LET’S RECAP THE YEAR’S WAR STORIES

LET’S RECAP THE YEAR’S WAR STORIES

(Strategy Page, Global Security, History Guy, Barrie Barber)

(Jim “Casey” Greenhill, Donna Mills, Jason Koebler, George Friedman)

(Loren Thompson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Erensto Londoo, Greg Miller)

(Yasir Ghazi, Tim Arango, Washington Post, New York Times, Mark Thomson, Frazer Chronicle)

Everybody loves a good old fashioned war story that’s related by an old craggy retired military guy who actually was there and participated, it’s the stuff that has made America great, it almost seems like our country’s legacy. I’m 70, was born back in 1943, and by 1953, when the United States was involved with the Korean Conflict…..which has since been upgraded to a war. My point is that during some of my formative years, I knew war, albeit in a land far, far away.

I’m old enough to recall talk around the Frazer family supper-table about the military struggle that our country was going through. I also recall playing war, you know with sticks as guns…..unless you were fortunate enough to be friends with Billy. He had those clicker toy guns that were metallic in texture, kinda silvery and gray in color. Let me tell you, whenever I had one of those babies, every imaginary shot that I took was a dead on bull’s-eye shot…..no mistaken that.

Nobody wanted to be a (Jap, or an oriental, a German, or an Italian-o, these people were the sworn enemy of the good guys, the United States. Of course we thought like little kids, absolutely no abstract thinking by any of us, just black and white, Americans against the world. Nobody ever wanted to be English, or French, we were all just American’s fighting the world’s bad people.

Our thinking patterns were simple…..kind of like former president, George W. Bush, the good guys and the bad guys, and those other nations that were willing…..but only to a point, when it came to helping fund the war, or staffing a fighting force with its military personnel, there was a reevaluation of the commitment.

Today we’ll take a look at the two longest military efforts in the history of the United States, where else, Iraq and Afghanistan. These two theaters of military activity by the U.S. have been the longest in the military history of the country. As with any military confrontation, there are achievements as well as short-falls and outright defeats. However at the end of the day those people that fought, which were on the (front lines) want to feel that their efforts as well as sacrifices accomplished an overall objective.

Sadly in both countries there’ll never be a sense of accomplishment, or a lasting peace or a better form of government. I assume that the word joke is still spelled joke, because that’s what’s been left in Iraq. A government in shambles, an unstable government, a civil war raging and more than 8,000 people killed randomly throughout much of the country this year.

The blow-hard Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his corrupt cronies can do little to stabilize the country, pretty much because there to busy grabbing stuff for themselves before the inevitable forced relocation process to some other country.

The face of the average Iraqi gives off a myriad of feelings, anger, anguish and disbelief among the easiest to read. These people have been rung through the ringer as it were, they are ready for some peaceful time in their lives…..but the conflicting religious groups, and the political upheaval won’t allow that to happen any time soon.

AFGHANS’ FUTURE IS DIM AND GRIM

In order for a successful transition from the occupation of American and coalition forces in any country, several issues need to be addressed, and solved. Ignoring whatever problems exist will do nobody any good with regards to a draw-down of military forces. Once the threat of outside occupation is reduced, and problems remain…..you can bet the baby’s milk money that they’ll return, usually worse than before.

Throughout much of the world today, wars, conflicts and disagreements continue to make the attainment of peace in our time pretty much hopeless. There’s the world-wide war on drugs, insurgencies, border, water, and element (valuable natural element) skirmishes, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, religious, and international difference of opinion conflicts.

By far the most worthless wars are those waged by the United States in Afghanistan, and the one in Iraq which we vacated a little over two years ago. What the U.S. is about in both of these wars is nation building pure and simple. Oh sure we call it “spreading democracy, freedom and peace,” but the phonics are a bit jumbled here, Iraq has huge oil fields, and Afghanistan keeps our boots firmly in the area.

As the United States military begins its impending draw-down, the future of Afghanistan, according to experts has little chance to continue on the road to a democratic country where people can live, love, work and raise a family. There’s talk of an international contingent left beyond 2014…..but is that how a democratic society operates?

Without continued military and financial support, intelligence assessment suggests that the situation would deteriorate quickly, and the gains, (hatever they are that we’ve fought for would soon be unrecognizable.

And of course there’s Iran, Syria, Libya, Mali, Somalia and the Horn of Africa, Pakistan, the Philippines and the Yemeni struggles with al-Qaida. Just the other day I listed the hot spots of the world, so never fear you war-hawks, there’s a never ending less of countries that can be rescued or invaded in the name of peace…..and democracy.

HAVE A NICE DAY!