What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[Smitty-48]

Vietnam was civilized, Vietnam was industrialized, Vietnam was centralized.

Afghanistan doesn't have any of that.

Afghanistan is a totally different animal.

the graveyard of empires.

So there is no good way to beat them aside from straight up wanton slaughter? Kill anything that moves?

All America needed to do in Afghanistan, was keep a Squadron of DEVGRU on standby to wack Bin Laden in Pakistan when they finally located him.

Which you did.

But you could have done just that, and only that, and jettisoned the rest of the Nation Building mission which attached itself to the JSOC tasking.

[heydaralon]

Vietnam was civilized, Vietnam was industrialized, Vietnam was centralized.

Afghanistan doesn't have any of that.

Afghanistan is a totally different animal.

the graveyard of empires.

So there is no good way to beat them aside from straight up wanton slaughter? Kill anything that moves?

All America needed to do in Afghanistan, was keep a Squadron of DEVGRU on standby to wack Bin Laden in Pakistan when they finally located him.

Which you did.

But you could have done just that, and only that, and jettisoned the rest of the Nation Building mission which attached itself to the JSOC tasking.

Do you buy the Seymour Hersch version of events? I didn't at first, but I am coming around to it. The official story seems pretty sketchy and full of more holes than Parkland High School.

[Smitty-48]

the graveyard of empires.

So there is no good way to beat them aside from straight up wanton slaughter? Kill anything that moves?

All America needed to do in Afghanistan, was keep a Squadron of DEVGRU on standby to wack Bin Laden in Pakistan when they finally located him.

Which you did.

But you could have done just that, and only that, and jettisoned the rest of the Nation Building mission which attached itself to the JSOC tasking.

Do you buy the Seymour Hersch version of events? I didn't at first, but I am coming around to it. The official story seems pretty sketchy and full of more holes than Parkland High School.

I don't pay much attention to Hersch. I don't even know what his version is.

He has one claim to fame, he outed the Pinkville massacre, other than that, I find him to be a Hack.

[heydaralon]

He exposed Abu Gharib too and that the CIA and FBI were doing massive domestic spying in the 70's. A pinko fag he may be, but even a broken cock journalist is right twice a day.


Do you think the official version is close to the truth of how we got Bin Laden?

[Smitty-48]

Hersch is a classic case of Everything Is Vietnam and Nothing Has Changed Since 1968.

Hersch has dined out on My Lai for half a century.

He's made an entire career out of one day in Pinkville in 1968.

[Smitty-48]

Do you think the official version is close to the truth of how we got Bin Laden?

I don't even care, Bin Laden was never that interesting to me.

[Smitty-48]

He exposed Abu Gharib too and that the CIA and FBI were doing massive domestic spying in the 70's.

Big whoop. Domestic spying is a given. Abu Ghraib was a nothing burger.

My Lai was something, that was a watershed.

500 defenseless civilians massacred, including babies.

At point blank. In cold blood. With a lunch break in between. And they raped all the girls before they shot them.

That shattered the nation. That was too much to bear. That was the end of innocence.

Ever since he's been trying to live up to it, but it's all been small beer.

[Smitty-48]

But again, that was the fault of Search & Destroy.

Which was not necessary.

No Search & Destroy, no My Lai.

Economy of Force avoids that catastrophe.

Again, the war was winnable in 64', the chain of command simply chose the wrong strategy.

It's not that complex, and there was another way to go.

[heydaralon]

He exposed Abu Gharib too and that the CIA and FBI were doing massive domestic spying in the 70's.

Big whoop. Domestic spying is a given. Abu Ghraib was a nothing burger.

My Lai was something, that was a watershed.

500 defenseless civilians massacred, including babies.

At point blank. In cold blood. With a lunch break in between. And they raped all the girls before they shot them.

That shattered the nation. That was too much to bear. That was the end of innocence.

Ever since he's been trying to live up to it, but it's all been small beer.

I consider Domestic spying far more serious then killing some gooks we were at war with. Every military in history has killed civilians and had soldiers engage in rape. In 20 years, some pinko journalist will write a book showing that it happened from Americans in Iraq in '03. Its a given. Not defending it, but people die and live horribly in wars.

Domestic spying, as you say is a given, but when done with a drag net is a far bigger deal than some asians dead. There are billions of Asians. They don't matter, and they probably made up for that 500 in like 10 minutes. Spying is evil. Unless you are just spying on jihadists and commies, you need to fuck right off. I don't care if it is normal. Normal is fucked up. Fuck that shit. Also idc about My Lai. Fuck em. The NVA and VC killed much more civilians and did their fair share of raping. Dan Fonda jumped on the wrong tank if he thought they were more upright than Americans.

[heydaralon]

Without spying you can't have a successful commie govt. Spying is unAmerican, unless you do it to people who are un American like commies or a-rabs.