Sarah Palin on Afghanistan, You Have to be Kidding Me!

[rdobbs2010]

You have to be kidding me, is what I thought when I read the story and heard the interview. Sarah Palin would be lucky, oh my gosh, to even find it on a map and it would have to have the countries already colored in.

"Now is not the time for cold feet, second thoughts, or indecision," Palin wrote. "It is the time to act as commander-in-chief and approve the troops so clearly needed in Afghanistan....We can win in Afghanistan by helping the Afghans build a stable representative state able to defend itself."

Sarah believes we need to take everything McChrystal says as fact and give him everything he needs. Well let's break this down with some real thought. We Sarah, National Security Advisor General Jones told Der Spiegel, “Generals always ask for more troops. Take it from me. I believe we will not solve the problem with troops alone. The minimum number is important, of course. But there is no maximum number, however… You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past.”

Sarah, here is a bit of a current and past history lesson on Afghanistan:

We already out number the Taliban 12:1

1,449 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of ongoing coalition operations (Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF) since the invasion in 2001.

As of September 19, 2009, 139 foreign private contractor deaths in Afghanistan as part of the War in Afghanistan.

The Soviet army lost 14,427, the KGB lost 576, with 28 people dead and missing between December 25, 1979 and February 15, 1989.

The Soviet had a total of 620,000 soldiers served with the forces in Afghanistan and couldn't win.

The cost of the War in Afghanistan is around $232 billion.

The total cost of the War in Afghanistan for the Soviets is estimated at around $82 billion.

So rather than listening to what your radical war-monging right wing neo-cons say on Afghanistan, maybe some reality is needed. What we have wasted over in Afghanistan is public health care for everyone here!

Robert Dobbs for Congress, SC-01: www.electdobbs.com

[Blue_In_AK]

1. If only Sarah read DU,

but she can't be bothered with silly things like facts.

[rdobbs2010]

2. You are right

She would have to have some neo-con give her the talking points.

[The_Unbeliever]

3. Should we withdraw all forces ASAP?

[rdobbs2010]

8. Yes

Yes and I am a military veteran. We need immediate withdrawal, if not at least a withdrawal over 1 year time frame, basically a scale down. This also means no more money going down the hole called Afghanistan, which is listed to be the 2nd most corrupt nation in the world. The Afghans don't necessarily hate us but they hate us for supporting a corrupt government that wastes money for their cronies and never reaches the people.

[MadMaddie]

14. rdobbs2010 I agree with you!

I also would like to thank you for your service!!

Welcome to DU!!:hi:

[Arctic Dave]

10. I see nothing to gain by keeping them there.

Just because a bozo named bin laden lived there for a while I don't see a reason to occupy the place.

[Zomby Woof]

4. Jones is right

Generals asking for more troops is a tradition. McClellan was always asking Lincoln for more, and that wasn't helped by the fact that not only did McClellan always sit on his ass, but he also grossly overestimated the number of Confederate troops.

McClellan, McChrystal, tomato, tomahto.

Let's call the whole (Afghan) thing off.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Zing....

Good one.

[bleever]

19. You and EFerrari (below) are putting this into context.

To paraphrase Spinal Tap, standing over Elvis' grave: "Too much bloody context".

:thumbsup:

[EFerrari]

6. "The Prime of Miss Sarah Palin".

She's looking to get some freepers killed.

[patrice]

7. Brig Gen Martins says 80% of the "Taliban" are NOT ideologues who hate the U.S.

http://www.correctionsone.com/corrections/articles/1967983-US-could-release-up-to-700-detainees-in-Afghanistan

These 80% are the Afghan Poor fighting our Poor for $5.00 a day.

At least some of the 20% "hardliners" are people who want revenge for their Family & Friends killed by the U.S. in this War.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. She loves to spend money

[patrice]

22. 1++++++++++++ . . . sorry to say!

[niyad]

11. welcome to DU-- everything about her is unbelievable.

[rdobbs2010]

12. Thanks.

According to a report by USAID, "Seven years after the fall of the Taliban government, corruption has become more than the standard issue bribery, nepotism, and extortion in government." The Taliban actually had less corruption than now and the Taliban eliminated the poppy production and now since we are there, Afghanistan is the top in Opium production.

[patrice]

23. They should be offered somekind of preferential trade agreements for pharmaceuticals.

The whole World uses morphine.

I hear they once produced pomegranates too. Extremely popular health-food that.

Places like Afghanistan should somehow be moved to the head of the line for trade deals that would provide economic stability for their People and those deals should be made independent of their politics somehow.

[Kablooie]

13. Yes, but if Obama did that, Afghanistan would be a bigger mess which would help the GOP.

[rdobbs2010]

15. So.....

thousands more should die and billions more spent on a quagmire. A leader leads and makes unpopular choices.

[BunkerHill24]

16. I doubt the Taliban would worry about Sarah's visit...

They, however, never worried of Chaney's visit either....they welcomed him with cheers!

The Headlines were: "Bomb rocks US base in Afghanistan during Cheney visit"!

[rdobbs2010]

17. They would.....

probably say, you have to be kidding me. She almost was the Vice President of the United States?

[BunkerHill24]

18. "She almost was the Vice President of the United States"

Yep...scary thought, isn't it?

[ConsAreLiars]

20. Very well said! And Welcome to DU! And a few personal notes about Afghanistan.

I was in Afghanistan before the CIA, with the support of the Saudis and Pakistan's ISI, began destabilizing the country by importing, funding, organizing and arming religiously insane extremists. The government at that time was secular and progressive in terms of women's rights, education. and so on. Before then, when I was there, it was a kingdom, but the culture, although the first reaction was one of Extreme! Culture! Shock!, was an intact one in which even the most alien creatures, like my companion and me, were regarded as guests and we felt safe. Never even a hint of a request for a bribe or any threat.

If you have the time and inclination, scan through my journal http://journals.democraticunderground.com/ConsAreLiars for more about Afghanistan before the US began turning it into a slaughterhouse. I suspect few know it once advertised for tourists as being a "Haven of Peace and Tranquility,"



Edit to add link and: Good luck with your campaign. I looked through your site and saw you as someone PDA and such orgs and any normal human should support.

[polly7]

21. Very interesting, thanks!

Mind if I borrow this for some of my rabid NATO needs to bomb Afghanistan to smithereens friends here? I knew Afghanistan had once been a lot more stable, but this is great.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. Thanks

[ConsAreLiars]

27. Please do!

Further back in my journal are some longer rants with more documentation from other sources.

[kixat2550]

25. She's a deranged moron

[blm]

26. Doesn't matter what Palin thinks, do you know where Gates, Hillary, and Holbrooke

stand? Right next to McChrystal and in very close proximity to Obama's ear.

Palin ISN'T the big problem here as she has no input or influence on the WH decision. Clinton and Holbrooke do, and they get away with their neocon position because the left, including many here at DU, won't direct their feedback to them.