tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post4858506140375896022..comments2023-10-24T11:23:31.580-04:00Comments on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Frank Rich: You People Will Cause The Already Failed Afghan Surge To FailWilliam A. Jacobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16433685588536441422noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-33938688117939447822010-08-23T10:16:06.887-04:002010-08-23T10:16:06.887-04:00I do my best to avoid reading Frank Rich, but what...I do my best to avoid reading Frank Rich, but whatever his argument in this case about Afghanistan, I find myself on the same side of the fence, as I wrote last month in <a href="http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-petraeus-wont-matter.html" rel="nofollow">Why Petraeus won't matter</a>." <br /><br />There is a strategic vacuum at the top of the national command authority (coff, White House, coff) and just sliding Petraeus and Mattis into their new commands won't solve it. If I may cite myself:<br /><br />***They will fail because COIN is a tactic, not a strategic objective, and the United States has no strategic objectives regarding Afghanistan. The generals will be conducting COIN for COIN's own sake, not really to achieve something else. As far any anyone can tell, President Obama's only national objective regarding Afghanistan is to pull American forces out by the end of next year. That's not a strategic objective. It's an admission of aimlessness.***<br /><br />I am just as unlikely to agree with VP Biden on anything as I am with Rich, but again, I think he has a better handle on what we need to do in Afghanistan than his boss. Here is what Bide <a href="http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-afghanistan-strategy-kill-em-all.html" rel="nofollow">said early this month</a>:<br /><br />***"We are in Afghanistan for one express purpose: Al Qaeda,” he said. “Al Qaeda exists in those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are not there to nation-build. We’re not out there deciding we’re going to turn this into a Jeffersonian democracy and build that country.”***<br /><br />Quashing the Taliban and al Qaeda requires killing as many of them as possible. On the other, it won't be possible to kill them all. At what point they will be unable to continue is very difficult to ascertain.Donald Sensinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01395472322281027191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-78217624863372168402010-08-22T20:36:48.491-04:002010-08-22T20:36:48.491-04:00As a man who makes a living demonizing, and preten...As a man who makes a living demonizing, and pretending to be outraged by, those with viewpoints he disagrees with, it is shameful that Count Frankula waited until the third paragraph to work the word Islamaphobia into his column.<br /><br />And he didn't call those who oppose the mosque's proposed location a bigot even once. That's outrageous!MaggotAtBroad&Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04493406951892285654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-15873371901857939262010-08-22T20:30:56.637-04:002010-08-22T20:30:56.637-04:00Intellectual laziness and predictability? Say it i...Intellectual laziness and predictability? Say it isn't so! hahaha<br /><br />Perhaps he is angling for a byline at the Korean Central News Agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-85653753127636320152010-08-22T19:36:13.467-04:002010-08-22T19:36:13.467-04:00So Frank Rich believes that the war is lost withou...So Frank Rich believes that the war is lost without any possibility of redemption because of whatever annoys Mr. Rich at the moment.<br /><br />Next week's headline: Afghanistan War lost because of athletes foot! (Subtitle: Tinactin is a Republican Plot!)irvingprimehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16030998880661535481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-75633263677152062010-08-22T18:30:09.229-04:002010-08-22T18:30:09.229-04:00Rich has morphed from a failed-theater critic who ...Rich has morphed from a failed-theater critic who mistakes comedy for tragedy into a cloud-cuckoo political commentator who leaves out entire swathes of characters and plot-lines just to keep his cartoons simple enough for the Upper West Side elites to comprehend them.<br /><br />Every Dem, Union Member, and independent who has thought through having a Muslim-Brotherhood sleeper-cell covert Ikhwan asset like Al-Rauf and his aide-de-camp Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR, another fellow-traveller of MB as their allies and kumbayeh partners has figured this out.<br /><br />Rich should look up the word taqiyya in his google and wiki Lexus-Nexus. I think he wants to remain deceived and his suspension of disbelief matches Kristof's ignorant naivete.dave in bocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164227301361227792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-33734656751239500692010-08-22T18:28:57.824-04:002010-08-22T18:28:57.824-04:00A "logical liberal" creates a singularit...A "logical liberal" creates a singularity of stupidity which sucks the intelligence right out of any effort, writing, blog, or speech.<br /><br />Frank Rich = intellectual wasteland.Eikenberry Photographyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03301810268339147732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-61393806848623676132010-08-22T16:54:01.885-04:002010-08-22T16:54:01.885-04:00And yet years of the press fluffing the ragtag pac...And yet years of the press fluffing the ragtag pack of Maoists, Greens, Brownshirts, and other assorted malcontents into the anti-war conscience of the nation had absolutely no effect on our ability to win in either Iraq or Afghanistan.Rob Crawfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03010767328260010949noreply@blogger.com