Bush Took His Eye Off The Ball
Here’s what the New York Times is reporting from Afghanistan today:
The loss of a military helicopter with 17 Americans aboard in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday comes at a time of growing insecurity here. For the first time since the United States overthrew the Taliban government three and a half years ago, Afghans say they are feeling uneasy about the future.
Violence has increased sharply in recent months, with a resurgent Taliban movement mounting daily attacks in southern Afghanistan, gangs kidnapping foreigners here in the capital and radical Islamists orchestrating violent demonstrations against the government and foreign-financed organizations.
VERSUS
Bush: “Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of Al Qaida, and put the Taliban out of business forever.” [11/24/03]
Bush: “Because of American soldiers and our brave allies and friends, who have fought beside them, the Taliban is out of business.” [3/15/02]
Bush: “Our first objective in the first theater against the war against terror has been achieved: The Taliban are out of business.” [2/4/02]
Bush: “Now thanks to the United States and our fine allies, Afghanistan is no longer a haven for terror, the Taliban is history, and the Afghan people are free.” [8/14/03]
Bush: “Today, Afghanistan is a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban.” [7/12/04]
Seems to conjure up memories of Mission Accomplished
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Why don’t they show us a few pictures of all the new schools, hospitals and homes they have helped build? Because all they have built are accesss roads for the oil co.’s, their pipelines and new bases for themselves.
The Afghans are finally catching on.
June 30th, 2005 at 10:42 amThe current recruiting woes are just one part of the U.S. military’s manpower problem:
- The U.S. clearly is undermanned in Iraq and has been from the start of the occupation. The situation is especially acute along the Syrian border, where U.S. forces have had to retake towns they had already cleared of insurgents.
- Afghanistan may be even more disturbing. Not only was U.S. troop strength on the ground insufficient to trap Bin Laden, it is now facing renewed threats from regrouping Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.
- There has been a steady drumbeat of stories in the press this week about growing Pentagon concerns over the growing size and sophistication of the Chinese military.
If we’re serious about confronting these growing security threats, then we have to at least discuss the reinstatement of the draft. For more, see:
“Getting Drafty: A Hybrid Model of National Service”.
June 30th, 2005 at 10:56 amIt’s not easy running a military empire.
June 30th, 2005 at 10:58 amAs Dirty Hippie comments, so many of the rebuilding projects have been abandoned, so much money has been absconded with, and so many people, mainly civilians have died. Not to mention the nasty little torture problem and the problems from day one with outfitting and getting adequate military strength out there in the first place. Any other sensible politician or adventurer would have gotten the heck out of there by now, or are they afraid of losing the extremely rich contracts and properties that have been stolen from the Iraqi people since the invasion? What has happened here will go down in infamy forever in history as the defining moment the Americans lost their country.
June 30th, 2005 at 11:03 amRE: Comment 3:
Yeah…as Bush would say, “It’s hard work.”
June 30th, 2005 at 11:16 amAs Bob Herbert said so well in his NYTimes editorial today: “If a Democratic administration had conducted a war this incompetently, the Republicans in Congress would be dusting off their impeachment manuals.”
Bush&Co have got to be hammered every day for their incompetence!!!
June 30th, 2005 at 11:18 amBush&Co have got to be hammered every day for their incompetence!!!
They’ll have to pry that hammer out of my cold, dead hands!
June 30th, 2005 at 11:43 amFirst of all the US didn’t drive the Taliban anywhere. Instead we provided assistance to an alliance of local Afghani war lords, who did the actual “driving”. We never did have nearly enough troops there to do anything on our own. Second, there was never the slightest chance that we could take over Afghanistan, and keeping our military there in such small numbers just aggravates the situation. The proper move after capturing Osama bin Laden was to remove our military and declare “mission accomplished”. By the way, where do we keep Osama imprisoned nowadays?
June 30th, 2005 at 12:01 pmI read the front page of the local paper where the resurgent Taliban was titled in large bold letters.
My first thought was: Isn’t this where that guy Osama once lived?
Being a family business partner of the Bush’s has probably granted ULB several life extensions since 9/11. :-(
June 30th, 2005 at 12:50 pmThe Taliban went from “defeated forever” to now being in their “last throes.” Soon they will be in their second-to-last throws, then Bush will be “pleased with the progress,” at which point it will become “hard work” for Bush to love the war widows as best he can.
Mission Accomplished?
June 30th, 2005 at 1:29 pmAs soon as BushCo., “Hell-is-burnin” and others got their filthy hands on the oil, poppy and American tax-payer money pipelines, Mission Accomplished.
June 30th, 2005 at 1:38 pmIt’s really a much greater deriliction of duty: Gary Schroen, former CIA agent and author of “First In”, along with many others in the intelligence community, have predicted the upsurge in insurgency in Afghanistan, attributable to the administration’s lack of support for the country’s emerging governance. Truly shameful - rack up another one for the cowboy from Andover.
more shameful behavior revealed: hairytruth.blogspot.com
June 30th, 2005 at 1:47 pmREUTERS : BIN LADEN IN PRIME TIME APPEARANCE
Fort Bragg, June 28 2005 : Americans saw Bin Laden on stage in Ft. Bragg during the President’s major speech on Iraq. The president after a few opening remarks turned the floor over to the terrorist leader. Bin Laden, grabbing a mike went on to say “This Third World War … is raging in Iraq. The whole world is watching this war. It will end in victory and glory or misery and humiliation.â€?
Listeners wondered whether quoting Bin Laden as a driver of U.S. policy is tantamount to yielding the future of the world to men like Bin Laden, but the president quickly said, “The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11 … if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi … and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden.â€?
Later backstage, Bin Laden told reporters that he thanks Bush for the first prime time opportunity since two days before the 2004 US elections. Before reporters could ask too many questions, Porter Goss shuffled him away into a limo waiting outside.
June 30th, 2005 at 2:51 pmAgain,these lying bastards and their right wing radio propaganda pimps can only deceive for so long without being found out.
June 30th, 2005 at 9:36 pmGood shall prevail over evil.
Darth, great editorial.
Bushie is sending Bin Laden messages and instructions.
Good thing that Bin Laden has satelite t.v. in his suite at the Bushie Hotel.
Look out Blue States, public support continues to slip for BushCo and you know what that means, hide your tall buildings.
July 1st, 2005 at 11:22 pm