This is the man our boys will soon be trusting their lives with, General David Petraeus, (Australians are soon to be led by the US Command)
Let’s hope he’s a real general and ends this war quickly, I never understood why the world’s greatest armies cannot defeat a rag tag Taliban 😦
Boadicea's Chariot 
I’m pretty sure he will be just as useless as the other chap, IS.
Perhaps one of the pre-requisites to holding high rank in any of the armed forces should be at least a superficial knowledge of history. 🙂
Minty and Bearsy, chuckle chuckle to both of you.
Truth is the Taliban are superb fighters, I happen to know that most if not all SAS methods are based on Taliban and Pashtun fighting skills. What bothers me is that all it takes for them to be defeated is strength of numbers and silence.
And by silence I mean that our dear leaders both Military and Political ought to learn to shut up and not tell the media anything about up and coming battles, locations of our troops, etc.
Yeah right, IS.
I don’t think so! Obama has already lost the war.
Not that it was ever winnable anyway.
Minty – It is winnable, we just need to get ourselves into the right frame of mind, it’s a war, if it moves, we need to kill it, not throw money at it as then say “fight for us, not them” 😦
That has been their main method so far, to pay their way out of any big fights.
Hm, so the Soviets weren’t really trying then, IS?
Araminta
It might help if the politicians also knew a bit of history, too. Watching Hollywood movies and reading comics is no substitute for a simple historical fact that no-one has ever won a war in Afghanistan.
It peeves me that young men and women were sent to find bin Laden, and then had their prime purpose for being there changed into foisting western-style democracy on a country steeped in medieval clap -trap.
Good point, Boadicea.
In the case of American politicians a crash course in Geography might also come in handy. 😉
MInty – The Soviets had it won, their battle was fought mostly from the air, they did not have trained ground troops to fight a people who are masters of the “Long Range Mission”, they travel 50-100 miles, fire a few shots and then come home. just like the SAS.
Then an American politician arranged for the Taliban to be given ground to air missiles and the Russians scarpered for dear life. That’s why the Russian’s lost.
This war can be fought and won but not in the American or Russian style of gathering a large number of troops and killing as many civilians as possible, we simply need to go to the Taliban’s backyard and slaughter them there.
Words written by General IS 🙂
Oops, Jaime will think I am being very unfair, so my comment #10 was not entirely serious.
Boa, I couldn’t agree more. It’s time we were out of there.
Good luck General IS, but I think you are ignoring the basic historical facts of the matter, as I indicated in my first comment and spelt out by Boadicea.
The tactics you mention do not appear to have worked thus far.
You all, I disagree, we have to not only stay but increase our numbers.
What’s the use of living in a democracy if we allow others to suffer and be kept under the thumb by dictators and tyrants, our constitutions clearly state that we strive for democracy for the entire world, we should do it once and for all.
Nuke the communists, nuke Iran, Kill Chavez and piddle on Syria (they’re not worth a bomb) 🙂
Minty – We haven’t used any of the tactics I mentioned, just wait until I get promoted to the leadership, I’ll do them all 🙂
Oh deep joy, IS. Are we back to let’s unite the world in peace and fellowsip; well those who survive the necessary nuclear holocaust. Now don’t even try the “clean bomb” bit! 😉
oops, “fellowship “
Minty – I still believe in the One World Order. Only we’ll have to kill 200 Million in order to get to it, it’s in the Bible. So we might as well choose which 200 million we kill, them or us. 🙂
I’m developing a headache, IS.
I may have to go and lie down in a darkened room! 🙂
Minty – You luck the blood lust typical of western democracies 😦
ooops “lack” 😦
It’s called sanity, IS. 😉
I have to admit, I have no problems with killing others, maybe I’m insane but then again I am a South American, the life of a Communist/Socialist/Taliban/Iranian/Russian/Chinese/….etc.. cannot be considered human. 🙂
Kenny Everett had it right with General Hiram P Bombthebastards.
Right On, Bomb em’ all 😦
Ja well
I don’t quite understand the point here, if not Petraeus then who?
It’s not his fault, he’s simply doing his job and I respect that.
IS – The image (shudder!) at the top of your thread just goes to show that Septics can’t do style and dignity any more than they can do irony. Jeez, he looks like a down-market Las Vegas casino! And what, FFS, is a soldier doing wearing a ‘Humanitarian Service’ medal? Perhaps it was for achieving a lower blue-on-blue kill ratio than his predecessors, if indeed that is true.
OZ
The current rules of engagement (ROE) in Afghanistan mean that NATO soldiers are not fighting a war. The purpose of an Army is to break things and kill people. Both the British and US Armies are very good at that. You all ignore the fact that when the Armies were employed to do what they were designed for, the opposition was destroyed in extremely short order.
Perhaps things are about to change. General Petraeus commanded the forces during the ‘surge’ in Iraq. It is not very likely that he has accepted this command under the same rules of engagement that are currently in operation. President Obama wants the US Army out of Afghanistan before he hs to start campaigning for re-election next year. That is not going to happen unless the troops are permitted to do what they should be doing now – find, fix and destroy the enemy. That’s what General Petraeus did in Iraq. I would wager a large portion of my anatomy that that is what President Obama has ordered him to do in Afghanistan.
Bravo22 – You’re ever so right, our boys are being restricted, they should be told to go for it.
Soutie – I posted this because Australian troops are now under the US command, they will follow American orders from now on.
Indy, so what?
Oz troops will following orders from the head of the NATO deployment, why do you have a problem with that?
Who would you prefer to be in charge?
No problem Soutie, it’s just that this is the guy who will lead them from now on so I wrote a post on him, that’s all
PS – Australia does not take orders from NATO, we are part of ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, US ) not NATO.
Who would I prefer to lead them? Australians! 🙂
I can’t see the badge he won for wiping his own backside without assistance.
Nor has he got a Blue Peter Badge for making a space rocket out of a Fairy Liquid bottle (or is it a Gay liquid bottle now?)
Don’t worry about it, Ara. I’m used to everyone having an opinion—usually negative—about Americans.
All I can say is that Obama is not really that welcome in 38 states and 2 commonwealths.
Afghanistan is an incredibly easy country to conquer. That has been proven countless times. Afghanistan is perhaps the most difficult country to hold onto, which has been proven just as many times. I find it an interesting country myself, not that I’d like to live there…
I like Obama, I think he’s changing America for the better.
That would make you a minority in the USA. Even in California, one of the most liberal places in the country, the Democrat senator up for re-election is shaking in her boots because she is in deep, deep trouble.
Chris – There are 45 million Hispanics who love him, he’s setting the stage in such a manner that many of us can see a Hispanic President sometime in the future, when that happens the Mexican wall will come down and we’ll retake the continent 🙂
Ooops – Chile V Netherlands starting now, catch you later 🙂
So, 2-0 to Japan and 1-0 to Holland at half-time.
Should be interesting.
OZ
Latinos are starting to hate him, too. His only firm bastion of support is with Blacks. Trust me, IS, I reside in California, I know a thing or two about Latinos…
Interesting to know we have such a different experience of California, Chris. Among other things.