McChrystal Sees Progress, but 'Nobody Is Winning' Afghan War Yet
In a blunt assessment of the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal declared in a TV interview Thursday that "nobody is winning," though he also pointed to progress in stopping the momentum of insurgents.
So the news is? "We aren't winning.....but we are doing real well at stopping their momentum. OK, I am a bit confused here general, so please bear with me while I attempt to absorb your line of reasoning. What you are telling us (and our enemies by the way) is that we are not winning. So......if we aren't winning? What does that mean? As I am a bit cloudy on the intricacies of modern warfare. In my limited understanding of competitions, (even in war) when one side isn't winning, that means that the only other alternative is that they are losing. Unless of course you are prepared to declare stalemate. Which in this instance doesn't appear to be the case.
And when we here at home asked you about progress in the war? We are told what you think, not what you know.
"I think I would be prepared to say nobody is winning, at this point," McChrystal said. "Where the insurgents, I think, felt that they had momentum a year ago, felt that they were making clear progress, I think that's stopped."
Now it is the U.S. and Afghan forces that have "made a lot of progress," he said.
"I think the insurgency is serious. And it's serious because it has a relative reach around the country ... so it can bring a lot of violence on the Afghan people. It's also not popular."
How about telling us what you 'know' general.
I have to be candid here. I have never liked or agreed with the appointment of General McChrystal as the commander in charge of Afghanistan. And one of the main reasons why, deals specifically with how he came to be the appointed commander. The president simply fired the then existing commander and brought in McChrystal, as McChrystal was obviously intended to be a yes man to this administration. And that fact has been shown and demonstrated clearly for over a year now.
Absolutely no progress has been made against the Taliban in Afghanistan and General McChrystal has repeatedly (yes repeatedly) been quoted as saying that the US is at best not winning the war and at worst losing it. And here once again, we have the president's general yammering about what he thinks and dancing on the head of an obvious political pin.
The general 'thinks' that the insurgency is serious? You have got to be frigging kidding me! These are the quoted remarks and responses of America's general on the ground in Afghanistan? Is there any wonder why we are not winning this war? Is there any wonder why our enemies are emboldened by this president and his general? Is there any question why our commanders in Afghanistan are now considering issuing "courageous restraint" medals to our soldiers and marines for risking their own lives by not engaging the enemy?
Once again, the heresy of this administration and the military leadership purposely put into place by this administration to lose this war becomes blindingly clear.
And lest we forget, this is the same general that having been appointed by the president to take command in Afghanistan, has had less than one hour of face time with the commander in chief over the past year. If memory serves, The general was brought on board the president's plane last year for a meeting that lasted less than forty minutes and was obviously aimed at chastising the general for speaking out of turn as it concerned America's policy in Afghanistan.
And from that time to this, the only thing that has been reflected by this administrations policy and this general's rules of engagement, have been the casualty counts.
Yes America, we are losing this war and we are losing it intentionally, just as we did a generation ago in Vietnam. Only this time? The consequences will be visited on all of us and in the very near future.
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