CITIZEN ALERT v1.6
IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN
As I sat this morning watching Generals Pace and Abizaid along with Rumsfeld answer questions at the Senate Armed Services Committee, it frustrates me still that no one in the media left, right or otherwise as ever asked the question to any military person involved in the decision making process about the theater of operations this administration has chosen to fight their war on terror in.
The terrorist go where the opportunity presents itself. Training camps were in Afghanistan, so they went there. I believe the majority of Americans were behind the idea of going after the terrorist in Afghanistan - it made sense to everyone. When the theater of operations changed to Iraq - before our "objectives" (see below) were completed in Afghanistan - that is when public opinion started to waiver.
There were no terrorist in Iraq. There ARE now. I would think that before Bush's War on Terror (WOT) began U.S. service men and women must have seemed like mythological creatures to your average person in the middle east. They were just these distant ideas flying over head in their advanced technology or the explosion of a missile sent from over the horizon unseen and unreachable. How bizarre it must have been to finally see these Americans up close and in person for the first time in their lives (for some) after hearing about them for so long.
Iraq and Afghanistan. Two theaters of operation. We could have sent our troops to Saudi Arabia, Somalia, even Yemen and the terrorists would have followed. But Iraq? We know, and by we I mean, the informed, the intellectuals, we know why this administration went into Iraq, but I still see it as a sort of smoking gun for the rest of the country.
According to articles I have read, we were doing a great job in Afghanistan. Some of the terrorist were packing it in and heading home to fight another day. Omar and Bin Laden were running for their lives while telling their followers they should try blowing themselves up. The terrain was difficult, weather bad, networks of caves everywhere but we had the technology to fight that battle. There wasn't a fleeing Republican Guard leaving ammo and ordinace laying around hidden for terrorist and angry civilians to find later to use against us. The battle field in Afghanistan seemed more out in the open than Iraq, away from civilians more often than not and safer for our troops.
I've watched the countless videos from our troops in the middle east. Snipers in Iraq are in buildings, in alleys, hidden here and there; snipers in Afghanistan were sitting on mountain tops easily targeted. When we killed Al-Qaida leaders in Iraq we targeted whole buildings killing innocent civilians along with and sometimes instead of our targets. In Afghanistan, we followed Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders in their cars out of the city by drone Predators and then blew them up away from civilians. You blow up a building, someone has to pay for that. You blow up the desert - mmmm, not so much.
I think moving the main battlefield from Afghanistan to Iraq shows not only incompetence and greed on the part of the Bush administration, but a general disregard for our U.S. Troops and those of our allies. Someone, anyone, the next time you have a General or anyone from the military on your program ASK THEM THE QUESTION! What battle would you rather have fought, Afghanistan or Iraq?
"Objectives" - in truth I think Bush's real objective was accomplished in Afghanistan which was the removal of the Taliban and the clearing of the way for the CENTGAS pipeline. Once that was achieved the neo-cons lost interest and turned their eyes toward Iraq and its oil.
The terrorist go where the opportunity presents itself. Training camps were in Afghanistan, so they went there. I believe the majority of Americans were behind the idea of going after the terrorist in Afghanistan - it made sense to everyone. When the theater of operations changed to Iraq - before our "objectives" (see below) were completed in Afghanistan - that is when public opinion started to waiver.
There were no terrorist in Iraq. There ARE now. I would think that before Bush's War on Terror (WOT) began U.S. service men and women must have seemed like mythological creatures to your average person in the middle east. They were just these distant ideas flying over head in their advanced technology or the explosion of a missile sent from over the horizon unseen and unreachable. How bizarre it must have been to finally see these Americans up close and in person for the first time in their lives (for some) after hearing about them for so long.
Iraq and Afghanistan. Two theaters of operation. We could have sent our troops to Saudi Arabia, Somalia, even Yemen and the terrorists would have followed. But Iraq? We know, and by we I mean, the informed, the intellectuals, we know why this administration went into Iraq, but I still see it as a sort of smoking gun for the rest of the country.
According to articles I have read, we were doing a great job in Afghanistan. Some of the terrorist were packing it in and heading home to fight another day. Omar and Bin Laden were running for their lives while telling their followers they should try blowing themselves up. The terrain was difficult, weather bad, networks of caves everywhere but we had the technology to fight that battle. There wasn't a fleeing Republican Guard leaving ammo and ordinace laying around hidden for terrorist and angry civilians to find later to use against us. The battle field in Afghanistan seemed more out in the open than Iraq, away from civilians more often than not and safer for our troops.
I've watched the countless videos from our troops in the middle east. Snipers in Iraq are in buildings, in alleys, hidden here and there; snipers in Afghanistan were sitting on mountain tops easily targeted. When we killed Al-Qaida leaders in Iraq we targeted whole buildings killing innocent civilians along with and sometimes instead of our targets. In Afghanistan, we followed Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders in their cars out of the city by drone Predators and then blew them up away from civilians. You blow up a building, someone has to pay for that. You blow up the desert - mmmm, not so much.
I think moving the main battlefield from Afghanistan to Iraq shows not only incompetence and greed on the part of the Bush administration, but a general disregard for our U.S. Troops and those of our allies. Someone, anyone, the next time you have a General or anyone from the military on your program ASK THEM THE QUESTION! What battle would you rather have fought, Afghanistan or Iraq?
"Objectives" - in truth I think Bush's real objective was accomplished in Afghanistan which was the removal of the Taliban and the clearing of the way for the CENTGAS pipeline. Once that was achieved the neo-cons lost interest and turned their eyes toward Iraq and its oil.
posted by Bobot Adrenaline at 10:36 AM
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