Why the American War on Terror is Failing Miserably

Personally I thought your article should have remained as an iLog since you totally missed the point as to why the War on Terror is failing. I'll simply repeat what I said in your iLog here:


These books are meant for the worker ants who are meant to "understand" the issue only enough to be able to carry out some function. Ask them for what they know and Donald Rumsfeld would respond with what is a typically cryptic and evasive answer, i.e. "known unknowns & unknown knowns, none of which can be known by those who don't already know...its national security"

Don't ya love that Orwellian double-triple-quadruple-multi-speak?

Similarly, none of information that they put out is actually what it is supposed to be...it all follows that same multi-speak pathology of theirs. At the bottom of this insane system probably lies a sick ideology not very different from Hitlers Aryanism or the Zionist Chosen people bullshit....or even some twisted Christian Rapture fantasy.

I should add:

"At the bottom of this insane system probably lies a sick ideology not very different from Hitlers Aryanism or the Zionist Chosen people bullshit....or even some twisted Christian Rapture fantasy." These ridiculous ideologies which actually are a REAL and MAJOR force in the US have married with the military/Industrial complex to create a special interest group that thrives on war and has the grass roots following of millions of misguided Americans who either expect the Rapture, believe that God gave Palestine to the Jews, that Muslims are Gog and Magog, and the capitalist ones among them benefit financially while the Zionists among them enjoy their benefits. Its a win win situation for these nut jobs and they've got a good racket going.

inshallah, we will win this war - we have to stay the course and rachet up the pressure on the hajooj and the mahjooj who are licking at the salt walls of civilization ..... hearts and minds can be won once their heads and legs have been broken .....

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — A new and classified American military proposal outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against an expanding militancy, American military officials said.

If adopted, the proposal would join elements of a shift in strategy that would also be likely to expand the presence of American military trainers in Pakistan, directly finance a separate tribal paramilitary force that until now has proved largely ineffective and pay militias that agreed to fight Al Qaeda and foreign extremists, officials said. The United States now has only about 50 troops in Pakistan, a Pentagon spokesman said, a force that could grow by dozens under the new approach.

The proposal is modeled in part on a similar effort by American forces in Anbar Province in Iraq that has been hailed as a great success in fighting foreign insurgents there. But it raises the question of whether such partnerships, to be forged in this case by Pakistani troops backed by the United States, can be made without a significant American military presence in Pakistan. And it is unclear whether enough support can be found among the tribes, some of which are working with Pakistan's intelligence agency.

who says the war is failing ? .......the civilized world cannot afford to fail ... and it will fail only if we listen to whimy democrats and girly commies :

BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 — The American military said Sunday that the weekly number of attacks in Iraq had fallen to the lowest level since just before the February 2006 bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra, an event commonly used as a benchmark for the country’s worst spasm of bloodletting after the American invasion nearly five years ago.

Data released at a news conference in Baghdad showed that attacks had declined to the lowest level since January 2006. It is the third week in a row that attacks have been at this reduced level.

hamidm2,

Is it true the kanjars are negotiating with, of all people, Mullah Sufi Muhammad, to come out of jail and save their sorry asses in Swat?

Slowly but surely this war on terror is being won, just as the cold war against communism was won, but I think the greatest threat against the west is china and India economically, slowly but surely economic power is shifting to the east. In the bigger scheme of things that will have a far reaching impact on western prosperity than a bunch bearded fundos.

Re: # 5

zeemax,

.... i am afraid you are right ..... it seems that the paki fauj would rather make cereal, sugar and cement instead of doing what they are supposed to do .... it also seems that a lot of people have bought into this concept that these barbarians are 'our people' and that it is somehow not right to kill this vermin ..... they will be sorry ...... you have to kill the serpent in the egg (hence i advocate bombing madrassas) and if you have the serpent, you don't let him go ...... fools! ... they think they can buy peace - thats what the poor people of mecca and the jews of khyber thought!

...... and i wil put my money where my mouth is - i am willing to pay up to 5% extra in federal taxes to expand guantanamo ........

Many U.S citizens understand this security and boogy of terrorism just a ploy as pak keeps 'daraoing 'against India (Hindu)naive paki citizens to rule over them

Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year


Army Desertion Rate Highest Since 1980
By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year.

"We're asking a lot of soldiers these days," said Roy Wallace, director of plans and resources for Army personnel. "They're humans. They have all sorts of issues back home and other places like that. So, I'm sure it has to do with the stress of being a soldier."

The Army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for longer than 30 days. The soldier is then discharged as a deserter.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year,
********************************************

compared to 3,301 last year.

The increase comes as the Army continues to bear the brunt of the war demands with many soldiers serving repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military leaders — including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey — have acknowledged that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the combat. Efforts are under way to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to lessen the burden and give troops more time off between deployments.

"We have been concentrating on this," said Wallace. "The Army can't afford to throw away good people. We have got to work with those individuals and try to help them become good soldiers."

Still, he noted that "the military is not for everybody, not everybody can be a soldier." And those who want to leave the service will find a way to do it, he said.

While the Army does not have an up-to-date profile of deserters, more than 75 percent of them are soldiers in their first term of enlistment. And most are male.

Soldiers can sign on initially for two to six years. Wallace said he did not know whether deserters were more likely to be those who enlisted for a short or long tour.

At the same time, he said that even as desertions have increased, the Army has seen some overall success in keeping first-term soldiers in the service.

There are four main ways that soldiers can leave the Army before their first enlistment contract is up:

_They are determined unable to meet physical fitness requirements.

_They are found to be unable to adapt to the military.

_They say they are gay and are required to leave under the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

_They go AWOL.

According to Wallace, in the summer of 2005, more than 18 percent of the soldiers in their first six months of service left under one of those four provisions. In June 2007, that number had dropped to about 7 percent.

The decline, he said, is largely due to a drop in the number of soldiers who leave due to physical fitness or health reasons.

Army desertion rates have fluctuated since the Vietnam War — when they peaked at 5 percent. In the 1970s they hovered between 1 and 3 percent, which is up to three out of every 100 soldiers. Those rates plunged in the 1980s and early 1990s to between 2 and 3 out of every 1,000 soldiers.

Desertions began to creep up in the late 1990s into the turn of the century, when the U.S. conducted an air war in Kosovo and later sent peacekeeping troops there.

The numbers declined in 2003 and 2004, in the early years of the Iraq war, but then began to increase steadily.

In contrast, the Navy has seen a steady decline in deserters since 2001, going from 3,665 that year to 1,129 in 2007.

The Marine Corps, meanwhile, has seen the number of deserters stay fairly stable over that timeframe — with about 1,000 deserters a year. During 2003 and 2004 — the first two years of the Iraq war — the number of deserters fell to 877 and 744, respectively.

The Air Force can tout the fewest number of deserters — with no more than 56 bolting in each of the past five years. The low was in fiscal 2007, with just 16 deserters.

Despite the continued increase in Army desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they find. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges.

"My personal opinion is the only way to stop desertions is to change the climate ... how they are living and doing what they need to do," said Wallace, adding that good officers and more attention from Army leaders could "go a long way to stemming desertions."

Unlike those in the Vietnam era, deserters from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars may not find Canada a safe haven.

Just this week, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the appeals of two Army deserters who sought refugee status to avoid the war in Iraq. The ruling left them without a legal basis to stay in Canada and dealt a blow to other Americans in similar circumstances.

The court, as is usual, did not provide a reason for the decision.

On the Net:
U.S. Army: http://www.us.army.mil
U.S. Navy: http://www.navy.mil
U.S. Air Force: http://www.af.mil
U.S. Marines: http://www.usmc.mil




http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hMo0Si7IM8WtlS57Bg2JhmmVamQgD8SV0VQ00

Aslam bhai,

The economic growth of China, India and in due course other countries like Indonesia, Brazil and the rest will increase the relative economic power of these nations without adversely impacting the developed countries. For instance China's growth may have resulted in destruction of lots of low end jobs in USA but at the same time has resulted in cehaper goods which enables Americans to maintain a higher standard of living.

Regards

zeemax,

you and i will never agree on how to exterminate vermin, but we do agree on nawaz sharif ....... so here is a more important question: will he cut a deal with mushy in saudi arabia tomorrow?

....... i hope not - the man should take a stand and refuse to enter into any sort of negotiations .... if he does that he will force the other parties to take a stand also and the dictator will be gone in no time ........ even if the other fools decide to take part in the so-called elections, the lori-langri government won't last and they will loose all credibility with the people ...... nawaz sharif will come out smelling like roses either way ...... no?

Re: # 9

Array Majumdar bhai,\

Job agar nahi hoga, to living standard kaise uuncha hoga?

Shishapa,

There is no evidence to suggest that the average living standard of Americans has fallen. I guess many of those who have lost low end jobs would have migrated to better paying jobs.

Regards

Re: # 9
Majumdar
It not as simple has that, you’ve only to look at the tussle between boeing and airbus to see where we are heading with India and china.

More later got to go

Aslam bhai,

Thanks to the economic growth of India and China it means that more Injuns and Chinks can afford to fly. Which means more orders to Beoing and Airbus. Means more jobs. So it may not necesarily be a zero sum game between the Goras and the rest.

Regards

#10 Posted by hamidm2,

Sorry hamidm ... Nawaz may or may not agree (actually I think he won't even meet him), but this game is now beyond politics. The politicians can bicker and quarrel, emergency or no emergency, martial-law or no martial-law, Mullah Faqir said he doesn't give a damn and it makes no difference to them.

So I'm sorry, this is a full-fledged war now and you started it on 10th of July 2007 at Jamia Hafsa. Remember I predicted this? But I'm not gonna say "I told you so!" :)

unless the army on its own, or the army under BiBi (which is the option I think preferred by the army itself and the US) drops tons of daisy-cutters or its equivalents.....the jawans will turn colour and become tribesmen....

BiBi has made the deal! Unless she gets cold feet, this is the way it might pan out