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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (271546)	11/18/2009 1:06:40 PM
From: cnyndwllr	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) of 281500

Hawkmoon, some of our discussion is about the philosophical aspects of waging war in Afghanistan but the steel curtain that mandates a new policy is based on practicalities. Did you see last Sunday's 60 Minutes report on the fighting in Afghanistan? They followed an American unit assigned to patrol for IED's and their report was chilling. These American soldiers risk their lives every day trying to locate mines that cost about $10 dollars to make and that can be planted in a few minutes with relative safety at any time of the night. They patrol the same few miles of road over and over again with vehicles that cost over a million dollars to build and who knows how much to maintain and transport. In the few days that the news team was there that unit had three guys injured, one of their vehicles badly damaged by an IED and one of their vehicles destroyed. And their "success" as touted by one of their superior officers...they "found" a few mines. That officer finally admitted that maybe about half the mines had "found" them, but he still said that was a success. They never "caught or killed" any of the insurgents who planted the mines. About 75% of the casualties in Afghanistan are from IEDs. When the reporters asked two of the brave guys who disarm the mines that they do discover what "winning" meant to them, the two guys didn't know what to say. Finally they agreed with each other that winning meant coming home alive. When the guys doing the dying think winning means coming home alive then you better find a new strategy or bring them home, don't you agree? Ed

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