Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Afghanistan: They'll Cut (a deal) and Run

[by Mr.Hengist]

The initial reports had the casualties at 80 dead and 120 wounded in Charsadda, Pakistan, on May 13, 2011. The attack was loosely targeted at a training center for Pakistani security forces. One bomb killed cadets and, notably, bystanders at a nearby market. The second bomb, by design, killed first responders tending the victims of the first bomb. In this how the Taliban expressed their sympathy and anger, in deeds fitting their words, at the U.S. having sent ObL to sleep with the fishes. In deeds, how like ObL and Al Qaeda; their aims and methods make for a well-suited match. It's a timely and poignant reminder of why we unleashed our fury on them in the aftermath of 9/11, and a rebuke of our having let so many flee to safety. We should have done a better job of cutting off their escape routes and killed them in in far larger numbers.

POTUS Obama reluctantly fulfilled his campaign pledge by increasing our troop presence in Afghanistan by paltry numbers. Having done so, POTUS Obama is now once again looking for the exit. Instead of redoubling our efforts in response to Taliban atrocities, the Administration "has accelerated direct talks with the Taliban" and "U.S. officials say they hope [this] will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July." Let's hope the Taliban don't cut a deal until at least the next round of U.S. elections so that we can replace these Democrats before they can run away.

1 comment:

Noocyte said...

In his response to the Islamopathic foe we face (and, indeed, in pretty much every aspect of his geopolitical stance) Obama resembles nothing more than an antibiotic, taken inconsistently and for only a partial course, in the midst of a raging, systemic infection.

Haphazardly, he smites the odd pathogen (and is not altogether undeserving of credit for this, mind you)...but he does so in a way which creates the conditions for the emergence of a more robust and virulent infection over time. In this sense, he is far worse than useless. From leaving Russia essentially unchallenged, to empowering and enriching the CHICOMS to a staggering degree, to drifting through Afghanistan with a policy which lacks any semblance of strategic depth, to altogether failing to grasp the Global Counterinsurgency nature of the wider conflict with radical Islam...I simply blanch at the damage which his administration is doing to the interests of this Nation.

I honestly thought that Jimmy Carter would represent the absolute nadir of the annals of the American Presidency. I never thought that the US would ever again tolerate such an astounding level of incompetence and malfeasance. Clearly, I woefully overestimated the capacity of the Left to learn from history.

Undoing the damage of this administration will be the work of generations.