Afghanistan

#27
#27
Still well enough to get into grad school, but my heart is just not into college. I don't put forth the effort I should. I hate school.
 
#28
#28
BigPapaVol said:
You can go to OCS or enlist with a degree.
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NewToVolCountry said:
My degree will require grad school. Just seemed like the time to really focus on school work and get it out of the way.
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BigPapaVol said:
You just said you were doing poorly. How does that jibe with grad school?
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NewToVolCountry said:
Still well enough to get into grad school, but my heart is just not into college. I don't put forth the effort I should. I hate school.
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BPV, he hates school; he just hates the thought of fighting and dying for what he believes in more.
 
#29
#29
The sad part is that individuals like you (NTVC) vote for guys that continue to send "someone else" to war.

I have no problem when a Veteran or a current Servicemember votes for a Hawk. They have either already answered the call and fought or are currently doing so; both understand what it is to send individuals to war, because they are those individuals.

Persons like you, NTVC, who posture and say, "You bet your ass I would have signed up" and then find every excuse in the world not to go to the recruiting station and enlist have no right to vote to send anybody else to do your fighting for you. It makes me ill.
 
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#31
#31
therealUT said:
The sad part is that individuals like you (NTVC) vote for guys that continue to send "someone else" to war.

I have no problem when a Veteran or a current Servicemember votes for a Hawk. They have either already answered the call and fought or are currently doing so; both understand what it is to send individuals to war, because they are those individuals.

Persons like you, NTVC, who posture and say, "You bet your ass I would have signed up" and then find every excuse in the world not to go to the recruiting station and enlist have no right to vote to send anybody else to do your fighting for you. It makes me ill.
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Well said.
 
#34
#34
I don't think you can generalize me into a group of people based on the impression you receive here. But you are, and it makes you feel better, so, so be it.
 
#35
#35
NewToVolCountry said:
I don't think you can generalize me into a group of people based on the impression you receive here. But you are, and it makes you feel better, so, so be it.
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I have made an assessment based upon your statements. If telling yourself that you would have enlisted in 2001 if you were old enough but now you are busy with college even though the war is still being fought for something that you still believe in makes you sleep better at night, then good for you.

Oh, one more thing, go **** yourself.
 
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#36
#36
therealUT said:
I have made an assessment based upon your statements. If telling yourself that you would have enlisted in 2001 if you were old enough but now you are busy with college even though the war is still being fought for something that you still believe in makes you sleep better at night, then good for you.

Oh, one more thing, go **** yourself.
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Well, you made a fool of me at first and now you are making an ass out of yourself. I guess it's we are both used to so it should be no big deal.

You are one of those pretentious dickheads I've come to dislike so much.
 
#38
#38
NewToVolCountry said:
Well, you made a fool of me at first and now you are making an ass out of yourself. I guess it's we are both used to so it should be no big deal.

You are one of those pretentious dickheads I've come to dislike so much.
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Did you decide to major in psychology or are you keeping that as a minor? If the former, you might want to be honest with yourself first if you have any plans to be a psychologist.

That said, since you have already stated that you are not the best student, you might not end up being the best psychologist. The VA employs a lot of psychologists that are not the best.

When you make the mistake of trying to empathize with a Combat Veteran, make sure you respond to his anger and his frustration by stating that "you can bet your ass I would have been the first in line at the recruiting station had I been of age on September 11, 2001". That will go over well, particularly when you couple that with the statement that you were too busy with school ten years later to join the war effort in which you still believed. Of course, it does not mean anything, most of the time said Vets are only in your office as part of their mandated regimen from the psychiatrist in order to continue getting their Citalopram or Lexipro; such jackass statements just make that hour that much more uncomfortable for everyone.

Don't worry though, you would gladly sign up to fight and die for the cause you believe in if it were not for college, grad school, finding a job, building yourself a nest egg, making sure you are there with family for the major holidays, etc., etc.
 
#41
#41
We ought to rename this thread: "TRUT owning NEWT. The tragic story of a Zonetard wandering over into the Political Forum."
 
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#42
#42
PKT_VOL said:
We ought to rename this thread: "TRUT owning NEWT. The tragic story of a Zonetard wandering over into the Political Forum."
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this is why I spend more time reading in here and less time posting. By the time I decide what I think you quick whits have moved on. It sucks being old.


My Brother came home from Afghanistan the week before Vandy. Clearly I want the rest to come home as well. I can't decide why the hell we're over there.
 
#44
#44
sounds like Pakistan fired some missles over a ridge and landed in Afghanistan and an Apache helo or two saw where the missles were fired from and returned fire.
 
#46
#46
Doesn't much matter at this point if we stay any longer. The place is destined to pitfall into a full-fledged theocracy and terrorist haven either way.

BTW, this is coming from someone who's job is tied to us having a presence in Afghanistan. But practically, I just don't see a need for us to be there anymore. Basing in India can get us just about anywhere in the region we would need to be.
 
#47
#47
The excuse was to defeat Al Qaeda and punish the Taliban for not handing them over and for allowing them to train in their country. The reason we went and are still there is because we see it in our national interest to have influence in the region. Afghanistan gives us a spot from where we can influence events in Iran, Pakistan and all of Central Asia and their mineral and oil reserves.

The problem, as I see it, is we had this idea and then made some promises to keep us there post Taliban. But, as usual, we failed in the execution of those promises and the reality of the situation on the ground made us make changes in our approach that also affected those promises.

Some examples:

We promised to help the Afghan Government get formed and promised to help it be a viable, legitimate nation in the region. As part of that we promised to reform the Afghan Army into a force that could defend the country. We set the number at 70,000. . .but then dictated it would be only infantry. We decided after the fact that we would not provide armor or artillery or logistics or helicopters etc, just an Army of 70k Infantrymen. We can debate whether we should have made such a promise, but any fool could have predicted that the Russians would try to come in and peddle their stuff. Never-the-less, we were surprised when a Russian IL-76 landed in Dec 04 with a gift of Russian 1/4 tons Gaz trucks (like a jeep) and the promise of providing them with a helicopter fleet if they wanted it. Suddenly Rummy offered to provide a complete combined armed force, thus changing that part of the mission.

We promised to help the government reform and rid itself of corruption. But, the fact is they are so dirt poor that corruption is a way of life. Initially we placed Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) in strategic locations to help gain some influence in areas where we needed to root out the high level Talibs and Al Qaeda. For example, we put a PRT (along with an ODA) in Gardez to control/influence a key former Taliban area where we thought we would find a lot of former Taliban leaders and some of the key AQ. But this promise of helping them with the corruption then made it necessary to deploy more PRTs, put Infantry Companies out in forward operating bases around the country and increase the size of the force dramatically. Afghanistan has always had what we would call corruption but they would just call "doing business" and this is an impossible promise.

And really, the average Afghan doesn't really care. For most of the Pashtun's they are what we called Taliban Hillbillies. They do their thing in their village and are generally pretty peaceful, but when the Revenuers (i.e. Afghan or US Army) come to break up their still, they pick up their AK and fight for their village. We leave them alone and they work their farm.

Oh, yeah, then we decided that NATO was losing relevance so we thought it would be good to just give them the mission. Another stupid idea that just complicated the entire mission again and made the US have to do more just to make up for the blunders that ISAF would do.

Then let's add the UK anti-drug effort that gets no publicity. They have an independent force that goes in and razes farms and takes away livelihoods of dirt farmers and drug lords, gets everyone riled up and then our PRTs and FOBs have to deal with the aftermath. Afghan opium goes to Europe, US gets its opium from the Golden Triangle, so it is not in our national interest to fight the drug war in Afghanistan.

The bottom line is we failed to adhere to any real strategic theory. I think we should have stuck to the Powell Doctrine and set an achievable mission gotten to the endstate and then left. We should have said, "hey, we'll get you to your first national election but from that point on you are on your own." They would have accepted that. I was there for the first Presidential election and they were pretty set at that point. We could have moved out and maybe left a token force and some intelligence capabilities to look for AQ. Everyone else could be home right now and the situation would be about the same.

Just my thoughts on the situation, sorry for the rant.
 
#48
#48
VolsNSkinsFan said:
sounds like Pakistan fired some missles over a ridge and landed in Afghanistan and an Apache helo or two saw where the missles were fired from and returned fire.
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Missiles? No.

From the accounts I have read:

ISAF troops received indirect fire from across the border; the air support then breached Pakistani sovereignty, misidentified Pakistani troops and guard posts, and opened fire.
 
#49
#49
orangeslice13 said:
this is why I spend more time reading in here and less time posting. By the time I decide what I think you quick whits have moved on. It sucks being old.


My Brother came home from Afghanistan the week before Vandy. Clearly I want the rest to come home as well. I can't decide why the hell we're over there.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScyVd-hXNk[/youtube]

Just messing with you...
 
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