“The United States Conference of Mayors calls on the U.S. Congress to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy,” the resolution said, noting that the United States pays $126 billion a year to support the wars that have killed more than 6,000 U.S. troops.
Yet I have to wonder what happened to the money from the stimulus bill. Because according to Rethink Afghanistan spending one Trillion dollars in one year was not enough.
And here’s the big picture: “Local governments shed 28,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labor reported, and have lost 446,000 jobs since employment peaked in September 2008.”
These wars are killing our people, they’re killing our economy and they’re killing our communities. They’re not worth the costs. They’ve got to end.
Or perhaps it as more to do with what happened in shortly after September of 2008. Now what could that be?
ADDED Sporkmaster: Oh and guess who have been helping behind the scenes.
So once again Rethink Afghanistan is playing willful ignorance in there newest statement.
In addition, over the past few years, U.S. forces have killed or captured dozens of significant al Qaeda leaders. Then, on May 2, 2011, American Special Forces acting under your direction located and killed Osama bin Laden. The death of the founder of al Qaeda is a major blow that further weakens the terrorist organization.
But wait, this is the organization that decried the operations of Special Forces in Afghanistan not long ago. Even coming out and saying that the Special Operations in Afghanistan were the cause of increased civilian deaths. Also claiming that the missions done by the Special Forces like the one that eliminated Osama were not having any effect what so ever and should be done away with.
Back in March, British Maj. Gen. Richard Barrons, a member of Petraeus’ staff, estimated that there were 900 leaders at all levels and 25-36,000 fighters in the entire Afghan Taliban. Petraeus is claiming that special forces alone have removed from combat 26% of the leadership and roughly 10% of the fighters within just three short months.
That claim begs a bunch of questions – not least of which is: “how can it possibly be true?” If that level of attrition happened to the US military it would likely be disrupted, unable to continue fighting. Yet even Petraeus admits that spec-ops forces have not yet reversed the Taliban’s momentum.
But if it were true, we’d have to ask what the hell Generals McChrystal, McKiernan and McNeill had been doing during their times in command of US forces in Afghanistan in the preceding eight years.
Then we’d have to ask about just how fast the Afghan Taliban can regenerate its leadership and fighting cadre, as well as how large it’s recruiting pool is – i.e. how fast can the Taliban recover its losses.
And we’d have to ask whether the large number of civilian casualties caused by special forces raids – including the likes of shooting pregnant women – contribute to that regeneration to the extent of rendering any figures Petraeus is touting about Taliban attrition meaningless.
But the second they have to acknowledge the success of the of the operation to take down Osama it is a complete change as listed above.
Mr. President, according to our own intelligence officials, al Qaeda no longer has a large presence in Afghanistan, and, as the strike against bin Laden demonstrated, we have the capacity to confront our terrorist enemies with a dramatically smaller footprint. The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan.
Yep considering all the previous above the Death of Obama has caused a instant conversion. You know the same people that they posted a video of here.
But wait it gets better. Here is a quick summery of there next statement Because of the corruption in Afghanistan any effort to help rebuild Afghanistan will fail. So it is in the interest that this effort should be done by the same people we view as the reason for the corruption. Don’t believe me read further.
Endemic corruption in Afghanistan diverts resources intended to build roads, schools, and clinics, and some of these funds end up in the hands of the insurgents. Appointments of provincial and local officials on the basis of personal alliances and graft leads to deep mistrust by the Afghan population. While it is a laudable objective to attempt to build new civic institutions in Afghanistan, this goal does not justify the loss of American lives or the investment of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Instead of continuing to be embroiled in ancient local and regional conflicts in Afghanistan, we must accelerate the transfer of responsibility for Afghanistan’s development to the Afghan people and their government.
Oh and when they say they want all the troops out, they really do not mean that.
We should maintain our capacity to eliminate any new terrorist threats, continue to train the Afghan National Security Forces, and maintain our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. However, these objectives do not require the presence of over 100,000 American troops engaged in intensive combat operations.
So again all does not really equal all. It is like they are intentionally trying to have the events during the fall of Saigon repeated. Also I would really like to know what numbers game they are playing as far as how many troops are needed to perform all of these jobs. Not to mention that the Taliban and al Qaeda can and has infiltrated the Afghan Police and Army. The same people that would be replacing the use troops that are being used for base defense because of the draw down you are demanding.
Is there anyone here that would you rather trust your safety to a fellow service member or to a local national? Yea thought so, but hey it is easy to go along with that when your not the one that has to stay behind.
We urge you to follow through on the pledge you made to the American people to begin the redeployment of U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer, and to do so in a manner that is sizable and sustained, and includes combat troops as well as logistical and support forces.
Yea because nothings is impossible to the person(s) that does not have to do it. Then they wonder why they are regularly ignored.
None of our regulars will find anything new in this video from Matthis Lies, but it pulls together much of what we told you about on this blog over the last three years into a single video.
Matthis Lies has done an excellent job of encapsulating our complaints and laying out the case against Matthis into a twelve minute video. This is something we can send to people who’ve never heard of him and make them aware of who he really is and who he associates with.
Someone who calls themselves “Matthis Lies” sent us these two videos that they made;
They tell me that there’s more videos coming. These are just rudimentary and I’m not sure who this Matthis Lies is, but i do know that they’re close to Matthis and they are not right wing, but Matthis thinks so and he has his panties in a bunch;
It’s just my ninjas doing the job they enjoy most.
So I was tooling around the internet today and stumbled on this blog entitled “Left Coast Voices” by clicking on a link about how this lone hippie on the West Coast happened to come upon a former soldier in his local coffee haunt. The soldier happened to have a sticker on his laptop that read “Veteran Against Iraq War” so this particular hippie ventured to start a conversation with the soldier.
Of course, the soldier wanted to make sure that the hippie wasn’t an undercover government agent – you the kinds that are trolling coffee haunts for disgruntled former soldiers – there are millions of them out there, ya know. Because no veterans are allowed to speak out against the government.
That’s what made me suspicious of this particular tale told by an idiot.
But what solidified my doubts were these two lines;
I asked him if all Iraqis that he met felt this way [didn’t want US forces in Iraq] and he replied no. There are many who see teh [sic] US army as teh [sic] only things standing against the Taliban.
Yeah, because the Taliban is such a HUGE problem for Iraqis. I’ll bet those Taliban in Iraq are just waiting to get back at regular Iraqis for hanging Saddam Hussein, their leader.
But, see, it doesn’t matter that this particular soldier made such a HUGE mistake (I mean, anyone who had actually been in Iraq would know there are no Taliban in Iraq, right?), he said things that the jerry Garcia tie wearing toad wanted to hear;
…the reason the US was so involved in Iraq had to do with oil. He mentioned other countries that are suffering from violence and oppressive regimes to whom we are giving little more than lip service.
There, see that gives him legitimacy – the war is for oil, and this soldier said it, so he must be the real deal. The same goes for the organization Iraq Veterans Against the War. It doesn’t matter that they’re not really Iraq War veterans, as long as they reinforce what the anti-war creeps want to believe while they wear remnants of some uniform, whether it was their uniform or not…well, that’s all that matters.
I know there must be some Philadelphia tax payers in this crowd that are upset that a phony Afghanistan veteran and admitted rapist is lying to your kids in the schools that you fund.
He still claims he is an Afghanistan veteran. In this video, he claims he “trained up” for his six days at the Bagram Baskin Robbins. He tells the kids that soldiers are trained to shoot civilians.
He spews out statistics about 1 in 3 women being sexually assaulted while they’re in the military. 1 in 5 men are sexually assaulted during their terms. He gets those figures from a study that sent out hundreds of thousands of surveys and got only few thousand surveys back. One third of the women and 20% of the men who responded claimed to have been sexually assaulted. Not a very scientific survey.
According to Matthis, 1 in 4 homeless people in NYC are veterans and veterans are the largest demographic among the homeless. More accurately, more homeless claim to be veterans than they claim to be from any other demographic. Most of the homeless veterans I’ve talked to wouldn’t know an M16 from an E-tool.
And you’re all drug-adled sociopaths teetering on the edge of suicide like him.
The School District of Philadelphia
440 N. Broad Street
Philadelphia PA 19130
215-400-4000
I’m not really surprised that VoteVets sans Jon Soltz continues to press for a cut and run from Iraq agenda. What does surprise me is their reasoning. Emphasis is mine;
“The attacks this morning in Iraq, which tragically killed five US Service Members, are a stark reminder that no matter what, combat in Iraq is not at an end. The rise in violence comes as remaining insurgents try to dissuade Iraq’s government from requesting that US Forces stay past the year-end Status of Forces Agreement deadline. The attacks emphasize what VoteVets has been saying for some time – as long as US Forces remain in Iraq, there will be no end to violent attacks against them. President Obama should honor the Status of Forces Agreement, and affirm to Prime Minister Maliki that all US troops will be returning home, as planned.”
First of all, I’m pretty sure that the families of those five casualties don’t appreciate “the largest progressive group of veterans in America” standing on their sons’, husbands’ and fathers’ corpses to promote their MoveOn agenda. Secondly, cutting and running from Iraq will make their sacrifice null and void.
The attacks on US troops are miniscule compared to the attacks on Iraqi citizens and the attacks are meant to scare Iraqis and Americans into doing what the terrorists want. So is VoteVets saying that they want to concede to the terrorists’ demands?
The Iraq Veterans Against the War have begun their campaign called “Operation Recovery” which has as it’s goal the prevention of the Army commanders to deploy “wounded” soldiers. One of my ninjas sent us this link from Aaron Hughes;
Through out this work it has been clear that Ft. Hood stands out as the worst abuser of service members right to heal. Operation Recovery has deployed to Ft. Hood to hold III Corps and Fort Hood Commander Lt. Gen. Campbell accountable for every Ft. Hood soldier that commits suicide, is sexual assaulted, or deployed with MST, PTSD, or TBI. Get the facts.
After requesting to meet with Gen. Campbell for over a month through certified mail and through email (to including the hundreds of emails members and supporters have sent to bring attention to our request) we were ignored. Wednesday in our attempt to not be ignored the Operation Recovery Team went to Third Corps office to meet with Gen. Campbell and deliver our demands to respect service members right to heal. We were ignored again by the General and forced to deliver our letter to an aid. Read more about the teams attempt to meet with Gen. Campbell here.
Here’s a video of their delivery of the letter to Fort Hood Headquarters. You’ll want to turn your speakers down;
Their “demands’;
Imagine that. A general refused to listen to IVAW’s demands. Aren’t generals charged with responding to every group of malcontents who wanders up to the main gate of their command? And he won’t speak with some random dorks off the street who arrive unannounced.
Someone please explain to me what would be the use of deploying soldiers to war who aren’t able to perform their mission? Ya know back during the civil war, that might make sense when soldiers were tossed into the meat grinder of combat, but now it’s senseless.
I guess soon the IVAW will be making demands of This Ain’t Hell, too. in another link, I’m the big meany who can’t give Victor Agosto a compassionate break;
Soldiers are incredibly loyal to each other. They’ll help each other and their families through the stress of multiple deployments. When soldiers refuse to deploy, they discover the other side of this community. All that brotherly love can turn to wrath. On the military blog This Ain’t Hell, combat veteran Jonn Lilyea called Agosto the “coward of the month.” Upon Agosto’s release, Lilyea suggested, “Now that Agosto is out of prison, he can go anywhere he wants. I urge him to go to a country that doesn’t embarrass him quite so much.” Other comments on This Ain’t Hell and other blogs can’t be reprinted here.
Well, at least they spelled my name right and mentioned the fact that I’m a combat veteran.
What happened to Agosto’s loyalty? He abandoned his workmates and someone else had to take his place on the line – the job has to be done, and it doesn’t matter who does it. I wonder if the guy they sent to take Agosto’s place was one of those soldiers who was wounded and needed time to recover?
