Naive Question

[poliphilo]

If you say you're going to have a surge but afterwards you'll withdraw aren't you effectively telling the enemy to hang on in there?

Comments

Well, yes but...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

Only because he didn't say out loud that he intends to wipe the enemy off the face of the planet first!

What kind of criticism would he have endured if he'd said that directly and openly?

Re: Well, yes but...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure he- or any Westerner- really understands what that country is all about.

Re: Well, yes but...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that you're correct there.

But if you listened to him talk you understand that the purpose was to remind us Americans (mostly) that this is about AlQaeda attacking NYC.... and as such it is necessary that America respond in a specific way to an attack on our homeland... or lose the respect of the world.

Re: Well, yes but...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But Al Quaeda aren't in Afghanistan any more. Or not in any big way. The thing is they're an international organisation- which can set up shop anywhere- or maybe not so much an organisation as an idea.

[sovay]

The thing is they're an international organisation- which can set up shop anywhere- or maybe not so much an organisation as an idea.

I don't know if it is possible to prosecute a successful war eight years too late. Time can't be rolled back somehow. The Iraq War will not vanish and be forgotten; neither will its dead. It's not an invalid question, how you redirect your resources and national attention from an utterly unjust cause to one with an arguable goal. But I don't think this is the answer.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Gordon Brown has taken to saying that we're in Afghanistan to keep the streets of Britain safe. This is so obviously untrue it reeks of desperation.