Prime's Worm Hole : What happened? I thought we were winning?

Monday, August 10, 2009

What happened? I thought we were winning?

Commander’s Ouster Is Tied to Shift in Afghan War

I wonder how many people remember that headline in the New York times dated May 11, 2009.

Or the opening paragraph of the article..

WASHINGTON — The top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, was forced out Monday in an abrupt shake-up intended to bring a more aggressive and innovative approach to a worsening seven-year war.

Tomorrow makes exactly 90 days since General McKiernan was relieved of duty and disgraced by his commander in chief. So, how is the all star replacement General McCrystal doing with his special warfare fighting skills and his innovative approach fairing?

Well let's see....

Taliban Now Winning
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Warns of Rising Casualties

The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come.

So what changed? I don't mean to be facetious, but toward the end of the Vietnam war? A frequently heard refrain of many Vietnam veterans was...."what happened? We were winning when I left."

So what happened General McCrystal? Afghanistan began to heat up immediately after Barack Obama took office. (The Taliban recognizing the weakness of this president IMO) And when General McKiernan tried to explain the situation to the new president? And when he asked for more ground troops to be sent? He was summarily relieved from duty and dismissed.

Yet after 90 days of command in the Afghanistan theater, General McCrystal seems to have accomplished very little, if not in all fairness of analysis having lost ground. Not only have things not improved or even remained static in Afghanistan as a result of the command change, but they have gotten worse. And now? The president's hand picked general to carrying the fight to the enemy in Afghanistan is calling for more troops, just as his predecessor did.

But worse than that, he has broken with decades of war college philosophy, training and instruction to all career military officers. General McCrystal has publicly admitted to the enemy that he is losing the war and to compound that mistake, he has turned to the president and publicly asked for more combat troops.

In essence and on all counts, General McCrystal's actions have completely negated the ruse used by the president to relieve General McKiernan of command in Afghanistan three months ago.

I don't blame General McCrystal, I am sure that he is a fine military officer and I am sure that he knows his job and what needs to be done in Afghanistan to win the war. Pity that the commander in chief doesn't.

So how much shelf life does General McCrystal have left as the commander in Afghanistan? I wonder. Is it possible that he too will soon be replaced with someone else? Someone more capable of losing the war in a reasonable and timely fashion?

I tend to think so. I believe that General McCrystal's days in command of American forces in Afghanistan are limited, as are his career in the Army. His boss doesn't like being made the fool by subordinates, so the general will be the next to be flung under the Obama bus..

Now, if Obama could just figure out a way to fire and replace Joe Biden.

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Prime's Worm hole

This is a place for me to muse about the issues that affect our world. My world and my country and my life in particular. I can say what I want to here and those who may stumble across my musings, are welcome to comment,or not. America is under siege. Everything this nation has ever represented, is now being torn asunder and crushed by the onslaught of egalitarian socialism. All morals and social values have been devolved into the belief that systemic racism, is the only underlying cause or reason for any societal ills in America. And that representation, is nothing but a Trojan Horse argument. A means of getting the egalitarian camel's nose into the tent. And now that it has been inserted? There is mayhem and anarchy and burning and looting all across America. And the only questions that remains to be asked and answered? Are these. When is enough enough and when will the American people call full stop and take the law into their own hands, to repel this socialist based attack on the Constitution and our personal freedoms.

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax", I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make that much money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled
I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step...I joined the Democratic Party

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If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

Captain Michael O'Donnell was lost in Cambodia on March 24 1970, while flying a UH1 rescue helicopter, trying to rescue an eight man LRRP team under attack in Cambodia. He was listed as MIA along with the eight he had attempted to rescue after his UH1 Huey was shot down by enemy fire. The official military report listed the eight as shot down 'non survivable' and 'non recoverable.'

Michael O'Donnell was submitted for the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was awarded the Distinguished flying cross, the Bronze Star, The Air Medal and The Purple Heart and he was promoted to the rank of Major (posthumously).

In 1978 he was officially listed as KIA by the Department of Defense.

A little about the philosophy of the author

The Borg Conspiracy is one man's purely pedestrian thoughts, independent musings and frequently cheeky commentaries...Mixed with an abundance of patriotism, love of God, and love of country.

My thoughts?

In my opinion........in another generation, all that will remain of our once great republic, may be little more than what is left to weather the passage of time in the form of a few obscure and forgotten monuments to the great American experiment.

If America should fail....let it be written as her epitaph.....died by her own hand. The greatest experiment in freedom ever undertaken, lost in the end to the pursuit of the illusion that egalitarian tolerance was more valuable than individual freedom.

Let us be warned.
Franklin, Payne, Jefferson. They all knew the consequences of the lack of vigilance and they tried to warn us. They gave us a document as our guide post. We were to guard it and revere it and use it to guide and govern our future and our posterity.

No one listened.