[artlady]

Hello tom:

You actually WIN the war on the battlefield, not in the POW camp.

Here's the thing you righty's don't understand about war. When we've captured a terrorist, he's NO LONGER in the fight. It really doesn't make ANY difference WHAT we read him or what we don't.

You just wanna punish him further. That's not very nice.

Plus, if we torture OUR prisoners, they're gonna torture OUR boys, and I'm not gonna like that. When they DO, who do you think I'M going to blame??? Them???? Wrong!

excon

I have no idea why I respond to any of your posts because you just ignore me.
Am I too stupid for consideration or what?
I'm feeling a little left out of the mix.
Why?

[excon]

I have no idea why I respond to any of your posts because you just ignore me.
Am I too stupid for consideration or what?
I'm feeling a little left out of the mix.
Why?

Hello lady:

If you noticed, I usually respond to the guys I want to argue with, like I did here. I don't want to argue with YOU. I AGREE with you. Sometimes, NK and I commiserate with each other about the righty's, but I seldom respond directly to him...

I won't leave you out any more, though. You're one of my favorite people.

excon

[artlady]

I get it ,you guys just want to fight.

You totally ignore any other comments ,your too high brow to talk to a person you consider your intellectual inferior.

I abhor hypocrites,People who profess to know and care for others but don't.

Excon,you never respond to a thing I say.

Because I am not worthy? Not bright enough to get you?

You ignore me ,you never give me any acknowledgment ever and that's hurtful.

Its all good but I just thought you should know.

I have every confidence you will ignore this as well :)
Peace out!

[artlady]

Hello lady:

If you noticed, I usually respond to the guys I wanna argue with, like I did here. I don't wanna argue with YOU. I AGREE with you. Sometimes, NK and I commiserate with each other about the righty's, but I seldom respond directly to him....

I won't leave you out any more, though. You're one of my favorite people.

excon

Well,my bad ,you could have fooled me :)

[artlady]

Its all good! Sorry for being oversensitive!
Here is a graphic I made about war.Long time ago.Just sharing.. LOL! Its entitled peace. Ha ha ha

[excon]

Here is a graphic I made about war.Long time ago.Just sharing..LOL! Its entitled peace.

Hello again, lady:

It's a very moving piece of artwork... Please give us more.

excon

[Tokugawa]

Very poignant depiction Artlady. God is dead, and WE have killed him. Never mind, I expect a new one will be along shortly.



KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD!!

[cal823]

Tokugawa, I do not believe we can ever kill god, no matter how terrible our actions. We probably break his heart however.

The way I see Afghanistan, and any other war, is this (An opinion I have formed reading about Vietnam and by studying Sun Tzu and other wars)
War is terrible yes, it is a failure of diplomacy and sanity and government.
However, once the government has made the decision to go to war, one which should not be made lightly, there is only one acceptable option. Victory. Appeasement, withdrawal without victory, is unnaceptable. The interference of politics in warfare, the laying down of limits and boundaries and excessive rules of engagement restricts the soldier.
In Korea, the american military was only permitted to bomb the Korean halves of bridges across their borders. General Mcarthurs reply was "In my all my fifty years of military service, I have never learned how to bomb HALF a bridge!"
A generals job is to win war. There is only one order a politician should give to a general. It is "Go fight this war and win it" not "Only bomb the southern half of that bridge" or "Dont shoot them unless they are wearing uniforms, even if they are armed" or "you can only bomb targets south of this line"
If you pull out before your objectives have been achieved, you have lost a war. You have emboldened and taught your enemies how to fight. You have weakened your position. And you have engendered hate of your people and left those who now hate you fully armed and capable of war.

[tomder55]

We were making progress in Afghanistan and then we concentrated out efforts on Iraq.
Look at two years ago,things were improving.
Schools,health care things were looking up. A change was happening.
Women back in power.The Taliban was being shut down!
Look back at what was happening two years ago.

I don't quite understand this.. perhaps because the normal critque is that we took our eyes off the prize in 2003 .Which was 6 years ago.

What happened in Afghanistan is that the Taliban retreated to sanctuaries in Pakistan . One of the ROE's that I was talking about (of which Mirandizing is only one of the newer handcuffs ) was that pursuit ended at the border .

You are right about politcal progress a couple of years ago. However the government of Afghanistan has never really stepped up to the plate (unlike the Iraqi government ) . The Karzi leadership is corrupt and ineffective . He tried to steal the elections this month.

I still ask what the strategic mission is there . If it is to keep AQ from establishing bases to attack us then we have already succeeded . If it is to prevent the Taliban from taking the country over we are succeeding . They will never have central control of the nation so long as we have a presence. If we are looking to duplicate what is happening in Iraq then we are in for a long term comittment ;and we need to rethink what a free Afghanistan would look like . It is tribal and I think the best we could get is a confederation of tribes as an alternative to bullies like the Taliban running the country by brute force.

No one wants to see that happen again .

[paraclete]

Hello tom:

You actually WIN the war on the battlefield, not in the POW camp.

Here's the thing you righty's don't understand about war. When we've captured a terrorist, he's NO LONGER in the fight. It really doesn't make ANY difference WHAT we read him or what we don't.

You just wanna punish him further. That's not very nice.

Plus, if we torture OUR prisoners, they're gonna torture OUR boys, and I'm not gonna like that. When they DO, who do you think I'M going to blame??? Them???? Wrong!

excon

I agree with ex here, why read their rights when they have no understanding of "rights". A terrorist might be reeducated but is it worth the effort, you first have to deprogram the Muslim and this is taking away their identity. You might as well summarily execute them. You can't torture them and you cannot deny their religion so lock them up and throw the key away

[cal823]

I partially agree with excon, except for the last part.

Plus, if we torture OUR prisoners, they're going to torture OUR boys, and I'm not going to like that. When they DO, who do you think I'M going to blame?? Them?? Wrong!

I am pretty sure that the Taliban already tortures its prisoners, without the need for any prompting from americans.

[tomder55]

I don't agree with Ex because what happens when you put nonsense ROEs on the soldiers like that is to deny them an intel tool. Ex thinks we should wage war like a law enforcement effort .I don't.

[cal823]

ROEs should never be placed on soldiers by politicians. They get soldiers killed and wars lost.