Balls (or the lack thereof)

I've been quiet for a while. Maybe the meds are working. Except for a fairly significant melt down a couple of weeks back I've been maintaining an even keel. I got a rant published in the North East (Philadelphia)Times two weeks ago dealing with the thievery of Philadelphia City Council and the DROP program but nothing lately has really riled me. Until the last couple days.

One of the planks on Barack Obama's political platform as he ran for office last November dealt with the situation in Afghanistan. I agreed with Obama (imagine that!) when he said the United States had a legitimate reason to be fighting there, that we had a job to do that had been neglected by Bush's prosecution of the Iraq war and that the people responsible for the events of 9/11/01 were still there and still plotting terrible things. I also agreed with the President that we could not afford to allow Pakistan to fall to the Islamists and by defeating the Taliban and AlQaeda once and for all we could forestall that happening. For the record I agreed with all of this before my son, a Spec.4 in the US Army was sent to Afghanistan with his Army Engineer Batallion. I continued to agree with it when I learned he was going. I continued to agree with it once he got there, knowing full well the possibility of his not coming home - and I will continue to do so as long as I am convinced that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONGRESS AND THE ARMED FORCES CHIEFS continue to BELIEVE IN THE MISSION.

Right now that belief had been seriously undermined by the events of the past few days. Let's suppose you're driving and not sure of how to reach your destination. You stop and ask directions to Main Street. The good citizen supplying the directions would be justifiably pissed, if, after giving you the directions you argued with him over the route he supplied!
While still a candidate for President Obama stated he would end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home from there. He said all along, however, that he would do what ever was necessary to fulfill the mission in Afghanistan. Upon being elected President he fired the Army General who was in charge of the Afghan theatre. He appointed General McChrystal, a highly regarded and respected general who had come through the Army Special Forces ranks. Again. General McChrystal was Obama's hand picked man for the job. The general was given a mandate to survey the situation, identify what was being done right, what was being done wrong and to make the recommendations for what ever changes needed to be made to assure a positive outcome of the mission there. Again. This was Obama's HAND PICKED MAN. The guy Obama stopped to ask directions of so to speak.

Earlier this week General McChrystal's report to the President, which was supposed to remain secret, was "leaked" to the Washington Post and picked up with lightning speed by media outlets across the country. In a nutshell the general opined that the war in Afghanistan could easily be lost without a significant increase in troop strength and equipment. "Boots on the ground." He stated quite clearly that the mission could very easily become a failure. A failure. The outcome is by no means assured if the level of commitment to the mission remains at its present level. Naturally, President Obama immediately expressed his support for the general's assessment and advised that the nation would bring to bear all of its resources to do what ever was necessary to keep this from happening, right? W R O N G. Well, wouldn't it be easier if I went up to Elm Street and made the left? He asked for direction and now he doesn't like the answer he got. Neither does Senator Levin, Dem. Mich., the chair of the Armed Services Committee. He doesn't want to commit any more troops or money or equipment to the fight. Neither does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Dem. Calif. She's in the process of doing a major flip flop as well as a whole group of spineless, witless idiots (overwhelmingly Democrat) who are taking serious issue with the findings and recommendations of General McChrystal.

For the record. I don't give a rat's ass about the people or the country of Afghanistan. Its an underdeveloped, backwoods, third world, hell, fourth world, shit hole of a country mostly unfit for human habitation. Soldiers and Marines there have dealt with temperatures as high as 130 degrees to as low as minus 15 degrees. The people who live there, mostly primitive tribesman of cut throats and dope peddlers have known nothing but war and fighting for over a thousand years. If they don't have anyone to fight I doubt that they're happy. If the people supposedly running this country do not have any interest in continuing our mission there, then fine, I don't either, but if that is the case....THEN BRING OUR KIDS HOME RIGHT MOTHERFUCKING NOW!!! RIGHT NOW. Pack them up and get them the fuck out of that stone age shithole as fast as we can load the transports to do so. No more wasted time, money, equipment ......or lives. Right NOW.

That's one choice. The other is take General McChrystal at his word and give him what he says he needs to do the job that you, YOU, President Obama, told him to do. Its one or the other. Anything less is nothing but politics. Playing politics with the lives of thousands of brave men and women who have sacrificed to go there and do what you told them to do, Barack. What YOU told them to do. And now you're turning your back on them. You're telling them that politics is more important than the mission and its more important than their lives. And you're telling the American people that "change we can believe in" is the biggest pile of steaming, stinking bullshit that we've had crammed down our throats in a long time.
You need to grow some balls, Barack. One way or the other you need to show you have what it takes to either get the job done or bring our kids home. You haven't shown me too much lately but I'm still willing to give you the chance. But I'm not going to wait for long and neither are a lot of people like me who have sons and daughters and husbands and brothers and sisters thousands of miles away in a foreign shit hole sweating and hurting and dying because YOU, the President of The United States, has no BALLS.