Comments on: Sen. Kerry Rejects McChrystal Strategy

By: oldcommander

oldcommander — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:21:09 +0000

My brother spent 4 yrs in ganistan in the 60’s withAID. Their work on irrigation, ag ed, etc. resulted in quadrupling poppy production, since it is a high cash flow easy to transport low cube crop. Since the govmt there won’t build or maintain economic infrastructure, ganistan CANNOT CHANGE.
When 80% of the people can’t read, (99% of women), have no electric power, etc. it is almost impossible for conditions to change.
However, it must be said that money spent improving the infrastructure, educating the people, etc. is CHEAPER THAN MODERN WARFARE!!! But it must be done slowly & cautiously with a minimum of graft & corruption!

By: Robertro2

Robertro2 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:53:19 +0000

MAY BE GEN.McCHRYSTAL SHOULD GO TO THE SENATE,AND THIS “IDIOT” SEN.KERRY CAN TAKE HIS PLACE AND BE OUT FRONT OF OUR “BRAVE MILITARY”.…..

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:58:52 +0000

Ok I’ll try and answer in a way that doesn’t make me come off as a baby killer. I am not promoting kill them all and let God sort them out. What I am condeming is the way our hands were tied behind our backs,You know you have a large number of bad guys held up in a mosque, but you can’t engage them even though they are firing rockets and rounds down on you in the markt place, civilians take hits and we get the blame for it because we didnt break cover and leave. That is B.S., or how about your in a village giving aid, come under sniper fire or an attack and some of the folks you just helped start firing at you from behind also, How about your pinned down with wounded and your call for air support is denied because thier may be collateral damage to civilians. And this is not just Afghanistan, it has happened a number of times in the past in other parts of the world. Owuld it bother me if it were my neighbors or kids, of course it would but at the same time I would pick my side and seek to get them to safety to prevent it, if they were injured or killed I would fight with that much more determination also. I dont know when you retired, I served from 1980 til 2004, I have been involved in most every conflict that has evolved during this time. A lot of them were covert thus we were on our own to get the job done and we always did. The military works best when you give them a final objective and stand aside. I realize as you pointed out it will be quite a while before we see another war vet run for office, and truthfully there are a lot of high ranking officers that if they were to run in the next election I know I would not vote for because they are crappy military leaders. Be it wrong at least Cheny (who I dont like at all) picked a side while Kerry tried to play it down the middle and then picked up his skirt and ran to the other side when he couldnt take it any longer.

By: ProudVet

ProudVet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:29:04 +0000

Boomer, I’m not arguing with you instead I’m listening to your rhetoric and hoping that not a majority of vets feel the same way you do.
As for the apperance of hate directed toward Kerry I heard the same rhetoric that was proven to be unfounded. As I stated earlier my problem with Kerry was he threw his medals over the White House fence. I have no problem with his service. Yes both Obama and Bush did not serve. Bush in the Air Guard I believe but never left the states. Bush did not request a deferment though like his VP. Since there is no longer a draft I would imagine we will see more Presidents like Obama that hasn’t served. But just comparing Kerry against Cheny — Cheny requested four and Kerry accepted the call.
Lastly what made/makes our Nation great is the fact that liberals, conservatives and hawks can have their own views without fear of becoming collateral damage that you speak of above, hopefully.
If you would please just answer this one question — would your view of colateral damage change if it were your daughter, your son, your grandchild, your wife or your mother??
The ones I served with for over 20 years did care and by the way would have cut off their arm before they tortured. That is what made them (USA) so great — they cared. Yes, avoiding this collateral damage is not easy but it is the right thing to do.

By: ProudVet

ProudVet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:57:27 +0000

Dewey Du Bose, you do realize that Civilians are suppose to run our military as stated in our Constitution and that Kerry did serve in Vietnam, in combat, right?

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:34:37 +0000

Proud Vet, I’m not here to argue with you. I have nothing but admiration for my fellow servicemen, but it does not mean a thing to me that someone put on a uniform and showed up only to drop his end of the load on his brothers and hauling but out of country. Anyone that can turn their back on their unit will certainly turn thier back on America as far as I’m concerned. He did not fufill his duties and I personaly don’t consider him a Vet. The most stout conciencious objector when cornered will fight for his family, which is what we are in the military working that close together day in and out, I should not have to point this out to you. He is a flat out coward and that is all, period. And yes Obama did sign the annual budget with a slight increase, same as we get every year. But his current semi support of the military is only because of the intense fire he came under after he was first elected and made his stupid comment about our all volunteer force, he had republicans — democrats — VFW — VA– American Legion — NRA and fox news pounding him over it along with a large number of our guys refusing to redeploy under his administration because of his comments (yes there were hundreds more than the ones that made the news). You keep bringing up Cheny not being a Vet, well niether is OBAMA, this is on his shoulders now, He is the one dragging his feet and not listening to the right people, his whole staff is a bunch of liberal anti war mungers and protesters, We were doing fine with Bush and Cheny, ask anyone that has been there how much worse it is now than then. The big killer now is that with all the eyes and media on it now, we can not conduct the type of operations we were doing when the world was watching Iraq more and ignoring Afhanistan. If the new administration had listened to the military fron the start we would not be where we are right now. We are never going to win over this place or all its people, they fight each other when they are not fighting a common foe which is us right now. We need to finnish what we started by eliminating the threat whoever and wherever they are, to hell with collateral damage I dont beleive in it, if they are not fighting along our side then they are the enemy as far as I’m concerned. They either need to pick a side and pick up a weapon or hide till it’s all over. And yes I would feel the same way if the battle was over here, But luckily we Americans tend to ban together against our agressors so it would not be the issue here, Every country in the world realizes this and why most avoid confrontation with us and definately wont attack us on our own soil openly. Our biggest threat here is these radicals that we face now, the longer we wait the bigger that threat becomes.

By: Dewey Du Bose

Dewey Du Bose — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:20:51 +0000

When will people like kerry learn to just shut their mouth and let the Professional Military Generals run the military? I am personnally fed up with these elected official running off at the mouth without having been in REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS COMBAT trying to tell the Generals on the ground what they need or don’t need. kerry, unless you have walked a mile in their boots, just shut TFU.

By: ProudVet

ProudVet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:00:16 +0000

Boomer, Cheny is a part of this since he is a significant reason attention shifted from Afgan to Iraq. You can’t start something then say I didn’t have anything to do with it.
One other thing before I drop out of this conversation, didn’t the President just sign the Defense Authorization Bill that added to benefits not take away?
Okay I’m done.

By: FlagGazer

FlagGazer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:58:52 +0000

I remember when John Kerry helped to engineer America’s defeat and disgrace in Vietnam — he tried in Iraq and didn’t manage it — now he is trying with Afghanistan — good gawd what a fraud.

By: LTCDTAN

LTCDTAN — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:53:36 +0000

He rears his ugly treasonous head again. Why can’t this loser just go home and stay there. You know I wonder how many out wish they might have voted for clinton instead.

By: T. Paine

T. Paine — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:33:13 +0000

Even the Taliban don’t want nearly worthless US Dollars. Each $4500 cash for clunkers car cost U.S. $24000, which is another way of saying that $24000 is actually only worth $4500.

By: CWK

CWK — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:26:27 +0000

You make a good point, which is that Afghanistan is not a nation-state in the traditional sense, but rather a patchwork of clans with shifting allegiances. The things that hold Afghanis together are a generalized sense of national identity (despite their varied ethnicities and tradition of warring with each other) associated with the old monarchy (which has yet to translate into support for the existing central government, perhaps because of the many bad experiences with oppressive, corrupt and vain leaders since the king was ousted), a general distrust of outsiders, and the desire to be left alone - whether by the Taliban or us. Trying to make Afghanistan into something it is not will take decades - if it is possible at all. On the other hand, unless we root out the Taliban and those who would support al-Qa'ida, which requires the general support of the population so al-Qa'ida cannot re-establish itself by force or coercion, we'll have achieved nothing. McChrystal's strategy is to secure the major population centers first, marginalizing the Taliban to remote areas where they cannot marshal the resources and popular support necessary to carry out an effective insurgency - and then to go out and spread the "inkblot" to eventually squeeze out the Taliban. It's an incremental strategy, but probably the only one likely to work in a place like Afghanistan. We've already dealt with one of the great weaknesses of the Vietnam war by operating openly in Pakistan and obtaining the cooperation of the Pakistanis (even if some ISI guys are still playing both sides of the street) in trying to root out a political/religious movement that is threatening the very existence of Pakistan. If the Pakistanis succeed in neutralizing their Taliban, and kicking the Afghan Taliban and al-Qa'ida out of the tribal areas, then we can grind them down over time. Recall that it took the Russians 3-4 years after the end of WWII to defeat the Ukrainian National Army, and the Russians had complete control of the borders and used extremely repressive measures. Yeah, I know that the Russians got beat in Afghanistan, but that might not have happened if we and the Pakistanis hadn't been openly helping the mujahideen.

By: CWK

CWK — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:12:11 +0000

If Truman had listened to MacArthur, then we would have defeated the Chinese Communists in the 1950s before they obtained nuclear weapons, the Russians would have been left holding the bag politically — perhaps expediting the collapse of Communism, the Hungarian’s revolt might have succeeded, the Czechs might not have had to put up with Russian tanks in the streets of Prague, and we would never have had to go to Vietnam — because the main limiting factor there was our unwillingness to invade the North and risk a confrontation with the Chinese ala Korea. India would not have felt the need to obtain a nuclear weapon to protect itself from the Chinese, and by extension, Pakistan would not have felt the need to obtain a nuclear weapon to protect itself from India. Pakistan would not have felt the need to export its technology to North Korea — since there would have been no North Korea. North Korea would be shipping its technology to Libya and Iran.…well, you get the point.

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:29 +0000

Many of us don’t like Cheny, but he’s not part of this right now. Bringing up Cheny at this point is the same as brining up Obama’s comment that the U.S. shouldnt have to pay benefits to vets and retirees because it was a voluntered decision and we knew the risk we were taking. At least Cheny didn’t try to take away our benefits. History show’s that politicians and private media severly hurt any war effort. If you make the decision to send in our troops then stand back and let us do our job, You dont tell a dog what to do or how to do it when you set them loose one someone threatening you so why handicap our troops this way. Give full covert latitude and this will be over quick and our guys can come home.

By: John USMC 67-69

John USMC 67-69 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:59:12 +0000

I believe General MacArthur made the statement 55 years ago that ( their is no substitution for Victory ) and the politician’s still didn’t learn.

By: ProudVet

ProudVet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:12:45 +0000

Reading these comments about Kerry I wondered where you all were when the former Vice President (Cheny) was asked what he thought about the 4,000 service member being killed in Iraq. His response,“they are volunteers”.
I have nothing against Kerry’s service in Vietnam, at least he served. Cheny got 4 deferments. I haven’t heard one of you complain about that even though he, who never served, didn’t have a problem sending our young warriors out to fight his war. My problem with Kerry was him throwing his medals away.
I have a son that spend 2 years over there and I’m one of the lucky ones, he came home. I would of been less nervous if the Bush administation would of took the time our current President is taking before sending troops into war.
While you are complaining about a war lost you should be thinking about every service member killed that won’t have the opportunity to complain like you are over a man that served but say nothing about a man that had no thoughts about sending our service members (brothers and sisters) into war even though he did not serve. George Bush was and is a good man his mistake was keeping people around who didn’t think twice about sending service members in harms way but wouldn’t go himself.
And you are complaining about one of our brothers who did go. Doesn’t matter what you say he did while there but HE DID GO. Maybe his heart was hurting and he had tears coming from his eyes like I did when the news medium showed the young marine dying after being hit. That Marine doesn’t have a life now because he went. Kerry went but things turned out differently. But he went. So go and rave about this war that Cheny pushed but did not feel the need to go when he was called.
How can you rave against one of us and let one who did not serve have a pass?

By: Pete Orsi

Pete Orsi — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:14:45 +0000

This Narcissistic Pinko Poodle, that played a such a preeminent role in America’s defeat in Viet Nam couldn’t lace McChrystal’s boots.
Listen to him and we will lose another war.

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:53:03 +0000

BS like this is why I retired. WE were way ahead of the game on this issue till the liberals wanting to get some camera and print time in connection with the war got involved and snafued everything from then on. Politicians and the media need to stay of of our buisness and not be allowed in until we file our final after action report and brief them on our success when were back in the states. This win their hearts and mind crapp needs to be put to rest once and for all, it has never worked to start with, not even with japan — they just realized an opportunity and took advantage of it. A lot of the republicans are just as bad but these dems have got to go, and we need to fight the war from our end in support of our troops and vote these guys out of office, even if your not a fan of you Republican incumbent you have to addmit that they have always been more hard lined in battle and taken better care of our troops.

By: Bobby joe

Bobby joe — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:16:03 +0000

As we sit on our asses and on these firebases because of these lamduck rules of engagement, its the troops who end dieing for a nobel cause, not those Washington pentagon officers who sit on there ass and read reports and look at maps,and play politics. Kerry has no knowlege except fo reports given to him which have been cleaned up for political purposes and points. Let the Troops fight and rid the region of the squrge. General Mc Christal has a plan, listen to the commander on the ground. And by the way Sen. Kerry, get off you ass and get out and get our supposedly allies besides the British and Australians to send additional combat troops, we bailed them out twice in two world wars, its there turn to repay us. Blaiming the Bush administration on everything is just an excuse to hid the fact the Democrats are afraid to make a decision. We need to go full measure, a nation devided is not a nation. Read Abe Lincoln.

By: William L. Sasman

William L. Sasman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:11:31 +0000

If Kerry and the likes of him would keep their traps shut maybe the military could get something done. If congress runs this war then we are a shinking ship right off. I don’t class Kerry as a combat vet as he took off from there as quick as his little tail could move. When this country and that egg brain running the afgan. country will let our military and the military of the other countrys handle this war we may see some gains.