You know what? To hell with it.

Serenity was nice enough to comment on my last piece, and it... well... pissed me off. I am SOOOO tired if "war is bad" people who think that all of this is our goddamned fault. So you know what? I'm kinda tired of our boys getting killed too, so here's my idea:

We're done. Bin Laden, here's the deal:

We pull out now, unconditionally. Today. On one condition: if any further action (suicide bombings, schools shot up, etc.) happens, ANYWHERE, EVER, FOR ANY REASON NO MATTER WHAT TERRORIST GROUP, WE WILL BRING HELL ON EARTH(that would be nuclear weapons, in case you were wondering) TO WHEREVER YOU ARE, AND EVERYONE THAT SURROUNDS YOU, NATION STATES BE DAMNED.

k? You stop, we stop. Then maybe we can talk about it.

Yours truly,

USA.

I'm also at the point of thinking "fuck it" and bringing everybody home, future consequences be damned. When bombs start going off in a hometown near you, don't blame me.

Remote warfare question, and what I said...

A friend of mine asked me why we can't just use remote warfare (drones and such) to win the war in Afghanistan, and I really liked what I wrote in reply, so I'll share it. And yes, I have watched the clip... I won't embed it here, but it's a demo of 2 folks driving predator drones. Kinda dry. YouTube clip here.

I haven't watched the clip yet (I will, what red-blooded male doesn't like to see stuff get blown up???), but there are problems with "remote" warfare. First of all, the primary idea of "men" (Using the term as a unit, not as a gender!) on the ground is for diplomatic reasons as well as operational. We can't see through walls, so to confirm that a target is a valid one is a top priority for US operations. Despite the perception that we're a bunch of gunslingers, we as a country do more than any other military force to confirm that the guys are enemies, and you have to have a real pair of eyes on the ground to validate targets (more often than not). Once we blow away the bad guys, we need people to talk to the locals to find out info, take situation assessments and look for things that you just can't see from the air. More often than not, when innocents get killed, it's because of missiles and artillery, not men with rifles.

I personally am tired of sending our boys off to war, but the military advisors that are over there are reporting that despite the appearance of stagnation, we are making progress. Well, that was until we blew up that fuel depot last night. Bad news, that.

Students of Vietnam (the real military historians, not right or left wing mouthpieces) have repeatedly stated that the only reason we didn't win in ' Nam was because the political pressure from the anti-war crowd limited the amount of resources and manpower we were allowed to send. Once they stopped the real support, with men and equipment, the war was lost. As a lot of guys who returned from that fight said, "We would've won the war, but the politicians wouldn't let us". The Afghan scenario is similar, but this time it's about getting the locals to accept their own fate, run out the taliban (only 6% support them, which is down from about 60% a few years ago), and continue the peaceful processes (6 Million children are in school in Afghanistan currently, compared to about 1 Million (or less) that were attending only a couple years ago).

War can be won with technology, but as we learned from the 60's, 70's and 80's with our spy programs, there is no more valuable asset than one on the ground, who can look and listen to what's happening. Yes, the techology is getting better and smaller, almost to the point where we will have robotic eyes and ears and can make better tactical decisions, but even the most advanced robot can't hand a child a can of MRE's (meal ready to eat... GI food), which is more valuable diplomatically to the civilian population than a drone that may or may not lay some serious hellfire on your village.

Just keep one thing in mind... the people that are over there, fighting for the Afghan's and Iraqi's freedom have volunteered to do so. This isn't a draft, and despite the couple of jerkoffs that come back from the war with negative stories (which we always hear about) we don't get to hear the stories of the troops with the positive tales of compassion, humanity and freedom. I mean, think about it. Even if we leave the place with half of the people simply thinking that they CAN become a free society, then we have achieved what we set out to do. Inspire others to be free, even if it is not in our own image.

After re-reading this a dozen times, I think I answered the question, lol... There's a photographer embedded in with the troops in Afghanistan , Michael Yon.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

His stuff will take your breath away, and give you some real insight into the conflict. God bless him (and keep him safe!!!).

add: For those who can support Mr. Yon, every dollar helps.