Obama is kicking some serious ass in the middle East.

[Max E.]

There is no more war in Afghanistan. The only ones left are sporadic fighters who are hiding out in the mountains waiting to kill a couple American soldiers if presented with the opportunity. We could be there for thirty years and there is still going to be random people who want to continue killing us.

It is already well known that most of these guys are now in pakistan so we are left with the option of invading pakistan or staying in Afghanistan forever.

In terms of Obama's drone strikes, he has taken out more high level terrorists then Bush did during his entire presidency. I dont know whether that was just a matter of us finding all the info on them during Obama's term or whether he changed the strategy, but there is no denying that Obama has taken out tons of these high level fuckers involved in the jihadist movement, and most of them have been through drone strikes, and none of the high level guys have been taken out in Afghanistan in recent years.

Quote from pspr:

All those lives to kill one man?

I disagree. Obama should have listened to Petreas. We would be in better shape to end this right.

And, I especially disagree with the title of this tread. While helpful, the drone attacks are doing little to win the war.

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

... It is not our job to build that country up....

Speaking of which, my son sent me an email from Afghanistan. He's attached to NATO in the north west corner of the country. Here is an excerpt, his words.

"...Our mission is to assist, train and advise the Afghan Army officers and get them to a level of competence to where they can maintain the infrastructure of their military units here in Meymanah without any monetary or labor assistance from NATO forces. This specifically means ensuring they can use their own supply systems to get materials and that they have skilled workers (like plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.) to do any work. The big picture is we want them to be able to maintain the billions of dollars worth of buildings that we built for them over the last 10 years after we are gone..."

Here is where he's currently stationed.
http://www.maplandia.com/afghanistan/faryab/meymaneh/


I also have a nephew that just arrived in country last week I think.
______________________________________________________________


I only caught a glimpse of the numbers last night on the news so I could be off but I think the majority of the soldiers stationed there and have served there consider our continued efforts a waste. All things considered I'm inclined to agree.

 

[pspr]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

There is no more war in Afghanistan. .....

That just isn't true. Clashes are up 39% over last year.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/artic...anistan-violence-up-39-percent-over-2010.html

The Taliban and Al Queda leaders are a dime a dozen. You kill one and 10 others are waiting to take his place. It sounds good, but it does little to win the war.

If drone strikes were very effective, we would have won the war with our initial massive bombing to start the war. Hell, that didn't even cause Bin Laden to leave the country.

The drone operation is just Obama thinking he is effectivly fighting a war with with a few bombs here and there using video games type tactics.

 

[Max E.]

Thank you to your son and Nephew for serving the country, you must be very proud.

I Cant even imagine what it would be like out there fighting a war that has no definitive end. I watched 1 of the generals on 60 minutes the other day (maybe it was petraeus) and you are spot on in terms of our soldiers thinking we cant win out there and that we should just leave, i saw a poll and i think it is something like 60-70% who now think we should go home.

In this video the general(whoever it was) said the problem is that they go into these villages and try to help out the people living there, and the people there are nice to them every time they go in, then all of a sudden they walk into a village they have been to lots, and all the people living there look nervous and then they get ambushed.

Apparently these people in the Taliban are using the pakistani border as a safety zone, and then they go into the villages when the U.S. leaves and tell the people living there that they will kill them if they dont cooperate. So all of a sudden U.S. troops end up going into villages they think they are helping and the whole place turns into a shit show, and people start opening fire.

I hope for the sake of our troops that we just get the fuck out of there immediately. The shitty thing is that these assholes in washington are playing politics with it. I think deep down they know that it is not winnable, but no one wants to be the person who pulls the pin and lets it all go to shit again. It is sad that politicians are allowing our citizens to die while playing political games. It is a pipe dream to think we are going to turn that backword shithole into some sort of modern functional country,

Quote from Lucrum:

Speaking of which, my son sent me an email from Afghanistan. He's attached to NATO in the north west corner of the country. Here is an excerpt, his words.

"...Our mission is to assist, train and advise the Afghan Army officers and get them to a level of competence to where they can maintain the infrastructure of their military units here in Meymanah without any monetary or labor assistance from NATO forces. This specifically means ensuring they can use their own supply systems to get materials and that they have skilled workers (like plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.) to do any work. The big picture is we want them to be able to maintain the billions of dollars worth of buildings that we built for them over the last 10 years after we are gone..."

Here is where he's currently stationed.
http://www.maplandia.com/afghanistan/faryab/meymaneh/


I also have a nephew that just arrived in country last week I think.
______________________________________________________________


I only caught a glimpse of the numbers last night on the news so I could be off but I think the majority of the soldiers stationed there and have served there consider our continued efforts a waste. All things considered I'm inclined to agree.

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

...I Cant even imagine what it would be like out there fighting a war that has no definitive end. I watched 1 of the generals on 60 minutes the other day (maybe it was petraeus) and you are spot on in terms of our soldiers thinking we cant win out there and that we should just leave, i saw a poll and i think it is something like 60-70% who now think we should go home.

In this video the general(whoever it was) said the problem is that they go into these villages and try to help out the people living there, and the people there are nice to them every time they go in, then all of a sudden they walk into a village they have been to lots, and all the people living there look nervous and then they get ambushed.

Apparently these people in the Taliban are using the pakistani border as a safety zone, and then they go into the villages when the U.S. leaves and tell the people living there that they will kill them if they dont cooperate. So all of a sudden U.S. troops end up going into villages they think they are helping and the whole place turns into a shit show, and people start opening fire...

Sounds very similar to our last 10 year war.

 

[Max E.]

Quote from pspr:

And, I especially disagree with the title of this tread. While helpful, the drone attacks are doing little to win the war.

Been looking for an extensive list all day, here is the list of top guys that have been taken out under Obama, note the fact that not a single one was caught in Afghanistan, and they were all taken out with drone strikes, except Bin Laden. This list crushes anything Bush accomplished in terms of taking these ass holes out.

Im no fan of Obama, infact i hate his fucking guts but i give credit where it is due.



The Terrorist Notches on Obama’s Belt

The list of senior terrorists killed during the Obama presidency is fairly extensive.

There’s Osama bin Laden, of course, killed in May.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Anwar al-Awlaki as of today.

Earlier this month officials confirmed that al Qaeda’s chief of Pakistan operations, Abu Hafs al-Shahri, was killed in Waziristan, Pakistan.

In August, ‘Atiyah ‘Abd al-Rahman, the deputy leader of al Qaeda was killed.

In June, one of the group’s most dangerous commanders, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in Pakistan. In Yemen that same month, AQAP senior operatives Ammar al-Wa’ili, Abu Ali al-Harithi, and Ali Saleh Farhan were killed. In Somalia, Al-Qa’ida in East Africa (AQEA) senior leader Harun Fazul was killed.

Administration officials also herald the recent U.S./Pakistani joint arrest of Younis al-Mauritani in Quetta.

Going back to August 2009, Tehrik e-Taliban Pakistan leader Baitullah Mahsud was killed in Pakistan.

In September of that month, Jemayah Islamiya operational planner Noordin Muhammad Top was killed in Indonesia, and AQEA planner Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was killed in Somalia.

Then in December 2009 in Pakistan, al Qaeda operational commanders Saleh al-Somali and ‘Abdallah Sa’id were killed.

In February 2010, in Pakistan, Taliban deputy and military commander Abdul Ghani Beradar was captured; Haqqani network commander Muhammad Haqqani was killed; and Lashkar-e Jhangvi leader Qari Zafar was killed.

In March 2010, al Qaeda operative Hussein al-Yemeni was killed in Pakistan, while senior Jemayah Islamiya operative Dulmatin - accused of being the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings – was killed during a raid in Indonesia.

In April 2010, al Qaeda in Iraq leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi were killed.

In May, al Qaeda’s number three commander, Sheik Saeed al-Masri was killed.

In June 2010 in Pakistan, al Qaeda commander Hamza al-Jawfi was killed.

Remember when Rudy Giuliani warned that electing Barack Obama would mean that the U.S. played defense, not offense, against the terrorists?

If this is defense, what does offense look like?
-Jake Tapper

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/the-terrorist-notches-on-obamas-belt/

 

[Max E.]

Its sad we dont learn our lesson

Quote from Lucrum:

Sounds very similar to our last 10 year war.

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

... Im no fan of Obama but i give credit where it is due...

Which reminds me, I saw a documentary on the assassination of Bin Laden not too long ago. The intelligence that ultimately led to Bin Laden was acquired by shear accident/luck. Not because of anything specific that Obama had done or ordered.
That said, the list of dead rag heads killed under Obama's regime is still certainly noteworthy.

 

[Max E.]

I read the same thing about Osama being luck.

Thing is that for all we know a whole shitload of information could have come together all at once on these guys and it just happened to coincide with Obama starting as president, we will probably never know.

Truth be told neither Bush or Obama had much to do with any of these guys getting taken out, it was all the military/CIA. Obama's involvement probably only went so far as the military informing him they were going to take these guys out, but it still happened on Obama's watch so i give him credit.

Quote from Lucrum:

Which reminds me, I saw a documentary on the assassination of Bin Laden not too long ago. The intelligence that ultimately led to Bin Laden was acquired by shear accident/luck. Not because of anything specific that Obama had done or ordered.
That said, the list of dead rag heads killed under Obama's regime is still certainly noteworthy.

 

[Mercor]

The Drone program only came online towards the very end of the Bush term.
Obama does get credit for not caving to peaceniks and continuing the drone strikes.

The best question to ask is weather Obama or even Gore would have established the drone program in the first place. I really don’t think Obama would have.