Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi expressed his opinions about what is going on in Afghanistan these days and I have to say that Mississippi has seen better days. Barbour feels that there is no "end game" in sight in Afghanistan and that we do not have a clear mission or a mission that requires the troops that we currently have in theater. This coming from the same guy who backed addition troops in 2009. Governor Barbour needs to look at the reports provided by General Petraeus since McCrystal was ousted last summer. Having served a year in Afghanistan I feel like I have at least a respectable platform to base my opinion on. I would also mention that when people like Gov. Barbour say they have "been there" they are almost certainly referring to Bagram Airfield (BAF) an overseas paradise complete with Burger King and Thanksgiving Day parades and is in no way a look into the third world country that combat arms soldiers experience.
The mission is clear in Afghanistan; disrupt the insurgency while simultaneously building local confidence in the Afghan police and army. This will, in turn, bring stabilization to the government. I am not saying that this will be easy but it is a clear mission plan nonetheless. Barbour needs to look a little further into the military side of things before he makes himself look like an idiot.
I can agree with him, however is excessive spending in Afghanistan. While Barbour insists that cuts can be made in the Pentagon he cannot seem to articulate where the cuts will come from. I would make cuts from defense contractors that cover outsourced military jobs to overpaid Americans and third country nationals when they could be used to employ exponentially more servicemembers in a time when even the military is turning unemployed Americans away.
4 comments:
Forgot to post the link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/haley-barbour-afghanistan_n_836344.html
Honestly, Haley Barbour is not exactly a shining beacon of progressivism, so I am unsurprised he takes this stance. I do however know that he is not in the minority regarding attitudes in government towards the Afghan war, so that part is dissapointing
I agree with you especially on making "Cuts from defense contractors that cover outsourced military jobs to overpaid Americans". I feel like this would balance the budget out a bit and slightly reduce the defense budget.
I agree with the whole building local confidence in the Afghan police and army which would bring some form of stabilization. But our continuing presence in the region is a no end game considering the recent assaults by the Taliban. The number of attacks in Kandahar on the police are still high and there has been record casualties on both sides. A gradual hand over is necessary but will it be as effective as we think? Trust needs to be built up in the generations of children who have had their parents killed in the crossfire. These children need to have a positive perspective of the U.S. rather than the perspective that they have now.
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