A Marine's View of Afghanistan - Once More with Feeling!

This United States Marine is a veteran, no longer on active duty.  A Marine, however, is always a Marine.  There are no ex-Marines.
 
Although this Marine's Comment to a post at The Captain's Journal has already been reprinted at "Afghanistan: The Gordian Knot of Asia -- how do you unravel it?"  it is the most cogent as concerns the situation in Afghanistan and what is at stake in American lives, and is therefore reprinted here once more--with feeling.

Comment at "Insufficient Numbers of Marines" by Herschel Smith:

Comment

On September 27, 2009 at 11:00 pm, DesertPete45 said:

So if I understand this cerebral text, which I am getting damn sick of, it is that it doesn’t matter how many Marines we have! Am I understanding this text correctly??? If so I partially agree: if our Marines, of whom my son is one in Helmand (in a Marine rifle platoon), are not allowed to kill the damn enemy because of McChrystal’s wimpy position because he is scared to death of AbomiNation and having to retire and not make as much $$$ as he is active then that is correct. We could have ten trillion Marines and the Taliban would continue to sip tea, plant IEDs at night and chill in the ville during the day with the homeboys. What the hell has happened to our military and where the HELL are the men (senior officers) in our military who would resign/retire before committing their charges to such idiocy?? And yes I do mean retire! When the HELL will our military leaders cowboy up and act like real men instead of neutered lackys??? NEVER!!!! I fear America’s glory days are gone forever and I cry over that. Dammit, my dad was wounded on Saipan, I fought in Vietnam and now my son is in A-stan and can’t defend himself!!! Our only hope is the 2010 elections, if we fail if is over and we better get ready for heavy handed govt control by the damn FOOLS inside the beltway and the wimps in this country who want the govt. to provide everything for them (impossible). Damn, can’t believe I am witnessing the dismantling of the United States of America by a neomarxist!!! Where are the MEN, where are the PATRIOTS, where are those of PRINCIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If we unfetter our Marines and provide them with air and artillery we can win! Several weeks ago 4 Marines were killed because they were denied air and artillery by the damn egghead commanders who are scared shitless by Obama because a civilian might be killed!! What the hell, now we have 4 more dead Marines!!!!! Does no one give a damn??? Where the HELL are the men??? Are they pleased that they were simpatico with the EU, AbomiNation and probably the world court notwithstanding we lost 4 Marines!!! Well hell they weren’t the sons’ of any of those fools!!! Where the hell is the outrage???? Where the hell is the passion?? Where the hell is the anger???? We can have our cerebral discusions after we win in a quiet bar with many beers but that is not for now. Dammit, where is the fire in the belly of those who think we are hanging our guys (and gals) out to dry and they are nothing but cannon fodder for the PC crowd. Obama is uncomfortable with the use of the word victory and not sure that is necessarily the goal in A-stan, Gates doesn’t want a large military footprint, CMC is worried about our carbon footprint and Levin wants us to convince the enemy to switch sides!!!! OMG am I dreaming?? Pinch me please!!! Are these people fools or not and McChrystal says we can’t win the war with 200+ civilians killed in the last year!! What??? What about our guys?? We can’t win the war with 80% of Helmand as Taliban and Taliban sympathizers if we are not allowed to kill them!!! Karzai is a corrupt hill bandit and he has the temerity to hold us responsible for civilian deaths!! That dirty rat!! If he was a man, which he is not, he would hold the Talaban responsible but he doesn’t have the guts. He would be dead meat in 24 hours if we left. Let’s stop the academic bullshit, there is enough of that by McChrystal, CMC, Jones, Gates, Mullen and or course, OBAMA!!! Did I miss anyone???

Respectfully submitted,

Desert Pete
USMC 1964-1968

[COMMENT at
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/09/27/insufficient-numbers-of-marines/ ]

Also, for further comprehensive analysis of the Afghanistan situation and war outlook, see "Afghanistan: The Gordian Knot of Asia -- how do you unravel it?"