For several years, we heard the mother of all slogans:
"We took our eye off the ball"!
Obama and the Dems will now get to translate slogans into governing.
We repeat it: Be careful what you wish for.....you may get it!
"Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan has a major NATO participation (who have a third more troops than the U.S.)
Last year, 138 NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan, a rate of 3.45 per thousand troops.
However, there's a catch.
Most NATO nations do not allow their troops in Afghanistan to fight. Peacekeeping (in those parts of Afghanistan where there is little violence), but not fighting (in the Taliban infested south).
There, a third of the NATO force (mainly British Dutch and Canadian) do most of the fighting.
This force suffers a higher combat death rate than U.S. troops.
The British death rate was 6 per thousand, the Canadian rate was 11.
Part of this is because the NATO combat units are operating in the most hostile areas (mainly Helmand province, where most of the worlds heroin is produced), and partly because the Taliban openly attempt to kill more of these troops.
That's because public opinion in most NATO nations is hostile to the Afghanistan operations.
The Taliban believe that higher NATO casualties will eventually lead to the troops being withdrawn.
Canadian troops have been heavily targeted.
That NATO nation public opinion is based on the idea that Afghanistan is "America's problem" and that the U.S. should deal with it by themselves.
That NATO nation public opinion is based on the idea that Afghanistan is "America's problem" and that the U.S. should deal with it by themselves.
NATO political and military leaders believe otherwise, and remember that, since World War II, it was U.S. military power that provided the bulk of the deterrent to Russian aggression in Europe.
That, however, never became a popular belief in Europe, where most people and opinion leaders tended to take the American effort for granted, or dismissed it entirely."
We will see how Obama handles the next big war in Afghanistan.
We do remember Obama's great speech in Germany. They jumped up and down. They danced. Some even cried.
However, they all went into silent mode when Obama called on Germany to send troops to Afghanistan.
We wish Obama the best. However, Afghanistan will be very tough.
Furthermore, I don't believe that the Democrats have the stomach to fight this war!
Afghanistan was a great political placard to attack Bush's policy in Iraq.
Afghanistan will now be Obama's war. Let's see how quickly the anti-war movement turns on him!
