Secretary Gates - We Are In It To Win
When President Obama, aka The Commander in Chief, gave his lackluster and throughly uninspiring speech to military cadets at West Point last week not once did he utter the word victory. It should be clear in everyones mind by now The Commander in Chief has no concern for winning the war our American men and women are being sent to fight. Afghanistan, like Vietnam, may well turn out to be a war for the politicians. And it may primarily be about fueling the Military Industrial Complex so as to provide military contracts for the industries who business it is to provide the armaments and supplies necessary for a well equipped military. After all this does create jobs.
Obama is on record telling ABC in July that he wasn't comfortable using the word "victory" because we are fighting, in his words, "a non -state actor, a shadowy operation like al-Qaeda." The President's logic being the goal is to prevent attacks on the United States and because al-Qaeda is not a state per se there would never be a treaty signing ceremony with a defeated enemy. These statements from the Commander in Chief sure do sound, if anything, defeatist in and of themselves.
On December 7, 1941 The United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor by an enemy determined to defeat us. On September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked by an enemy determined to defeat us. Today, eight years later we are still engaged in a war the Commander in Chief apparently has no intention of winning.
Lets listen to the words of a true Commander in Chief in response to an act of unprovoked aggression against our country. Pay particularly close attention to approximately the two minute mark in this speech. For it is precisely this kind of commitment that our troops in Afghanistan, and our nation, need to hear if we are to commit more lives, and money to the effort in Afghanistan. Anything less is unforgivable coming from the Commander and Chief.
There are those of us who have questioned the reasons we are still in Afghanistan; fairly and rightly so. But the decision has been made, and it is now time to support the effort. The leader of our nation and Commander in Chief, if he has any chutzpah, will speak and act like President Roosevelt did following that day if infamy in 1941.
As to Secretary Gates, my hat goes off to him. He has finally spoken the words our troops needed to hear. He played an important role in the Iraq surge that proved to be so successful, perhaps he will be the one to convince the President that the troops need to hear and perceive support and strength from their Commander. More likely he will be chastised when behind closed doors with the President.
While I have had my reservations, I have always believed if we expanded this war it must only be with the intentions of WINNING, or else get the hell out. I still stand by those convictions. For if we do not intend to win then we have no business remaining.
The full Gates article here.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Washington Post
Comments
Post a Comment
RN USA is a No Judgement Zone (to steal from Planet Fitness), so please, No Judgement of others. We reserve the right to delete any such comment immediately upon detection.
All views are welcome. As long as the comment is on topic and respectful of others.