I think the thing that drives me utterly batshit crazy about stuff like this is that "we" - our expeditionary forces and the foreign policy staffs that are supposed to be in charge of them - never seem to get how punitive these "mistakes" are. We seem to have so completely lost sight of the strategic and geopolitical goals for the tactical minutiae that we seem to think that we can just lie and deny and roll past them and if we do the locals will forget the way the U.S. public does.
I don't know...maybe the U.S. public is the target for all this lie-and-deny. It seems pretty pointless to try and fool the locals; I mean, when bombs fall on your head and birds and your foreign occupiers' aircraft are the only ones in the sky...who's responsible? It ain't rocket science.
We've been doing this shit for twelve years now. The mantra after Vietnam was that we wouldn't do the whole "one year twelve times" thing that produced the condition called "CRS Syndrome". But it seems like we haven't learned anything. We still can't remember shit like "the only worse thing than bombing people you're supposed to be fighting alongside/for is bombing them and leaving some alive to tell the tale."
We Are STILL So Fucked.
4 comments:
Well, it is clear that nobody in the US government cares at all about Afghan public opinion. Never have, never will.
So, these statements are being produced for domestic consumption.
I guess they figure that they can bully their way through.
They *do* get help from the bastions of American news reporting.
see this
That's my guess, too, Ael; that the lies are to put the U.S. public on hold long enough for the news cycle to move on and the sheeple to forget. I personally think that the military PAO guys overestimate the degree to which the public gives a shit.
My problem is that this sort of stuff keeps the local pot boiling...I talked about this on a post years ago; smart occupiers take one of their own out and shoot them to appease the locals. Doesn't even matter if it's the RIGHT someone. Somebody just needs to hang to convince the locals you care.
The alternative, of course, is to go completely Roman - let them hate me so long as they fear me - and just rule by force and fear. We don't have anywhere near enough people incountry to do that.
The thing is, they don't care about the soldier's opinion either.
So, it doesn't matter if the pot keeps boiling.
In fact, it is probably more profitable that way.
This isn't an attempt to grow the empire and be more powerful. There is *nothing* in Afghanistan worth the blood and treasure.
Not even close.
It is simply a way to extract cash from the American taxpayer.
Having things go boom (comfortably far away of course) shows just how important to keep the national "defense" spigot flowing.
We are so fucked that I wonder why I don't have a two-pack a day cigarette habit yet!
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