At his inauguration a few days ago, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told dozens of visiting dignitaries that Afghan forces will have the country securely in hand in just five short years. “We are determined that by the next five years, the Afghan forces are capable of taking the lead in ensuring security and stability across the country,” he said.
Great, just great. But who’s going to keep Afghanistan Safe for Democracy in the meantime? You guessed it. The suckers from the land of the Big PX, the United States. Right now, mind you, we’ve got about a dozen allies helping out in Afghanistan but over 2/3 of the troops on the ground are American. And most of our Allies sense the strong smell of cadaverine. They are planning to get out.
Three hundred dignitaries (a dignitary is a celebrity who is in no way entertaining) attended the inauguration ceremonies in the Kabul palace but outside the the streets were empty. Police had ordered citizens to stay home.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, however, there were street celebrations, including the south where a Taliban suicide bomber killed 10 civilians and a car bomber killed two more U.S. soldiers.
Karzai, taking a page out of Rodney (“Can’t we all just get along?”) King’s book proposed a “loya jirga,” a sort of Afghan version of a Sicilian “sit-down.”
Hillary and a Colleague Laugh It Up Over the Prospect of Kicking a Little Taliban Ass
The Taliban ridiculed the sit-down and Abdullah Abdullah, the guy who lost to Mr Karzai in the likely-rigged presidential elections also dissed it claiming Karzai was, is, and always will be corrupt.
But Karzai’s pledge to have Afghanistan securely under control (in just 5 years) was well received by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton, who should know better after having lived with a pathological liar for over 35 years, apparently bought Karzai’s line of shit.
Mrs. Clinton’s boss, Barry Obama, has put off making any substantive decisions about American troop commitments in Afghanistan. When Barry took over as Commander in Chief he promised a swift decision on Afghanistan. While he has been dithering with things like the Chicago Olympics, 300 more Americans have died in Afghanistan. He announced Saturday that his decision will be postponed at least another week, until sometime after Thanksgiving. At the current rate another 20 Americans should die while he’s jacking off. Hard to tear yourself away from those photo ops and do something that requires balls, isn’t it Barry?
This all could be funny. But it isn’t
Let me tell you why it’s time to stop laughing. Obama likely will up our troop commitment in Afghanistan to around 110,000. They will be there for at least five years, probably more like twenty, because Afghanistan is fundamentally incapable of sustaining a democratic government for at least another generation.
With a median age of 18 (that means half of all Afghanis are under 18) the country will have an unlimited supply of terrorist recruits, gangsters, warlords, and common criminals for the foreseeable future. The country is without resources, an economy, a government, or a sense of nationhood. Afghanistan’s only identifiable skills appear to be rug making, opium cultivation, and tribal warfare.
Despite what Messrs Obama and Karzai and Ms Clinton say, we’ll be there at least ten years, if not twenty. Like Vietnam, our troop commitments will increase while our successes diminish.
Though the Obama flacks are talking around 110,000 troops (vs. the 68,000 currently there), I know from experience that we couldn’t do the job with 200,000. But I’ll stick with the “experts” and say that the commitment is 110,000 troops and I’ll cut my twenty-year estimate to just ten.
Using the conservative estimates above, here is the calculus of war: At our current military death rate in Afghanistan (5 deaths per thousand soldiers per year) we can expect to lose another 5500 young men and women over the next decade. Five thousand five hundred young Americans, most of whom are just now heading from middle school to high school.
If you’d like your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter to have a chance to be among these 5500 dead American youth, be sure to sit down tonight and write Mr. Obama, expressing your strong support for an American troop commitment in Afghanistan.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 9:13 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Crazy about Afghanistan
Great, just great. But who’s going to keep Afghanistan Safe for Democracy in the meantime? You guessed it. The suckers from the land of the Big PX, the United States. Right now, mind you, we’ve got about a dozen allies helping out in Afghanistan but over 2/3 of the troops on the ground are American. And most of our Allies sense the strong smell of cadaverine. They are planning to get out.
Three hundred dignitaries (a dignitary is a celebrity who is in no way entertaining) attended the inauguration ceremonies in the Kabul palace but outside the the streets were empty. Police had ordered citizens to stay home.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, however, there were street celebrations, including the south where a Taliban suicide bomber killed 10 civilians and a car bomber killed two more U.S. soldiers.
Karzai, taking a page out of Rodney (“Can’t we all just get along?”) King’s book proposed a “loya jirga,” a sort of Afghan version of a Sicilian “sit-down.”
Hillary and a Colleague Laugh It Up Over the Prospect of Kicking a Little Taliban Ass
The Taliban ridiculed the sit-down and Abdullah Abdullah, the guy who lost to Mr Karzai in the likely-rigged presidential elections also dissed it claiming Karzai was, is, and always will be corrupt.
But Karzai’s pledge to have Afghanistan securely under control (in just 5 years) was well received by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton, who should know better after having lived with a pathological liar for over 35 years, apparently bought Karzai’s line of shit.
This all could be funny. But it isn’t
Let me tell you why it’s time to stop laughing. Obama likely will up our troop commitment in Afghanistan to around 110,000. They will be there for at least five years, probably more like twenty, because Afghanistan is fundamentally incapable of sustaining a democratic government for at least another generation.
Despite what Messrs Obama and Karzai and Ms Clinton say, we’ll be there at least ten years, if not twenty. Like Vietnam, our troop commitments will increase while our successes diminish.
Though the Obama flacks are talking around 110,000 troops (vs. the 68,000 currently there), I know from experience that we couldn’t do the job with 200,000. But I’ll stick with the “experts” and say that the commitment is 110,000 troops and I’ll cut my twenty-year estimate to just ten.
If you’d like your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter to have a chance to be among these 5500 dead American youth, be sure to sit down tonight and write Mr. Obama, expressing your strong support for an American troop commitment in Afghanistan.
Eight US Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
UN Evacuating Workers from Afghanistan
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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 9:13 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.