Comments on: ‘The Surge’ Shows That Numbers Matter

By: Bohemond

Bohemond — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:07:52 +0000

"It's not guns and bombs that "win the hearts" it's aid and assistance"

Aid and assistance are only possible after security. For which you need men.

Idiot. Believe me, I would happily slash $240B from the welfare budget to pay for the war.

By: StopConRhetoric

StopConRhetoric — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:27:19 +0000

The surge worked because we turned Iraq into a segrgated prison! Sunnis and Shiites were relegated to their own areas, 12 ft blast walls were built around entire neighborhoods with only one way in and one way out. So I guess you think the Berlin Wall was a good idea too…You then contradict your "more troops surge" mentality by CLEARLY stating, "One strategy the film clearly illustrates through interviews and footage is the importance of building relationships with locals"

EXACTLY!! It's not guns and bombs that "win the hearts" it's aid and assistance. The reason the bombings have increased again is the walls were taken down, the checkpoints removed and security left to corrupt Iraqi's. Now the "Prison guards" are leaving and we wonder why it's getting worse?

According to the GAO we spend $1M a year for each soldier deployed…So the 40K more Soldiers requested is only $40B a year in tax payer dollars added to the already $200B we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan each year….Ask the tea baggers, we have $240B in tax dollars to spend over their each year just laying around.

By: thedancingmachine

thedancingmachine — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:43:19 +0000

The real untold story is the story of why we needed a surge (anywhere) in the first place.

By: dcase

dcase — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:12:05 +0000

it was the stinger AA missles that the CIA made available to -who else- Bin Laden… best laid plans of mice and men, you know…

By: No_Big_Gov

No_Big_Gov — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:53:53 +0000

I cant speak for the British engagement in Afghanistan, but the Russians were going along at a decent pace destroying the will of Afghanistan, until we started selling arms to the mujahideen. That stopped Russia in its tracks pretty quickly. So without our help, who knows how that would have turned out.

By: dcase

dcase — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:19:48 +0000

good point on the lackof honest governments… can't really expect a 6th century feudal system to improve overnight while our 250 year old experiment is as corrupt as ever…

By: DavidMontgomery

DavidMontgomery — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:57:40 +0000

dcase,

Agreed. As to the honest govt. Heck we need one of those here at the moment…

But similar to the roads comment, they have no culture of honesty and integrity, we must build all of that infrastructure as well.

As has been true for most of our recent wars, we have no choice but to work with the allies we have…

We can wish for better, but…

By: dcase

dcase — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:45:06 +0000

quitting is not an option- it would be yet another failure of US will against an entrenched foe. That said, we must be circumspect in what both our goals- and mission statement- is. And we do need an honest Afghan government.
That so far we do not have…

By: DavidMontgomery

DavidMontgomery — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:22:56 +0000

dcase,

I tend to agree. But I don't see quitting as an option.

It is hard to attempt building civilization someplace that really does not even have roads…

They persuaded Karzai to agree to a run-off with "Gallons of Tea" and a roasted goat… Hard to see that working most places.

Regardless, American's have solved difficult problems before and we can do so again.

I think we need to completely secure the few metropolitan spots, and clear and hold the tribal area's. I would like to see what might happen with a pincer move where the Pakistani put pressure on their "tribal" areas and we do the same on the A-stan side.

By: EdSki

EdSki — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:08:02 +0000

No it wasn't a coincidence. Pat Tillman got a lot of press when he left the NFL to join the army. From a human stand point, any loss of soldiers is a tragedy. From a PR standpoint, losing Tillman to friendly fire was nightmare.

I'd like to think he did it to save the Tillman's even more grief. Its hard enough sending off a family member to war. Its almost too much to bare to bury them. But to learn their death was nothing more than a mistake, I don't know how anyone could live with that.

At this point I'm willing to give the general the benefit of the doubt out of respect for the military. But I'd be a fool to not recognize the image of Tillman with a hero's death as a recruiting tool.