Army Whistleblower Lt. Col. Daniel Davis Says Pentagon Deceiving Public on Afghan War
"Lieutenant Colonel Davis is on the right side of history, and the fact [is] that he believes in this and is willing to risk [his career],"
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/15/army_whistleblower_lt_col_daniel_davis
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onethatcares
(16,984 posts)believe what he has to say.
Face it, the top brass has a vested interest in a continuing war because without it, they'd be out of a job.
Sanity Claws
(22,408 posts)complex would be gone.
Selatius
(20,441 posts)War is extremely profitable if you're the one making the weapons. That, and the pride and arrogance of the senior military leadership is on the line. None of them want to be handed a political defeat on the scale of Viet Nam while they're in the Pentagon, and they probably don't want that defeat to come at the hands of primitive, backward, unsophisticated, and superstitious mountain tribesmen carrying AK-47s and RPG-7s.
cbrer
(1,831 posts)You are spot on concerning the MO of US defense contractors.
You are dead wrong about the Taliban. They are smart, tough, well equipped, well disciplined, and quite mobile. We trained and equipped many of them. Trust me...
There are weak minded ones. They go on suicide missions.
Selatius
(20,441 posts)As far as learning to adapt to an enemy with superior firepower and capabilities, they are a group of fighters that should not be underestimated. Of that I'm pretty sure.
They are cunning and smart, and they repeatedly show a penchant for learning American tactics and then developing ways around it. They improvise and adapt. Many senior Taliban commanders cut their teeth fighting the Soviet Red Army in the 1980s, and they've used those hard lessons as well as learning new ones fighting American soldiers twenty years later. Fighting a well-equipped army from a superpower is nothing new to them. Even their ancestors fought and won battles against the respected and powerful armies of the British Empire back in the 1800s.
If the brass had read their history, they would know that these tribesmen have never given up to anyone. They'd rather die than be subjects to a foreign army. You can't win against a people like that.
eyewall
(674 posts)comes his way from the Pentagram.
I appreciate his courage and sincerely wish something good comes of it. Govt lies are bad but lies that cost lives are the worst.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)He has taken a big risk.
razorman
(1,644 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)
AnnieBW
(12,706 posts)Private Davis. Unfortunately. If he doesn't wind up in a cell next to Bradley Manning. 
boppers
(16,588 posts)It doesn't say anything that wasn't already known, in short: Afghanistan is still fucked, and the leadership talks positively about the situation to boost morale.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)... present anything to the public that's not some kind of deception?
Here's Iraq War Veteran, Jon Michael Turner describing some of his experience in Iraq -- pretty chilling:
lunasun
(21,646 posts)How does anyone get the idea or think it was ever necessary to act like this in real life? Hear way too much of this in milatary now - no honor, just shooting and you heard it - stabbing seen as a plus not a last resort way of defending oneself more a sport skill. Is it military indoctrination or more complex?
All sucker punches too a guy on a bike not a guy with a gun or grenade and he was never alone.
Imagine what it takes to be a Xe or Academi over there?
What besides the violent video games I mentioned leads to this military decay in our society? Why are there so many now that think actions like this to another living being are for some greater good?
Took guts to speak .
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)... can, over time, have a desensitizing effect on a person to killing, but I also think the US military is now a very lawless culture that all too often does not distinguish between real threats and unarmed civilians -- these are very serious war crimes.
I agree that it took guts for this young man to speak out about his experience.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)PB
Gringostan
(127 posts)Anybody who's read even a little history knows that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires; why should American be any different. We went into Afghanistan because Bush was too stupid and Cheney was too corrupt to care about the final outcome - money was to be made so why worry about the lives of American soldiers, innocent Afghans, and the US treasury. Vietnam was a quagmire, but Afghanistan is even worse; because we will see blow back for years to come.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)And most of those empires were kicked out of Aghanistan by ... another foreign empire. Not by local inhabitants.
"Graveyard of Empires" comes from a poem, not a history book.
Gringostan
(127 posts)You've completely missed my point which hasn't changed - stay out of Afghanistan!
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... between having the region described as "Afghanistan" listed on the map as being "ruled"
and the fact on the ground that the people in that region do now acknowledge the "ruling"
empire as actually being in charge.
Britain "ruled" that region by buying or bullying the appropriate local rulers.
Go back to the earliest days of "conquest" and you will find the same thing throughout
history. "Graveyard of empires" was a poetic summary of the actual situation.
The local inhabitants have always ruled Afghanistan - with or without the approval
of some petty emperor in a foreign land.
midnight
(26,624 posts)grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)
lovuian
(19,362 posts)for telling the truth
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)This man has taken his life in his hands by making these statements. I hope he will manage to survive this.