THE Debate '08

So, I had to work at my radio station last night. This caused me to miss the debate last night. So I'm spending all this morning getting caught up; reading the analysisesses, watching the videos and trying to draw may own conclusions.

The only problem is I'm stuck on the part where Barry states that he wants to send X number of Combat Brigades into Afghanistan.

I have a problem with this statement:

Barry never served in the Army (but neither did Johnny, he was a Navy pilot), so how the hell is he going to presume he knows the manning requirements it will need to address the issue? And if he's going to make a statement like this, WHICH brigades would he send? Infantry? Armor? Armored Cavalry? Artillery? Engineer? Civil Affairs? Psychological Operations? Maybe a brigade from the AG Corps?

If you take the time to follow each link, you'll notice that each branch has a different ability, or specialty. You wouldn't ask your plumber to cook you dinner, why would you expect an Armor Brigade to go fight a Special Operations war?

Afghanistan is MUCH more difficult than Iraq for a number of reasons, least of which is our overt covert actions from the late 1970's through the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not to mention these people have been in almost nonstop conflict for thousands of years. If you think you can waltz in there and completely change their way of doing things, even in a ten year time span, you're frigging crazy.

Remember Bosnia?

Didn't it take something like 15 years?

Aren't we just recently handing over the last of our bases?

And aren't they still struggling to get their crap together?

But I digress.....

These types of decisions and wars need to be made by the men and women WHO HAVE DEDICATED THEIR LIVES AND CAREERS TO THIS!

The reason people are of the opinion that we are "loosing" the War on Terror is because we have elected officials who insist on being armchair generals.

An adept saying that I've found very useful in my career in the Army is, "STAY IN YOUR LANE."

These means that you should NOT pretend you are a Subject Matter Expert (or S.M.E. ("SMEE")). Stick with what you know and let the people whose job it is to LEAD THE TROOPS lead the damn troops.

I'm sick and frickin' tired of fat old men and women (I'm an equal opportunity hater right now) wanting to play Charlie frickin' Wilson's War and micro-manage a war that needs to be fought by professional war-fighters.

LET US WIN.

Don't tell us how to win the war, tell us just to win, let us surprise you with our ingenuity.

Thus endith the sermon.

JB2D out.
"If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?"