's smart but completely inexperienced.

[Whitley2009]

That area is so vast, there is no way we could win any war there with 250,000 troops. There are so many tribes, territories, and little political areas of influence, it is impossible that we could assert any hegemony on the two countries. Let the locals do it with our advice and aid. Get out ground troops out! Leave out air force and drones in.

[Mark Twaine]

But Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats want to reduce the number of poor people by troop attrition and increase the military budget for lobbyists.

[William50]

The solution in Afghanistan, as it has been for two thousand years, is once you defeat which ever tribe it was this time (or political group or religious faction take your pick) you contact the leaders in the separate regions, pay them money, supply them with weapons and allow them the space to settle up, have a civil war, fight it out, decimate each other thus giving you and the world ten to fifty years peace in the region.
This time you add on the requirements that the UN can come in and steal what ever they can, that the women's groups can educate the ladies and trade be allowed threw out the region. Then pull out all troops and war materials and allow the Afghans to live....

Yes, we will be fighting them again. Yes we can still fight in Pakistan. Yes they will kill each other and be very very mean to each other. It is their country. They are their people. Allow them a few years until we again destroy the leadership and start again.

middleamerican2010
Casey

[Okieborn]

It is all there in black and white !!
Bring Our Troops Home ,"NOW" !!!

[DollyLama1964]

The libs have spent the last eight years carping about W's mishandling of Afghanistan. Now when they can do something about it they want to cut and run. Obama talked pretty tough during the campaign but now is turning into a wilted flower as President. Obama has gone from "Yes We Can" into impersonating Emily
Litella, "Nevermind"

[pebblesvanpeebles]

"Do something" like what? Cutting and running doesn't really apply to a war that is pointless, costly, and should probably never have started in the first place. Think of all the money that could be redirected from war abroad to the problems at home. Our country needs to stop being so proud and end these wars.

[postman66]

You're an ld!ot. Your need to think in terms of winning or losing blinds you to the reality that there is nothing to win in Afghanistan. AQ isn't even there, and we are once again down a road that wasn't the one we originally chose.

[Whitley2009]

Double digit IQ Republican.

[AlaninElkGrove]

Why don't you and all of your armchair-warrior friends grab your second amendment tools-of-the-trade and head over to Afghanistan and take care of "the problem" yourselves. You're just a chickenhawk like Bush and Cheney...

[ChangeurMind]

the biggest disaster is that the CIA is involved.

[S E Martin]

Has anyone here every seen the movie War, Inc.? (With John Cusak--is that spelled right?)

[stevi]

Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. Remember that old adage? I, personally, remember when the Russians tried to get into it with Afghan fighters. I, personally, remember when the 1st king bush brought the Talaban leader to the United States so that he could be trained and given weapons and whatever he needed to defeat the Russians. Really? The Russians were stuck in a quagmire and retreated, defeated. I wonder what the outcome of this really bad idea will be.

[DollyLama1964]

"The Russians were stuck in a quagmire and retreated, defeated"

We were the ones that defeated them. Ever hear of Charlie Wilson and Operation Cyclone?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Clearly, the Afghans do not need the clandestine help of a superpower to make our goals there unattainable.

In the face of a war not worth perpetuating, It's time to face the music -- the bugler's call for retreat.

[stevi]

Yup, we showed them how to do what they are now doing to us! Good plan? We trained them well.

[notb observer]

Institute a draft... but in Afghanistan. Get the potential taliban recruits off the streets and then post them to other parts of the country so they can learn to shed their primitive tribal mentality. Putting hundreds of thousands of locals into the army would be relatively cheap compared to the alternative. Afghanistan is plagued by the same basic problem as Iraq, and so many other war torn countries (Somalia, Former Yugoslav Republic, etc, etc). Sectarian factions who will never be happy until they understand that there is something greater than the tribe. We understand that concept here, and it's why we went to war to liberate Europe, and arguably to help rid the Afghans of the taliban ideologues. There is nothing that would help these people more than being exposed to the realities of the daily lives of their "countrymen" in other parts of their land, but it would still be a long term process. If it was economically possible, I would love to see each and every one of these people sent into orbit so they could look down at the planet and see how utterly insignificant their petty tribal squabbles and customs really are in the grand scheme of things.

[ChangeurMind]

sounds like nation building.

[GardenerNorCal]

What without Tony Blair the Brit's have finally realized this war is about nothing? Hey join the ranks of US citizens that didn't want it in the first place and were amazed when Cheney and Bush decided Bin Laden wasn't worth capturing but decided both wars were necessary and sending more troops over was a an absolute necessity to ensure the birth of democracies. Wow! I am so impressed with both those burgeoning democracie­s...aren't you? (being sarcastic in case you missed it)

[00Ruth7]

Zero troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Use only drones to do whatever we have to do.
Focus on improving America at home. Not a ridiculous nation far far away.

[StupidIsAsStupidDoes]

How would you feel if China, Russia, India, etc. started using drones to assassinate whomever it pleases? Drones take on a whole new meaning when other countries are using them, eh?

[S E Martin]

Yes. Just like nukes.

You make a good point.

And, innocent Pakistanis are dying from drones probably as we type this.

[FogBelter]

The United States hasn't won a war since VJ Day ... why would we think Afghanistan would be any different?

[KidSampson]

Maybe a sense of overconfidence brought on by our totally awesome victories in Grenada and Panama?

[mravka]

Good one.

[Jazzcomedian]

You minimize those victories, but the fact is that neither country has been able to regain their superpower status, and we no longer have anything to fear from them.

[Nunnya]

That's all i needed to hear...alright boys pack up your sh*t....lets get the h*ll out of Dodge.