From the Washington Post obituary:
Sgt. 1st Class Lance Herman Vogeler, who grew up in Maryland, was described Monday as a leader of men, a religious man and a member of an elite Army unit.
He was also a husband and father of two.
He had been deployed four times to Iraq and eight to Afghanistan.
FOUR TIMES TO IRAQ AND EIGHT TIMES TO AFGHANISTAN?
Can anyone anywhere explain … why?
The United States reaps so many, many benefits from such sacrifice: Our airports are safe again; our great buildings and institutions are wide open to the public once more; our treasury is replenished; our borders are secure; our Constitutional liberties are safeguarded against de facto dhimmitude and de jure Islamic sharia … They’re not? None of it?
Meanwhile, if Gen. Petraeus and his COIN-ilk continue to have their way, Sgt. Vogeler would have just been getting started. With better luck, he might well have been deployed to Afghanistan 25, 30, maybe 40 times. As long as it takes. But as long as what takes?
In effect, the transformation of Afghanistan into a Judeo-Christian-humanist society sans Judeo-Christian-humanism — an immaculate concept if ever there was one, a strategy resting on blinding and eternal faith in COIN. Hearts and minds. “Trust.” We still haven’t earned their “trust” — the holy grail to JCC Mike Mullen. And that could take the rest of our lives and our children’s lives, according to COIN Mastermind David Petraeus. But what does Obama care? In an editorial about the Woodward book Obama’s Wars, the Washington Post writes:
Perhaps the most damning assessment of the president comes from Gen. Lute, who Mr. Woodward says concluded that “Obama had to do this 18-month surge just to demonstrate, in effect, that it couldn’t be done . . . the president had treated the military as another political constituency that had to be accommodated.” For the sake of the Americans fighting in Afghanistan, and the families of the 360 service members who have died there this year, we hope that is not the case.
All we do is — “hope”?
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.