French Ride Forth to Check Islamic Aggresion

[Pancho Villa]

I agree 100%, and I don't rate the win/lose bar as there haven't been terrorist attacks here, that's part of it though. When Obama took office, we were on the road to victory- in 2014, when ODipshit pulls our troops out of Afghanistan, I promise you, within 12 mos the Taliban will be back in power.

The problem isn't Obama. We were on our way out of Iraq & Afghanistan eventually and whenever we leave, the Islamists will not "take over in 12 mouths" - read the laws on the books right now in Iraq and Afghanistan. THEY ALREADY WON. They're getting billions in US aid. Their soldiers are being trained and equipped by us. Their roads and schools and hospitals built by us. Some harder-line Islamists may quibble with them but whenever the dust clears and whoever wins out they will have the US to thank for a bunch of shiny new infrastructure and US supplied military arms and munitions, along with the latest thinking on TTPs from the current best army in the world, and a decade of experience fighting us.

[Ronin13]

Our boys did a great job and had their hands tied behind their back by politicians who wanted to respect Islam. Islam is the cancer of the earth. There is no reasoning with cancer.

THIS! Believe me, I know... the ROE over there is a joke. They tell us to fight the BGs, but with such a strict ROE we're not fighting, we're asking for permission. NATO is partly to blame too, their command is a bunch of Sallys who don't know how you win a war.

[Ghosty]

Not sure where I stand on the "hands tied behind their back", since I'm not a veteran I don't know if I have the right to have an opinion. But obviously you have to look at the BIG picture now, this isn't the WWII era. To garner support from allies, especially the MiddleEastern countries, instead of unilateral violent action, we have to use surgical strikes, and do what we can to avoid civilian casualties. YES IT SUCKS for our soldiers, but in the big picture, isn't that the better route, instead of dead civilians who are for the most part innocent, compared to the insurgents and extremists we really want to kill?

Otherwise yeah, we could just "nuke it into glass", right? Not a viable option.

[flan7211]

What I find funny is how they will fight muzzies on foreign soil but won't do squat about the demographic hiroshima these people have put on them. Any wonder why the National Front keeps doing better and better in elections? Your average Frenchman is feeling the pressure and the 2 parties have failed him.

[ruthabagah]

What I find funny is how they will fight muzzies on foreign soil but won't do squat about the demographic hiroshima these people have put on them. Any wonder why the National Front keeps doing better and better in elections? Your average Frenchman is feeling the pressure and the 2 parties have failed him.

Sir, you are spot on!

[Kraven251]

Not sure where I stand on the "hands tied behind their back", since I'm not a veteran I don't know if I have the right to have an opinion. But obviously you have to look at the BIG picture now, this isn't the WWII era. To garner support from allies, especially the MiddleEastern countries, instead of unilateral violent action, we have to use surgical strikes, and do what we can to avoid civilian casualties. YES IT SUCKS for our soldiers, but in the big picture, isn't that the better route, instead of dead civilians who are for the most part innocent, compared to the insurgents and extremists we really want to kill?

Otherwise yeah, we could just "nuke it into glass", right? Not a viable option.

Do you realize that due to the restrictions on how to engage, we have people getting shot up and then after an area is secured our people waste lots of time taking pictures making targets of themselves so they don't get their ass in a sling because of bureaucracy. If you are housing someone that is trying to kill me, you cease to be a civilian in my eyes, sorry if someone that was coerced dies because of their situation, but their compliance and silence put them in that situation.

[Ghosty]

I hear ya. I just try to put myself in the other shoes, even if a life-long civilian, I realize war is ugly. What if I'm innocent, HATE the Taliban, but they come into my house put a gun to my wife and kids heads and say they're camping out there. Now what? Excuse me if I try to look at every angle, even the unpleasant, "This is a shit sandwich and we all have to take a bite" angle, which blows I know.

Keep in mind, I voted for Bush TWICE, because I believed that both wars were good causes, even if that fuckshit Cheney and Halliburton got as much benefit out of it as the Iraqi civilians. I also was in favor of McChrystal getting ALL the 60k extra surge troops he asked for in Afghan, at least Obama gave him at least half that.

[KestrelBike]

What I find funny is how they will fight muzzies on foreign soil but won't do squat about the demographic hiroshima these people have put on them. Any wonder why the National Front keeps doing better and better in elections? Your average Frenchman is feeling the pressure and the 2 parties have failed him.

Too late for them when they elected Hollande over Le Pen. They really f'd themselves just like our country did re-electing The Asshole.

[Pancho Villa]

French actions gain American and British support:

http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/14/fr...n-mali-gathers

Although Al Qaeda-linked militants have been pushed back by French operations some have taken the central town of Diabaly as part of a wider advance south. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has been stressing that the operation in Mali will be over soon and predicts that it will be completed in “a matter of weeks.” Militants in Mali have pledged to strike “at the heart” of France in a statement that confirms the fears of a French judge who warned that an intervention in Mali could lead to terrorist attacks on French soil.

As Ed noted earlier, Dominique de Villepin, who was France’s foreign minister from 2002 to 2004, has said that France would do well to learn from the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons that British and American officials have apparently yet to learn.

Again, good to see another western power back in the fight, even if in a limited manner.

[rockhound]

Islam is the national religion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you think the win/loss bar in this war is "terrorist attacks in the US" you are very much off base. Islam as a political system must be smashed, and Islam itself converted from a theocratic religion ala Catholicism in the dark ages to a peaceful one. The only way to do that is crushing military defeats and forcing Islam out of the political arena at the point of a sword. That is the measure of our success, and by that measure we've failed miserably.

Pancho and i agree on something for the second time in a few months. anyone see the flying pigs yet

religious aspects aside it is the politics of islam that are dangerous