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Issues in Afghanistan? Obama's Right, Right-Wing Is So Wrong
Boy, it must absolutely suck to be the neo-con blogosphere or Senator John Warner today.
The other night in the debate, Barack Obama passed on a story from an Afghanistan veteran, who detailed the severe issues our troops over there have with shortages in artillery and equipment and force levels. It took no time for the right-wing blogs to spring into action, saying there's no way such issues could happen -- not under President Bush's superb leadership! Senator John Warner got into the act, saying he was shocked -- SHOCKED -- to hear this story, and implied that Obama was peddling a false story that could never have happened, especially not with Senator Warner on the Armed Services committee.
Well, turns out that it is true, and has been true for a long time. ABC verified the story. Not only that, but over at VetVoice.com, story after story from Afghanistan veterans have started to be posted, with similar stories. Keep going to VetVoice.com for more.
Then, in a major story in the New York Times that followed troops in Afghanistan, posted today, a soldier in Afghanistan repeats an identical feeling to what Obama had talked about:
And they felt eclipsed by Iraq. As Sgt. Erick Gallardo put it: "We don't get supplies, assets. We scrounge for everything and live a lot more rugged. But we know the war is here. We got unfinished business."
Indeed, the war IS there. That's where Osama bin Laden is. That's where al Qaeda is growing in strength, plotting more attacks. And this administration, and Senator John McCain, are not taking the threat seriously, at all. In fact, they're coming close to waiving the white flag, by committing the overwhelming majority of our forces and equipment to Iraq, not Afghanistan.
Back to Senator Warner. I find it pretty amusing that he says he never heard of equipment issues in Afghanistan before. We've been trying to tell Senator Warner that it's an issue for a long time now. In fact, in May 2007, we ran an ad featuring Mike Breen, who served in Afghanistan. In the ad, Mike talks about not having the air support that he needed, because the equipment was in Iraq.
We ran this ad in one state and addressed one Senator. You guessed it -- in Virginia. Addressing Senator Warner.
Far be it from me to give advice to the president's supporters, but maybe they ought to stop holding their ears and refusing to listen to the troops. Maybe Senator Warner and the rest of them should start taking troops at their word, and pressuring the president to fix the problem.
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
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seems barack is becoming a bellwether of sorts -- or at least a modern-day cassandra. he called it right on iraq; he called it right on the recent cia raid; he called it right on iran; and now this. it'd be nice if people at least listen to him before vilifying him (only later to adopt his message).
The really sad thing is that the money is there, but it being paid, in profits, to the miltary industrial complex, who are enjoying the highest profit margins ever and are, on an increasing, basis, not fulfilling even a third of their contract. We over-privatized one too many of the fundamentals to runnig an military operation, cause some companies are more worried about profits and stockholders than their fellow countrymen.
This is not a new issue. Our troops have been ill-equipped throghout this war. Those who support our troops the least it seems are those who blundered into this war of choice in the first place. I am sick and tired of these people getting a free ride and at Democrats who have failed to hold their oil and corruption stained feet to the fire!
First thank you for your service! When Obama made that statement I shuddered. He had finally stumbled, no way could this possibly be true.
We need to ight the war on error, not the wa for oil.
You go to the poppy harvest with the equipment you ,hic.. have. Fart, Burp, Fart, hic, !
Is it just me, Jon, or has it occurred to you and your vet buddies that this "president" wants y'all to fail there? That is, he's not interested really in winning any realistic strategy involving the real al-Qaeda. He just wants to break the military, use al-Qaeda as a bogeyman to justify all loads of crap and thus inflict a private militia on us all? I really will believe he leaves office when I see it and unless it's McCain he won't leave. That's my fear.
No private militia could take over the job because they don't have satellite killers or space based first strike capabilities, they don't yet even have crowd control lasers. They will still be dependent on the US mlitary for the forseeable future. Bush knows he is going to have to leave office, and McCain is probably going to lose. He takes consolation in knowing the Democrats will protect the American military monopoly until whenever it is the conservatives can reclaim the throne.
Just because the private sector can't handle the job doesn't mean their puppets in Washington DC aren't doing everything they can to create a pretext to divert tax dollars to the mercenaries.
Afghanistan is not worth one US soldier's life. Just a few days ago a journaliust was sentenced to death (after a 4 minute trial) for apparently insulting Islam. Afghanistan has been an Islamic backwater for hundreds of years...read about the British experience 130 years ago.
Last time I looked, we weren't in Afghanistan to "nation build." We are there because the thug named Osama was there. I seem to recall last year Bush being asked about Osama and his reply?..I quote exactly.."I don't spend much time thinking about him." Excuse me? He causes the death of well over 3,000 American lives, including the first responders doomed to a life of ill health and early death due to the ineptitude of his administration's response.
He chooses instead to take advantage of the fever pitch we all felt to bait and switch us into a voluntary war. Noticed the obscene profits of the oil companies, Halliburton, Blackwater, ad nauseum, lately? Don't get me started on Tora Bora either..they had him in the crosshair and due to lack of equipment or the realization that if they actually did get him, then their justification for a military presence in the Middle East would evaporate.
Yeah, but if we don't quit dilly-dallying around and clean up some of the mess we created there over the last thirty years or so, a lot more of them are going to be wasted..
The least cost in American lives and treasure is going to come from putting paid to al Qaeda once and for all.
It amazes me how anyone who supports this war has time to post on a message board.
Shouldn't you be in Iraq if you have that much time on your hands.
Don't be silly, they are shitting the pants they were going to wear to the ball.
Yesterday Joe Biden stated that the money we have spent in Afghanistan is only equal to about three weeks of what we have spent in Iraq and Bin Laden is loving it. When the next attack comes all the Neo-cons had better put the blame where it belongs and in case you cant figure it out it will be because of the lack of action by Bin Bush. Remember Bush is not worried about Bin Laden. The words of a traitor...
"Indeed, the war IS there."
What war? If we wanted to capture or kill OBL, we would have done so back when we had him pinned down. We didn't want him because that might have prematurely ended our WOT. We are not in Afganistan for OBL, so why are we there? Is continuing the fight in Afganistan a way for us to show the world we are not just in it for oil?
Sending troops into battle without sufficient ANYTHING should seriously be considered as an impeacable crime for the Chimp-in-Chief. But it's the chimps who rule today's Washington, anyway: See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing.
I was SHOCKED, when I read the piece in the NYTimes about the war in Afghanistan. This requires immediate fixing. NOW!
Please please please explain this around the country ... it is so important and my heart goes out to all of you ... but you must get this message out nationwide
I find it ironic that the Republicans and right wingers are more upset that Obama highlighted the plight of our troops rather than be outraged that this has happened to our troops at all. What kind of patriots are these people when exposure of the truth is more upsetting to them than rectifying the situation?
This is why we need a change in Washington!!
I find it ironic that the Republicans and right wingers are more upset that Obama highlighted the plight of our troops rather than be outraged that this has happened to our troops at all. What kind of patriots are these people when exposure of the truth is more upsetting to them than rectifying the situation?
This is why we need a change in Washington!!
The ironclad rule of Republicans: If something reflects negatively on their ideology or leaders it MUST be a lie.
Whether it is or not.
Obama would do well to keep going along this line. The failure to get bin Laden and get out was a major error. At this point we are occupying Afghanistan and eventually we will go the way of all occupiers there. The history of the British occupation of Iraq suggests that we will leave there eventually. Right now we are arming both sides, so there is some kind of rough peace. By arming everyone, Bush is doubling down so it is harder to walk away. Because at that point it will be the Iranians against the Saudis, Shi'a against Sunni. The US is not going to change that. The only hope is for the Iraqis to rebuild their own country. Without being tied down to long-term oil contracts with US companies on favorable terms.
If Obama can show that he consistently has better judgement than McCain, he could win. But he has to walk away from Bush's pie-in-the-sky ultimately phony cover project of "bringing democracy to the middle east." That is just madness. He should push home the idea that Iraq was basically an oil war, which it was--just look at the info that leaked about the Cheney energy plan. And let's think about bringing democracry and freedom back to the US. Can Obama really think think strategically or is he just pumping CW like the rest of them?
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