No degree of spin can change these facts — then again, for progressives, truth is like sunlight on a vampire.
As Written By Allen B. West:
Failure, simply put, is when you set certain goals, and do not achieve them. That’s what we are facing when it comes to the foreign policy and national security strategy of one Barack Obama.
Here’s the pie in the sky, world of rainbows and unicorns individual who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because some special kind of stupid folks embrace the philosophy of the participation trophy. And so came the soaring rhetoric and flashy smile that was supposed to just overpower the despots, dictators and deranged theocrats. Obama believed if he commanded it to be so, then it would be so — you know, now is the time that the seas stopped rising stuff.
Well, reality set in and Barack Obama has come to realize that the enemy has a vote, and they did not get his memo.
As reported by the LA Times, “President Obama will hand off the 15-year-old war in Afghanistan to a third president, he said Wednesday, acknowledging that he will fall short of his campaign-era promise to extract the U.S. from punishing ground wars overseas.
In announcing that he will leave 8,400 military personnel in Afghanistan through the end of his presidency, Obama backed off his pledge to reduce the U.S. presence there to embassy staff and accompanying security forces by the end of the year. Taliban fighters running roughshod over the impaired Afghan military forced Obama’s hand.
“The security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious,” Obama said from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “Even as they improve, Afghan security forces are still not as strong as they need to be.”
The president vowed that the U.S. role would center on training and advising Afghan troops, and he emphasized the military’s shrunken footprint in Afghanistan, down from a high of more than 100,000 troops early in his administration.
“Even as we’ve maintained a relentless case against those who are threatening us, we are no longer engaged in a major ground war in Afghanistan,” Obama said. His decision reflects his limited ability to influence the sobering reality in Afghanistan after he declared an end to U.S. combat there in 2014.
Afghan forces, riddled with complacency and corruption since their inception and taking orders from a fragile and fractured government, lack intelligence-gathering and air power capabilities to ward off attacks. The Taliban controls more territory than it has since the U.S.-led invasion there began in 2001, according to U.N. estimates. The economy in the country, already one of the world’s poorest, has suffered as the tens of thousands of U.S. troops and the sprawling infrastructure sustaining them has disappeared.”
In other words, to borrow terminology and references from the progressive socialist left and Obama — the next president will inherit a global mess. And I can tell you that 8,400 troops on the ground means little.
I suppose some of you feel that’s some magnanimous number. But here is battlefield calculus: for every one “trigger puller” who is downrange, there are a minimum of 3-4 logistical support troops. Now, if that be the case, we actually have just a little over 2,100 combat troops to engage the enemy. If you’re conducting offensive operations, the ratio for success is 3:1. So I guess there are only around 700 Taliban operating in Afghanistan, since we may only have 2,100 combat troops deployed. And please, spare me the “we are no longer engaged in major ground war in Afghanistan.”
If you’re on the ground and someone is shooting at you, trust me, that’s major.
Obama is about to turn over to the next president an Afghanistan that’s gone backwards under his watch, just like Iraq — heck, just like the economy. No degree of spin can change those facts — then again, for progressives, truth is like sunlight on a vampire.
So where do we go from here? First of all, nothing is going to be done in Obama’s final 6 months. The rules of engagement will remain nebulous and advantageous to the enemy. The enemy will continue to strengthen themselves in their respective sanctuaries — inside Afghanistan and in Pakistan. And the lack of a focused pressure means that ISIS will establish themselves in that combat theater of operations. Further, since Afghanistan shares a border with Iran, expect their influences as well.
Look, no more “nation-building.” This is about strike operations, sending our troops in and going after the enemy, wherever they seek to assemble. We are not looking to occupy terrain except for the time it takes to crush the enemy in a specified zone. We have to show to the Afghans we’re serious — they are after all a serious warrior culture, and only comprehend strength and might — not
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Whoa: Obama just made a STUNNING admission about his presidency – Allen B. West – AllenBWest.com