Winning hearts and minds,

[MadHound]

Within the past couple of weeks, the US has again demonstrated why we're not going to win the war in Afghanistan, but rather make a huge disaster of it.

"Officials including Afghan President Hamid Karzai have accused NATO-led international forces of killing up to seven civilians, six of them children, in an air strike in the south.

Soldier with the International Security Assistance Force patrols as Afghan children look on in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in this 2008 file photo. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused the NATO-led international forces of killing up to seven civilians, six of them children. (AP/Allauddin Khan) The incident happened late on Wednesday in Zhari district of Kandahar province, a traditional Taliban stronghold where NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops claim significant progress in recent months."
<http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/24-3>

"Pakistan on Sunday buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air attack that has pushed a crisis in relations between the United States and an ally it needs to fight militancy toward rupture."
<http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-buries-troops-amid-fury-over-nato-strike-083736070.html>

Killing children, killing allies, this is not how you win the hearts and minds of people.

I know, I know, there are going to be those among you who say, "Tough shit, insurgents hid among those kids, where is hell, yadda, yadda, yadda." Have you ever thought that killing kids should simply be off limits? That by killing kids we're simply playing into the hands of our enemies, losing the war of ideas. After all, it isn't like we haven't been here before with Vietnam. You would think that we would learn.

For that is what we're fighting more than anything is a war of ideas. We're not going to win a military victory here unless we simply turn the entire Af-Pak region into glass. Which means we have got to win the war of ideas, something that we have failed to do so far. Killing soldiers on our side, killing children, shooting up wedding parties, on and on the litany of outrage goes, stretching back over ten years. It is time for the madness to stop, and the most effective way for it to stop is for us to get the hell out of the area, now. We can't make anything better there, an army, which is an instrument of destruction, simply cannot be used as an instrument of construction. Sure, we can build schools and housing, but sooner or later we wind up shooting allies, or children, or a woman on her wedding day and all that store of good will we've built up goes right into the crapper.

Therefore, at this point it is better for the US to pull out now, end this madness, for our allies, ourselves and our enemies. How can you ask somebody to be the last person killed in a war we know we cannot win?

[watrwefitinfor]

1. Have to destroy the village to save it, you know. n/t

[piratefish08]

2. it takes what used to be a village to, ummm, nevermind.....

[MadHound]

3. But now we can do it from halfway around the world,

Without putting ourselves at risk.