the rix mix

When the shock wore off after  I read about the insane United States Army sergeant killing 16 Afghans, including nine children,  my first thought was that it means the end of our effective involvement in Afghanistan.  There's already been "thrill killings" by U.S. personnel, drone bombings that don't discriminate between the "enemy" & their families; & burnings of the Koran that, inadvertent or not, many Americans including at least one Republican candidate for president treat with contempt, as if one indignity  can justify another.

We will never convince Afghans that we are not at war against Islam. Who is the enemy when a United States soldier creepy crawls through homes like a follower of Charles Manson & murders people in their beds? These were Afghans in a supposed "secured" area.

It won't do to psychologically profile the crazy soldier as a complete anomaly. When a soldier is posted to combat areas four times, suffers a physical brain trauma, has his marriage fall apart, & our military psych fitness screeners still don't pick up on something awry in the guy's head, stamp MAJOR FAIL somewhere on the process. How many other disturbed solders have gotten though it?

President Obama still has not given us a lucid purpose for our Afghanistan campaign, or  clear picture of what constitutes American success. It seems more or less a continuation of whatever President George W. Bush had in mind.

How big is Afghanistan?  Here's a page that overlays Afghanistan on five sections of The United States.  Keep in mind that only some parts of America are rugged as Afghanistan.

The Afghan people, except for some warlords & corrupt Karzai government officials, are done cooperating with us. Karzai wants us to pull back to our major bases from our many outposts. Those outposts were our ground tactics for securing areas  from the Taliban.

Labels: in the news, war more war