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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Selectric II who wrote (271591)	11/19/2009 10:52:21 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Selectric, re: "Yeah, well, sounds like they highlighted the most dangerous jobs, for sure. If they'd highlighted the mess hall and its cuisine, viewers would get an entirely different impression of the war, wouldn't they? I'm afraid you're missing the critical fact that 75% of our dead and wounded soldiers are the result of IED explosions. Surely you see that the relative importance of mess hall cuisine or transport or some other aspect of the war in Afghanistan is far less significant. I'd go even farther and say that we cannot continue to send million dollar machines and precious American lives down roads if easily planted 10 dollar explosives can blow them up on a regular basis. The problem with fighting any insurgency is that the insurgents can pick the time, method and place of attack. When they can lethally attack with impunity and at a tiny cost to themselves, then you are doomed to lose. So it's like an automobile missing one tire. You can talk all you want about the engine, the transmission or the paint job and, as you've said about the war in Afghanistan, "you would get an entirely different view of the" car than if you pointed out that it was missing a tire. The car would not, however, get you down the road. That's why spin never overcomes reality. And that's why 60 minutes got it right, the soldiers are looking at "winning" as coming home alive, and Obama has to find a better strategy or get out. Ed