We may save American lives by withdrawing but our reputation will be more tarnished than it was by the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Those who remember this incident also recall how it humiliated the US in the rest of the world and how it diminished our national pride and self-respect.

We betrayed the Iraqi people in the first Gulf War. We betrayed the Iranian people in the summer of 2009 when they protested their fraudulent elections. Now we are considering betraying the Afghan people after 8 years of war and devastation. Such betrayals linger in the minds of people for generations, not just years. The consequences of our failures today will be visited upon our children and grand-children tomorrow.

We may save American lives by withdrawing but our reputation will be more tarnished than it was by the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Those who remember this incident also recall how it humiliated the US in the rest of the world and how it diminished our national pride and self-respect.

We betrayed the Iraqi people in the first Gulf War. We betrayed the Iranian people in the summer of 2009 when they protested their fraudulent elections. Now we are considering betraying the Afghan people after 8 years of war and devastation. Such betrayals linger in the minds of people for generations, not just years. The consequences of our failures today will be visited upon our children and grand-children tomorrow.

Why do we have troops, who have been there for over fifty years, in Germany, So. Korea, England, etc.? That may have been plausible during the Cold War when we were up against a defined nationalist enemy. Today is very different but our Senior Officers and politicians are not. (Congressional Term Limits Please!!) National Defense against various terrorist organizations is the issue today.

The most effective tool against terrorists is domestic and military intelligence. That is where the bulk of our resources should be concentrated including linguists. This function of the military was decimated by Bill Clinton (who like Obama believes that ignorance is bliss and being ignorant absolves you of responsibility and decisiveness) and allowed bin Laden to build al Quaeda. We must learn from that.

We are not going to win anything of value in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Good intelligence and Special Forces Strike Teams can, in all probability, give us the best we can expect. Search, destroy and go to a safe offshore home. If we want more we will have to Nuke them and then what do we have but a country that was useless with nuked citizens who are getting reparations from U.S. taxpayers. The responsibility of governing those countries is their citizens not ours as even if we try to govern them we will fail. We have enough trouble governing our own country.

If we want to stop Iran from developing nuclear bombs let us send strike force, Marines, Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard to destroy the facilities and the government. Then get out. Let them build their own country. If they instill another radical government that is aggressive to our safety we take them out again then come home and defend our land.

Our aircraft carriers and various sea-going troop platforms, also defensive weapon downsized by Clinton, are great sources for strike forces to operate from and their own security is top notch. Thousands of troops can deploy and return to them quickly.

The foregoing would put less strain on our own military with less strain on our treasury while more effectively meeting our defensive objectives. There is no reason for our military personnel to be based in foreign countries to fight ill-defined enemies. Let intelligence root out a target, hit it and return to safety. We can do this with less resources and fewer casualties.

Always the devil is in the details and the details are muddied by politics both in the Pentagon and out. We must know our objective first and then devise the most efficient strategy and tactics to meet that objective. History is only useful to show us what has worked and what hasn’t. This is a relatively new phase of warfare for the U.S. and it should be at least examined in that light.

We need a more modern, realistic defense policy that will not only increase the morale of those who have to do the heavy lifting but all of our citizens as well. Just continuing the old ineffective policies is not the way to go.

Let’s talk and discuss it!

Why do we have troops, who have been there for over fifty years, in Germany, So. Korea, England, etc.? That may have been plausible during the Cold War when we were up against a defined nationalist enemy. Today is very different but our Senior Officers and politicians are not. (Congressional Term Limits Please!!) National Defense against various terrorist organizations is the issue today.

The most effective tool against terrorists is domestic and military intelligence. That is where the bulk of our resources should be concentrated including linguists. This function of the military was decimated by Bill Clinton (who like Obama believes that ignorance is bliss and being ignorant absolves you of responsibility and decisiveness) and allowed bin Laden to build al Quaeda. We must learn from that.

We are not going to win anything of value in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Good intelligence and Special Forces Strike Teams can, in all probability, give us the best we can expect. Search, destroy and go to a safe offshore home. If we want more we will have to Nuke them and then what do we have but a country that was useless with nuked citizens who are getting reparations from U.S. taxpayers. The responsibility of governing those countries is their citizens not ours as even if we try to govern them we will fail. We have enough trouble governing our own country.

If we want to stop Iran from developing nuclear bombs let us send strike force, Marines, Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard to destroy the facilities and the government. Then get out. Let them build their own country. If they instill another radical government that is aggressive to our safety we take them out again then come home and defend our land.

Our aircraft carriers and various sea-going troop platforms, also defensive weapon downsized by Clinton, are great sources for strike forces to operate from and their own security is top notch. Thousands of troops can deploy and return to them quickly.

The foregoing would put less strain on our own military with less strain on our treasury while more effectively meeting our defensive objectives. There is no reason for our military personnel to be based in foreign countries to fight ill-defined enemies. Let intelligence root out a target, hit it and return to safety. We can do this with less resources and fewer casualties.

Always the devil is in the details and the details are muddied by politics both in the Pentagon and out. We must know our objective first and then devise the most efficient strategy and tactics to meet that objective. History is only useful to show us what has worked and what hasn’t. This is a relatively new phase of warfare for the U.S. and it should be at least examined in that light.

We need a more modern, realistic defense policy that will not only increase the morale of those who have to do the heavy lifting but all of our citizens as well. Just continuing the old ineffective policies is not the way to go.

Let’s talk and discuss it!

Afghanistan is a distraction designed to suck the juices out of the “great Satan”…and that would be us. They’re beating their oil drum and we’re dancing the Electric Slide as we finance their anti-western crusade. This steady drip of the precious blood of our soldiers while Obama waffles, the Generals plead for more boots on the ground and our western rules of engagement hamstring our troops is an exercise in futility.

Posters on here get it. When will it sink in where it may make a real difference?

Afghanistan is a distraction designed to suck the juices out of the “great Satan”…and that would be us. They’re beating their oil drum and we’re dancing the Electric Slide as we finance their anti-western crusade. This steady drip of the precious blood of our soldiers while Obama waffles, the Generals plead for more boots on the ground and our western rules of engagement hamstring our troops is an exercise in futility.

Posters on here get it. When will it sink in where it may make a real difference?

I admire Ann Coutler’s forthright and no-nonsense approach to commentary, especially in the face of today’s incessant political correctness madness. She thrives on her stance partly, I assume, to stir, but also to add spice, a good combination-commodity for a writer. But sometimes she stretches her imagination in enthusiasm, and other times limits that capacity. Her assertion that our aim in the current “war of necessity” is “to draw jihadists into a flytrap for Islamic crazies, where they’ll promptly be killed by our armed forces,” seems naively simplistic. The solution for jihad will not be the result of limited “war” in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else. Islam will not be satiated until the world is ruled by Islam, and they will do anything and everything to achieve that. It is so stated in the Koran.