07/21/2009 05:30:35 PM EST

The War In Afghanistan is Lost

posted by IraqVet

Although I had thought we were adopting a saner policy in Afghanistan, our bullheaded insistence on combining our war effort with an anti-drug effort is robbing Afghan farmer of their livelihood and turning the populace against us even more.



Email Print
Google Technorati del.icio.us digg reddit Facebook
IDIOTS!  This ranks up there with disbanding the Iraqi Army on dumb moves: 
    
[quote]KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin.

The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province and was observed by CNN's Ivan Watson, who is embedded with the U.S. Marines operating in that province.

The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters.

Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs.  Watch U.S. military bomb poppy seeds »

"There is a nexus that needs to be broken between the insurgents and the drug traffickers," Wayne said. "Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies."[/quote]


So we are destroying the Afghan farmers only cash crops to win their "hearts and minds"?!?

They are going to hate us even more.

< The problem with team Obama | The Rednecks of Santa Barbara? >
 Display:
The War In Afghanistan is Lost | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
according to most experts... (none / 0)
the poppy farms are funding the taliban, giving them a influx of cash to fund their resistance.

So they couldnt well leave the poppy fields alone could they?

Now if they blow up the poppey and Give them Other cash crops To grow in its place like FOOD.  Then you ARE winning hearts and minds while adjusting the war effort, i dont see the taliban funding their weaponry and movement with assets from corn.

by Ectheleon on 07/21/2009 05:34:13 PM EST

Umm, no (4.00 / 2)

Ecthelion, no offense, but seriously, do the research.

Not every crop will grow everywhere. And food is a very poor cash crop. There are considerations of soil, altitude, economics, transportation, and then there's good old supply and demand.

Those farmers have no viable alternative.

And claiming they are sometimes forced to grow is just more of the same old tired "War on Drugs" propaganda.

The situation in Afghanistan just makes me sick. There's this horrible, horrible sense of deja vu, and this opium crap is just one more parallel.

Yeah, that's right, Afghanistan is Obama's Vietnam.

We swore we would never make those mistakes again, we swore we had learned our lessons, Colin Powell himself stood up and said it.

And it's the same thing all over, even down to the poppy eradication plans. (someone will have to say something about the CIA running heroin, watch). The same total disconnect between Washington DC and the reality on the ground. The same business of the poor fucking line animals taking it in the ass because politicians are stupid.

The same ridiculous body counts, the same pathetically inadequate attempts to conceal American casualties, the same valor and dedication and courage and heart-breaking sincerity and good intentions on the part of earnest young Americans both in uniform and out, who are viewed as expendable pawns by the men in expensive Italian silk suits who make the decisions in DC. OH wait, we have a difference! Today some of those people in those expensive suits are women. Yay for progress and equality!!

by RedPossum on 07/21/2009 06:58:55 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Is this a "No Shit" post? (none / 0)

The Afghanistan war was lost from the time the decision was made to invade Iraq - so it was probably lost before it started.

by MedfordTim on 07/21/2009 08:07:14 PM EST

Russ Feingold says.... (none / 0)
Source: Raw Story

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Senator Russ Feingold, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee, had some tough words regarding President Obama’s Afghanistan policy.

The New York Times reported Monday, “Four American soldiers were killed by a roadside explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, making July the deadliest month for American service members in the country since the 2001 invasion and underscoring the frightening rise in the sophistication and accuracy of roadside bombs.”

“With the four newest fatalities, at least 30 Americans have died in the first three weeks of July, surpassing the highest previous monthly toll, 28, reached in June 2008,” the Times article continued.

Feingold said, in his statement, that he was “sad that this has been the deadliest month for our service members in Afghanistan since the war began nearly eight years ago.”

“I continue to be concerned that the troop increase in Afghanistan will lead to more grim milestones like this one and will not have a lasting impact on our ability to deny al Qaeda a safe haven in that region,” Feingold added. “Indeed, I am concerned that the so-called surge may actually make matters worse by pushing militants into Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation which is still not effectively dealing with terrorist sanctuaries in that country."

Even the Defense Secretary seems to have concerns over the mission’s success in Afghanistan. Over the weekend, the LA Times reported

After eight years, U.S.-led forces must show progress in Afghanistan by next summer to avoid the public perception that the conflict has become unwinnable, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a sharp critique of the war effort.

Gates said that victory was a “long-term prospect” under any scenario and that the U.S. would not win the war in a year’s time. However, U.S. forces must begin to turn the situation around in a year, he said, or face the likely loss of public support.

“After the Iraq experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway,” Gates said in an interview. “The troops are tired; the American people are pretty tired.”



by MedfordTim on 07/22/2009 03:46:53 PM EST

Afghanistan (none / 0)
I read the UK paper last week that concluded the Afghanistan war was unwinable after the Iraq Invasion, and agreed at the time... Afghanistan is the Country that chewed up the Soviet Union, and the USSR was geographically right next door -- they only had to drive across the border.  This is the Country that has chewed up every foreign force that ever invaded--including the English at the height of their empire when they owned Pakistan and could March accross the border--we have to fly in from the other side of the globe.  

The Iraq war accellerated terrorist technology by many years. So many types of IEDs, planted so many different ways, and the solution for Iraq won't work in Afghanistan (you would have to see an MRAP to understand).  

I don't WANT the war lost--but burning the natives crops and intimating this was going to win their hearts and minds was just so... stupid.

 

 

by IraqVet on 07/22/2009 05:04:20 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The War In Afghanistan is Lost | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
 Display: