It's official..we ended the war in Afghanistan. Well, except for..........

[dixiegrrrrl]

Did we even call it a war?

So, Obama announces this past week, war over in Afghanistan.


An hour ago
Pentagon will call new US mission in Afghanistan 'Operation Freedom's Sentinel;' mission will involve counterterrorism and training, advising, assisting Afghans.

I guess they are hoping anyone over 50 has Olds Heimer's disease and does not remember how we were sold the lie of Viet Nam by calling troops "advisors".


so hurrah! We are now not at war in Iraq!
We are not at war in Afghanistan!
Droning Syria and Pakistan and Yemen and Algeria...that's not a war.
Honestly, it is not.
Those are Freedum drones.

But hey, I can overlook that, just thinking of all the money that can be spent on America's problems of homelessness, unemployment, etc.

Where's my happy dance icon...........????


UPDATE:
This piece from WSJ:
the Wall Street Journal reports that some 18,000 foreign troops, around 10,600 of them American, are staying in Afghanistan. The troops are allowed to remain under the terms of two security pacts the Afghan government signed with the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in September.

[JoePhilly]

1. How many troops in Iraq and Afganistan now versus before.

I often mock the right wing for their inability to deal with nuance and complexity.

Sadly, some on the left are also unable to deal with nuance and complexity as well.

All use of the U.S. military is great according to the far right and evil according to the far left.

Both are wrong.

[Fumesucker]

3. Both sides do it..

Only those in the middle have true wisdom, halfway between stupid crazy and crazy stupid is sane and smart.

[Igel]

10. I think of it more as a distribution curve.

One standard deviation is in the middle.

Some on either side are perfectly sane, if not brilliant, but on this point they tend to stand back and think, " ".

Of course, at any point anybody could just make a mistake.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Easy to sit there, point fingers and make sweeping statements

without providing any other point of view.

[Downwinder]

2. Still waiting for that Peace Bonus.

[El Supremo]

5. Here you go:

[bigwillq]

6. Operation We Call it Not a War and Gullible Americans believe us (nt)

[OnyxCollie]

7. We are now not at war in Iraq!

We're sending highly-paid contractors to fight instead! Huzzah!!!

US to send more private contractors to Iraq
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/24/us-contractors-iraq.html

The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama's growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said.

The presence of contractors in Iraq, particularly private security firms, has been controversial since a series of violent incidents during the U.S. occupation, culminating in the September 2007 killing of 14 unarmed Iraqis by guards from Blackwater security firm.

Three former guards were convicted in October of voluntary manslaughter charges and a fourth of murder in the case, which prompted reforms in U.S. government oversight of contractors.

The preparations to increase the number of contractors — who can be responsible for everything from security to vehicle repair and food service — seemingly underscores the Obama administration's growing commitment in Iraq. When U.S. troops and diplomats venture into war zones, contractors tend to follow, doing jobs once handled by the military.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. It's very hard for politicians, or the military, to admit they lost another war.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Only winners are the corporations that provide the arms, the contractors and the politicians.

[Igel]

11. Yes, when it was a war we called it a war.

There were fronts, campaign, etc., etc.

The problem is that many wars start sort of with a dribble--this wasn't one of them. It started as a war.

Many wars end with a sort of dribbly decay curve. This was one of them. It went all asymptotic years ago--rapid decay curve to a low baseline, where it's been pretty stuck since then.

It was supposed to end like it did for the Russians. That didn't quite happen. Might, still. In which case some people can be happy in saying how horrible it is as they feel good about themselves while viewing scenes of carnage that they blame on the usual suspects. In this case one of the "usual suspects" will have to be Obama, however. A way will be found to exculpate him, I'm sure. He's been absolved of any responsibility for IS in Iraq (which is odd, since it's based in Syria these days, and there's not much of a way to exculpate him for Syria, except to nonsensically say he didn't have a strategy so he couldn't have had a bad strategy).

[Ramses]

12. they ought to call it Operation Pallets Of Cash To The Millitary

I guess we will have to assist and advise with some good old fashioned Democracy Bombs©

Same as it ever was

[Caretha]

13. Can we not have a Ticker Tape Parade in NYC

or something....


I'm very very disappointed.

[WillyT]

14. K & R !!!