Its okay guys.... Obama is sleeping on it over the weekend and will have a new plan on monday for afganistan. Time is not of the essence... He'll get back to us....
Ok, As much as I really hate to....I really have to comment here. If you want someone to blame, what about the administration that got us there and carried on a war with no exit strategy for 8 years. I have no desire to turn this in to a political debate and I fail to understand why issues like this always come back to finger pointing and blame at a single individual. Even before the current administration....do you really think that one individual makes ANY decisions? They are all backed up by many many political advisors as well as the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff. Can we please keep this discussion out of the political arena and focused on the issue at hand? I realize that the problem is the result of political agendas and will be resolved through politics, but simply blaming and placing responsibility on a single person makes no sense.
The issue is that Troops' morale is down - and I would venture to say it isn't just in Afghanistan, it is in Iraq and every theater right now. It is also not limited to the American military. I met plenty of Brits, Australians, Koreans, Italians, etc who wanted to go home just as badly.
Bottom line is that we are over committed. Too many deployments, too long, and too often. The Army in particular (along with any multinational long or medium range logistics supply units) has a tough job, which often involves being outside the wire on a daily basis. It is bad enough keeping that stress level going for a year long deployment - try doing it 4 times in a row. The article sums it up nicely:
Both surveys showed that soldiers on their third or fourth tours of duty had lower morale and more mental health problems than those with fewer deployments. And an increasing number of troops are having problems with their marriages.
It does of course all come down to a political issue, but quite frankly if ANYONE on this board, myself included, thinks that they have the answers and know the facts and has some grandiose plan for solving the problems in our multi-front wars, you are sorely mistaken. In fact, I would venture to say that unless you have sat in on a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Military advisors, Combatant Commander strategy planning, or NATO planning (or international unit equivalent), your sources of intelligence are relatively flawed. As obtrusive as they may be, the media still doesn't know everything and is generally so slanted that you really can't base anything except a one sided political opinion on what they say.
Raise your hand if you have a security clearance....Oh wait, I've got one and it isn't even CLOSE to being high enough to know all of the details and for me to think that I am capable or in a position to plan strategy. I want it to be over just as much as the next guy, but I trust my military and civilian senior leaders. Our leaders know the issues and morale is a major concern. Retention is down, enlistment is down, and morale is down, our leaders know this and are attempting to deal with the problem. It has been a problem for as long as there have been wars, this one is no different.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox - fire away....preferably within the confines of this topic.
