President Obama Fumbled Afghanistan
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Southern Afghanistan, 2011
31 October 2012
By Michael Yon
President Obama ascended to power through audacity, oration, and artful manipulation. In the United States and numerous Asian countries, I saw people’s eyes glaze with unconditional trust in a man who is unfit for office.
After the last election, I happened to be home from the wars, and in Washington DC for meetings. President-elect Obama’s inauguration was nearby, and so I attended on that freezing morning. Some of my detractors said, “Look at that, Yon’s joined forces with Obama.” In fact, I had campaigned against him after his many clueless statements on Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the inauguration was an historical event worth seeing. The new president would, after all, be the decider in the wars to which I would soon return.
Many inauguration spectators appeared to be in a trance. Some hated President George Bush. Others talked about revenge for historical injustices. For some it was about money for nothing, while for others it was about a sincere desire for hope and change from a vaguely defined status quo. All were searching for something better.
Patriotism was noticeably thin at the inauguration. Yes, there were thousands of American flags, though team spirit would be more evident at a college football game. The flags were waving in a breeze laced with the stench of entitlement. It was not a God Bless America day. It was a God Bless Me day.
And there he was. Our new President. I was determined to support him until he proved unworthy. Almost four years later, many people have snapped out of the trance, and that includes many non-Americans here in Asia. Obama’s magic wand has been broken over the knee of reality.
I cannot speak about the economy, education or healthcare, but I can speak about Afghanistan. Obama cannot be faulted that Afghanistan is stone-aged, or that our military strategy was wrecked when he took office. It was. The bus was in a ditch. Obama showed up with a wrecker, promising to yank it out. Today the wrecker is in the ditch atop the bus.
President Obama did fire General McChrystal and send General Petraeus to Afghanistan, which was smart. But now Director Petraeus is at the CIA, and not where we most need him, which is in the military. President Obama’s mishandling of the war has left many of us disillusioned.
Our leaders have repeatedly seen national news outlets indict the inadequacy of our MEDEVAC systems in Afghanistan. It can be said, “Yes, but it was done this way during the last administration.” True. And this administration promised hope and change.
Despite sustained national coverage of the MEDEVAC issue and direct appeals to the White House and Obama’s chosen Secretary of Defense, our helicopters still fly over Islamic Afghanistan wearing Red Crosses, which signals that the helicopters are unarmed. This has caused unforgivable delays removing wounded troops from the battlefield.
Afghanistan: In October 2001, we destroyed Mullah Omar’s mosque in Sangesar Village, down in Kandahar Province. His second of three wives, Guljana, was from this village. His family lived there. This tiny mosque literally was the birthplace of the Taliban.
Under President Obama, ten years later in 2011, US troops renovated Mullah Omar’s mosque in Sangesar. First we bombed it in 2001. Then we fixed it in 2011. This remains one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.
Perhaps we forgot that Mullah Omar gave Osama bin Laden sanctuary, and then bin Laden attacked America.
The symbolic appeasement represented by refurbishing the mosque is enormous. The village is in the middle of fields of poppy. Renovating this mosque in Sangesar is like building a dual monument to al Qaeda and drug cartels.
Mullah Omar: If President Obama is to take credit for getting bin Laden, he must accept blame for failing to get Zawahiri, and Mullah Omar, and for refurbishing Mullah Omar’s mosque.
We are not in this together. Sangesar is an enemy village. Our troops still die there.
In 2012, Mullah Omar praised the murders of Coalition forces. General John Allen, the US commander at the time, called it “an unmistakable message of death.” Mullah Omar was so busy directing the faithful to murder our troops that he forgot to express gratitude for the revenue stream from opium, and for the renovated mosque demonstrating his potency.
This year, the casualties continue. In March, at Sangesar, three Afghan insiders turned their guns on Americans, killing Staff Sergeant Jordan Bear from Denver, and Specialist Payton Jones from Marble Falls, Texas. Another Soldier was wounded. That is the payment that we can expect for appeasing Islamic-narco-terrorists.
I was in the general area last year, and in previous years, and it was mostly about combat. Our young troops are something to be proud of, and if you saw them in action you would be amazed at their courage and professionalism. The mess that we shoved them into is a national shame. We provided about half the troops required for the stated strategy, then began pulling them out against a domestic political deadline that has nothing to do with the war. The surge has been a wasted effort.
America saw both President Obama and Governor Romney endorse our Afghanistan strategy during their last debate, where ISAF forces train the Afghan Army and Police as a prelude to our disengagement in 2014. This is a broken strategy, with Afghans murdering so many of their trainers.
At least 30% of Afghan trainees must be replaced annually due to desertions and endemic corruption. Training Afghans to replace Coalition forces is not working. As we draw down, the enemy will be able to focus on fewer troops. Hollow Afghan units will collapse, and corrupt Afghan politicians will finally abscond to Dubai. We should cut our losses and remove the bulk of our force.
Although Obama needs to go home, this is no guarantee that Romney will do better. If Romney is elected, he will need a bigger wrecker. He is guaranteed the same honest chance that Obama received. Nothing less, nothing more.
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Thank you!
Michael
Comments
This is a rhetorical question, no reply needed.
My son was in Kandahar last year and is now with a Medevac unit in the J-Bad area. So you articles and posts mean a lot to me. Thanks!!
As a civi-outsider, it unfortunately appears to me that is was all for naught. I know that was never the intention, but the way we went in vs. the way we're going out makes no sense to me.
Comparing the present trash running/ruining our great country to pond scum is an insult to pond scum
What this human paraquat has done to our great country, plus add the recent tragedy in Benghazi, is criminal and treasonous
Life imprisonment would be too good for these traitors to the Constitution and the American ideals which have saved millions across the planet from, slavery, tyranny, and fear!
I had nothing particularly against Communists and Socialists, until I met a few of them. Now I see them as nothing more than the tools of evil and the devil himself
You know, I don't frequent this comment section that often. But your comments border on some kind of obsession sometimes. You really come off as a nutjob to be honest. You ever stop to read what you actually write and think how other people might actually view your comments? Or you just don't care?
To make an inane asinine rebuttal like that is typical of the leftist trash that comes in here supporting the pro-terrorist Communist Obomination and it's ilk
Go away troll, your Messiah's days are numbered and then you'll have to find a real job instead of wasting the taxpayers money going around from site to regurgitating your masters voice
BTW I thought it was a violation of Government computing systems to use them is such away as your doing supporting the PMIC
Much better that the Communists and socialists the present half-white skunk has surrounded itself with in the WH
Bring in the fumigators when this trash is thrown out with the rest of the human cockroaches
Basically, we spend $42 billion a year at home to prop up the profit margins of the drug cartels and Taliban. Crazy.
Truly, if you don't know anything about politics and who you're voting for, you would be doing the nation a great favor by staying home. Don't vote. We have enough uninformed opinions out there already.
Unfortunately the good voter worries about making the right choice. The Stupid voter has no trepidation, charging ahead blind. We have all paid the price for this. I lost my job in February and I'm still looking.
I don't want any help, I don't want hand-outs, but I do want Stupid people to refrain from another uninformed decision. They are not the only folks who have to live with their clueless choices.
Afghanistan was a lost cause before Obama became President but the reality of having to admit to failure is too hard for most politicians to endure. The lessons of history have been totally ignored when it comes to the place but the allure of nation building was too much for Bush Jr. and the inevitable process to failure was begun.
Barack didn't build that mosque - someone in Public affairs built that mosque on the advice of a military officer who thought it would help.
Don't blame your politicians for the crap decision-making that your military make on their behalf...ours do the same.
Get real and recognise that the politicians only work on the signals that the military give out...that's why the whole thing is so effed up.
Inexplicably, the electorate chose him to lead this great nation.
At a time when we needed strong leadership, sound strategy, and a steady hand we got waffling, conflicting messages and updates on his golf scores.
And people die because this man sends them to places that none of us will ever have to be.
I cannot voice my respect and admiration for our brave military men and women enough.
I also cannot voice my disgust and disdain for the current POTUS.
And, people, I cannot stress the importance of YOUR vote in the Nov. 6th election enough.
You are one vote, one person, and you most definitely count.
Don't slack on this duty. Not while America's sons and daughters fight on foreign soil against faceless enemies to protect you and your freedoms.
But putting an end to the culture of entitlement is probably about as difficult as winning a war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile both these camps keep sucking the economic life out of the middle class, the people who actually pay for this mess.
I'm sick and tired of both groups.
The top 25% of income earners pay 87% of the taxes. That leaves the bottom 75% (much more than just the middle) only 13% to pay.
See a lot of it depends on how you define the middle. The top 25% has an AGI of $66k. (Now that's AGI, so after several adjustments like HSAs, capital losses, education expenses, and so on). How many making under $100k would not claim to be in the middle? What about $200k?
Neither group is really in the middle.
If you say the "RICH" and "corporations" then you are an ignorant dolt
The comments above try to define who the "middle class" is which is a futile exercise unless you firmly define who are the "RICH" class, $250,000 AGI, ridiculous, in most metropolitan areas, especially CA, you are only financial screw-up/payche ck from being on the street
The fact is most people don't really don't know who the "RICH" are in this country, they think it's anyone who has more stuff than they have! I tell you this, the more stuff crowd just has more and more to worry about losing, as I mentioned perviously about income margins, most of them are living beyond their means.
So who really pays the final tax bill for all the programs and goodies and government hand outs
NOT THE RICH
SHALOM
Has the army perhaps considered using lie detectors on those Afghan trainees they recruit, and repeat the test once every 3 month?
This may give a higher chance detecting insurgents amongst them.
Good idea, but it won't work with these types of personalities, who will view the lie (emotion) detector test as a terrorist interrogation, will with their ingrained mistrust and paranoia, cause them to either freeze up or fall apart, rendering the emotion test useless
In depth solid background checks is the best way, but in a country run by corrupt patronage more than ability and trust, we will continue get bad apples, that is until our policies change to fit the mold
Are soldiers given an overview of the content of the Hadith and Sirat (the life and teachings of Mohammed) to get an understanding what truly horrid beliefs they are brought up to follow, without sugarcoating it for you? It's a merit to kill a non-Muslim. Not only a merit, but a duty and obligation ordained by Mohammed.
It's vicious for the clueless Obama administration to send the military there. And the absurd requirements to rebuild a Taliban mosque (!) is just insane. Mosques are not places of worship. They are places for gathering and planning wars or attacks against enemies.
Look at the Ramadan. There are more Muslims slaughtering other Muslims during the "holy" Ramadan than any other time of the year. The Ramadan is a celebration in preparation of war and martyrdom.
I hope you all keep safe.
1) Dismantle and ban Islam and all the Sunna's, like the West gas banned Mein Kampf. The indoctrination comes from that 'religion' which is actually a political ideology and war manual.
2) Re-educate the children from a small age with a completely different set of human values.
Then you can only hope the next generation will come out more humane. That is the only way it can be done, as I see it from years of volunteer experience in troubles nations.
...like the West has banned Mein Kampf.
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