Well, it was going to happen sooner or later... Obama finally made his first really smart decision. Moving General Petraeus to command in Afghanistan is a great move. Petraeus is a counterinsurgency expert. See his foreward in the USA / USMC Counterinsurgency field manual. The manual is an easy read and articulates some of Petraeus views of modern army doctrine, such as understanding the asymmetric threat and managing public opinion. Imagine a marketing campaign where the salespeople are selling beliefs AND carry rifles... (The book also has application to marketing strategy in unorganized, discontinuous markets.) This is the new view of counterinsurgency warfighting. Petraeus was at the center of the development of these doctrines. Booya! (Unfortunately, Afghanistan isn't really a country, but a vast tribal region of opium growers where the maps of other countries just happen to end...) What will Obama's second smart move be, if there is one...?
Smart move for him would be to get our soldiers, all of them, out of Afghanistan and Iraq in the next three months. 90 days should be plenty of time to get our brave fighting forces back home and end hostilities. This is not a war we can win, we can at best absorb the attack on our nation from these criminals and try to stop them getting in to harm us. And right now we are much safer than we were on 9/11 if one gets realistic about it for a minute. So they might car bomb or shoot people we have a large population such attacks ,even 9/11, was NOTHING. Just make sure these nutballs don't get a nuke and no major power wants that even China and Russia or a bioweapon everything else is not a problem.
I strongly suspect that 90 days to fully withdraw would be a mistake, even if we were going to lose no matter what. there are degrees of negativity in a case like this.
Yes - quick exit from Iraq and Afghanistan - democratic govts in place so lets lets declare mission accomplished and leave. The problem is that Afghanistan is not now the center for Al-Qaeda - it has diversified to the Internet and several other countries including Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Nigeria (Xmas day attempt), UK (Richard Reid), even the USA (Fort Hood shooting). According to a former CIA head James Woolsey, Saudi Arabia is a big supporter of hate ideology in the USA. http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/45.pdf (page 7)
Hehe. Nope, it will take at least 20 years (a generation) to forge Afghanistan into a country, so that gives us about 11 more years of fighting and dying, unfortunately, for no thanks among the world's pacifists... Keep death at their doorstep. Let's put the "fist" back in "pacifist"; demand peace through strength, don't beg for it... Since Obama received his Nobel Peace Peace Prize in advance, I would recommend that he try to instill a since of responsibility among Muslims to deal with their own "nutjobs"; stop making the USA catch these idiots so the Saudis can run them through Islamic "re-education" centers. Obama has yet to come up to the level of George W. Bush, whose singular vision for the first Muslim democracy in the Middle East will be proven genius in time.
Hi Thomas, what is the dealio with the SFIJ degrees? Do you require any work for the degrees? (I'm posting this question here so you'll see it but we may want to discuss this over in the unaccredited schools forum.) Do you mean by "Divine Calling Degrees" that I was predestined to want one and in doing so, I'm now entitled to the degree?
Regarding the post before last, I suspect that people with a more pacifistic point of view would suggest that the ends do not justify the means. I would suggest that although far better than there, America is hardly qualified to make moral decisions. Whatever way you cut it, we have an inexcusable incarceration rate. If you blame the citizens for poor behavior, bad, if you blame the government, worse. I strongly implicate the latter. That said, I take no firm stance on any of the altercations currently taking place, I simply would be reluctant to take any kind of attitude that would look at this for anything other than tragic. I also fear a citizenry that becomes blind with nationalism. A comfortable level of skepticism and uncertainty does a people good.
Putting General Petraeus to command in Afghanistan was a great move. General Petraeus, in my opinion, should go down in history as one of America's greatest commanders. However, everyone needs to consider that many nations have engaged in a ground war with Afghanistan, and none of them achieved complete success. I believe putting General Petraeus in charge is a step in the right direction, but it also could be putting him in a position to fail. I hope that doesn't happen, but you have to consider the history or the region.
