The Unholy Afghanistan/Iraq Wars

Preface: I have been sidelined for the last few days, but now I'm back. I return writing about something that has me greatly frustrated and disturbed. I know, I know, there is a lot going on in America to be disturbed about, but this war in Afghanistan is for me a difficult pill to continue to swallow day after day, month after month, and year after year knowing there is nothing of substance being accomplished. I know that most all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, and Marines serving in this war are as willing to serve as any American warrior in any other historical war has ever been. 


I see and read reports of many soldiers who say they feel like something good is being accomplished. Many return from one tour to serve in another and sometimes yet another. They do so because either they volunteer to, or because their country asks them to once again bite the bullet and return to a hell on earth. I am proud of each man and woman who puts on a military uniform, and particularly those wear their uniform in a combat theater.  It is my deep regret our politicians have subjected so many to such long wars with so little accomplished. It is clear to me we as a country have been doing a terribly wrong thing by fighting these wars, and therefore, I have submitted more than once a post on the subject. 


Once again I will attempt to drive home the point, to any one who might be so inclined to read this post, how wrong both the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars have been. Basically, what I have written in this post is from the heart. I do not use statistics. I do use pictures and videos. Most Americans have heard and read the statistics accounting for the dead and injured. We all have an idea what the war has cost our country in dollars. We know the cost has been far more than anyone initially believed would ever be spent, but yet for some mysterious reason there is very little cry of decent, very little pressure put on government leaders to bring an end to the losses America has squandered over the last decade, and continue to loose every single day. 

The Unholy Afghanistan/Iraq Wars

Obamacare, Supreme Court, Trayvon Martin, European Financial Collapse, Israel Nuking Iran, Syrian Civil War, New Orleans Saints' Bounty Scandal, Teabow Goes to New York, and of course the Republican Nomination Fiasco all seem to occupy most of the news media most of the time. But the Afghanistan War (a botched war; a heartbreaking American story) gets precious little press. 

Ongoing tragic American casualties of war and the financial cost paid by the United States Treasury far exceed all the other headline stories put together. This unjust war should be the lead story everyday on every radio and TV news broadcast, and in every daily American newspaper. The American people should be continually informed about the everyday high cost of the war, and what the running total costs have been since the war began. If the American taxpayers, mothers, fathers, spouses, children, etc. were brought face to face with these gruesome facts, the politicians would soon be forced to bring an end to this military madness. A madness perpetuated for the purpose of defending one group of muslims from another group of muslims. A madness that enables the ongoing production of the world’s largest opium cash crop. The opium crop continuing to fuel an illegal drug trade, that continues to be a major source of a narcotics worldwide supply responsible for millions of life long addictions. This war accomplishes nothing more than promoting the destruction of millions of lives throughout the Western world, and it makes no sense.

Initially, Americans were told the United States' military mission was to invade Afghanistan for the purpose of capturing or killing al-Quida, including Osama Bin Laden, and to remove the Taliban from political power. Early on the mission, except for the catching of Bin Laden, was accomplished with a minimum loss of life and a very low financial cost, as far as war costs go. But then, for whatever reason, instead of declaring victory, Bush decided to put the Afghanistan War on the back burner to simmer, and ordered the American military to invade Iraq. Unfortunately, just as with the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War became another war fought with a military mission not in any way designed to end with an American military victory. As a result, America once again added to a long list of sad stories scattered throughout American military history since the end of World War II.

After the first 100 days of the Iraqi War it became obvious United States politicians did not have the desire, the will or the strategy to fight this war to end in victory. Ultimately, the war became a war geared towards winning over the hearts and minds of a muslim population who will never have a desire to side with America, nor American values. 

The lessons learned when the United States defeated both Germany and Japan, ending World War II, were purposely ignored throughout the Iraq war and (by the way) continue to be ignored in the war with Afghanistan. Instead, Bush determined in Iraq it was necessary to win the hearts and minds (which is never a winning strategy in any war) of the muslim people of Iraq. In doing so his decision heaped enormousness costs on the American economy. These costs in both lives and dollars were ultimately far, far more than anyone could have ever imagined.

Other than capturing Saddam Hussein, everything needed to secure a coalition victory in Iraq was accomplished in the first 100 days of the war. After that, every shot fired, every battle fought, every life lost, every American who returned home with profound life altering injuries, and every dollar spent accomplished very little. The major cost of the Iraqi War was a waist of billions of dollars, and a waste of lives (both in death and in unbelievable life altering injuries). 

The Iraqi War finally ended, not in victory, but ended just the same in December of 2011. The United States military forces were then pulled out of Iraq, and transferred to Afghanistan. The Afghanistan War was resurrected, and once again moved to the front burner.

No right thinking individual can possibly believe the resulting Iraqi government, once left to fiend for themselves, will have the wherewithal to prevent another oppressive government from coming into power. It is just a matter of time when another dictatorial government will rise up from within Iraq itself, or more likely become a puppet government controlled by the islamic totalitarian Iranian regime. 

No matter how the politicians spin it, the “victory” in Afghanistan will be no different than the so called "victory" in Iraq. Once all coalition soldiers leave Afghanistan there will be other evil and ruthless men driven by an evil islamic ideology who will assume both military and political power, and the cycle of war and oppression will continue just as it has for several decades.

The Afghani leadership recently made it clear they want all coalition forces out of their country ASAP, and that is exactly what the United States should do. The US should immediately reassign all troops and civilian personal back to a stateside American military base. After that, when the first sign of islamic activity raises its ugly head with intentions to cause harm to America, the US should without apology use whatever fire power needed to completely destroy every evil force imposing the threat, and do so in a very short period of time. America has, without question, all the fire power capabilities necessary to kill, capture and destroy any enemy.

Any president, Republican, Democrat or otherwise does not deserve to be the Commander-In-Chief if they are not prepared or purposed to win a military fight with whatever deadliest force required to end the fight as quickly as possible . Any president who makes an unethical decision to put military men and women in harms way should be impeached, when the enemy can just as easily be destroyed by the technological fire power capabilities possessed by the United States military. Wars are should always be fought to kill the enemy, destroy the enemy's assets, and win a decisive victory. Wars are never won when armies unnecessarily place their own military personal in danger in an effort to some how placate the enemy or prevent collateral damage to the enemy. If an enemy is worth going to war with, the enemy are worth killing, worth killing as quickly as possible, and worth destroying every military capability in their arsenal.

A strong case should have been made to charge Presidents Johnson and Nixon with war crimes for allowing the loss of 50,000 lives suffered by the United States military during the Viet Nam war. Likewise, Presidents Bush and Obama should be tried for war crimes that have resulted all the American lives lost fighting in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The lives lost and injured in the three wars mentioned above are as immoral an act as any act ever condoned by any American government. 

Winning of hearts and minds of an enemy should never be a considered a strategy in conducting military missions involving actual combat. America needs leaders who are willing to accept the responsibility to forcefully defend America and all that America stands for. A commander should always error on the side of protecting the lives of the men and women serving in the military he commands. Saving the lives of the enemy is of little importance, when your own fighters are in danger.

The argument for minimizing civilian casualties in both Afghanistan and in Iraq comes from a misguided sense of protecting the innocent. The enemy is never innocent. Shortly after the 9/11 attack, George Bush initially proposed to the world that any individual or government not supporting America in the war on terror would absolutely be considered an enemy of the United States. Had the President followed through with that fundamental policy, both wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan would have by now been nothing more than past events studied by history students all around the world.

Civilian Americans who safely go about their daily lives not comprehending what it means to experience a typical fire fight, or a fear of becoming a mangled body so often experienced by the combat military men and women everyday in Afghanistan. If the American people were to make a serious effort to become as informed as possible, the demand to fight wars using completely different strategies, and totally different tactics than what have been used in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reflect for a moment on the soldier or Marine laying on the ground at this very moment, with parts of his or her body blown into pieces and scattered over a large surrounding area, not knowing if he or she is going to live or die. Think about the soldier or Marine who is right now putting his or her own life in great jeopardy in an effort to save the life or lives of their fellow combatants. Think about these men and women thrown into this fight by politicians and high ranking military commanders for the single purpose of protecting one bunch of muslims from being attacked by another bunch of muslims. 

There are no innocent parties in either bunch of muslims. They are both enemies of the United States. I am convinced all the blood of American soldiers spilled on muslim soil accomplishes nothing other than an extremely misguided attempt to foolishly prevent one evil Afghan muslim population from being destroyed by another evil Afghan muslim population. 

President Obama has said he plans to deploy the United States military out of Afghanistan, and will do so over the next several months; finally bringing the war to a conclusion sometime in 2013 or 2014. There is not one military mission left that can in any way be considered necessary for the purpose of providing security for the United States. A continued United States military presence in Afghanistan will accomplish nothing and only result in additional American military casualties; casualties in the form of lost lives, lost feet, lost legs, lost hands, lost arms, lost genitals, lost ears, lost eyes, and in the form of an unbelievable scarring of both bodies and minds that will forever haunt their lives and the lives of those back home who love them.

“We (the American citizen) are the “good” people who could put a stop to the unnecessary hell American military men and women suffer through everyday? Why do so many of us “good” people tolerate such horrific losses? How can so many “good” citizens continue to live their daily lives in comfort, security and in pursuit of their own personal pleasures, and yet allow their military men and women sacrifice all?  And for what; for the foolishness of a stupid war that in no way is needed to protect the liberty and freedom enjoyed by all other United States "good" Americans. 

It is the “good” people of America who will someday be held accountable for the growing evil they continue to tolerate. Evils such as allowing prayer to be removed from the public schools, allowing islam to run rampant in our society, allowing daily abortions killing innocent young children, allowing homosexual marriages, allowing the government to wage a  hideously foolish war on drugs, allowing an unbridled government to sensuously spend the nation's wealth, allowing a government to concoct regulations which increasingly strangle American productivity, allowing depraved sexual immorality to be accepted as a social norm, and finally, allowing the terrible heartbreaking slaughter and mutilation of  America's finest young men and women. But I digress.

The following pictures tell part of the everyday story lived out by the United States military men and women in an evil and wicked land called Afghanistan.