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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bridge Player who wrote (441788)	8/21/2011 8:48:26 AM
From: Tom Clarke	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793957

Military Intelligence Officer Endorses Ron Paul Robert Wenzel SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011 Last night I had a discussion with a military intelligence officer, who did not know my background. This officer had spent time in Afghanistan and I asked the officer about U.S. operations in the country. The officer told me that the U.S. was unlikely to reach its goals in Afghanistan. The officer said one problem is that the Taliban simply don't have a timeline. They have no goal that they want to reach X objective by a given date. They can wait things out forever. The officer said that the U.S. was trying to create a western style type government in Afghanistan that will never work because the tribal mentality in Afghanistan is too strong and that's where the power centers are and where they are going to stay. The officer said that most Afghans just go about their daily business and don't get involved in the fighting . The officer said that the people have seen too much war and they expect that the U.S. will pull out of Afghanistan, like other foreign troops have for centuries and that the Taliban will still be there. And, thus, it makes sense for the average Afghan to side with the Taliban. The officer also said that it is much more difficult to get information out of Afghans, than it was Iraqis. Iraqis were soft and rolled over quickly. Afghans, on the other hand, are hardened fighters. You interrogate them and they just look at you coldly and give you a look of "so what do you think you can do to me," said the officer. I asked if the military waterboarded any Afghans, the officer said it was illegal to waterboard and then winked. Then out of the blue, the officer asked me if I was familiar with Ron Paul. Not giving anything away, I simply said. "Yes." The officer said that Ron Paul had it right that we shouldn't be in all these foreign military adventures and that the government domestically should be much smaller. I asked the officer if this view was very prevalent in the military. The officer told me that 50% of the military didn't care and just took orders and would never question orders. The officer told me there are some thinkers in the other half. I asked the officer if the military conducted intelligence operations in the United States. The officer said no, but that there were plenty of domestic agencies that do and that intelligence collection was very important. economicpolicyjournal.com