Afghan War — ‘What Is It Good For’

March 11, 2011

Is this a back-home by-product of a horrifying nightmare called Afghanistan?
An ‘award winning’ veteran loses his shit:

An enraged Seymour man shot his mother and tried to shoot his father Tuesday night after the couple refused to acknowledge their son as the reincarnated Jesus, Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole said.
Cole said one mystery involving the incident that resulted in charges against Zakariah Jacob Evitt is what changed a decorated Army veteran’s life.

Evitt’s father, Terry, told Cole his son hadn’t slept for six days, Cole said.
“I don’t know if it has anything to do with sleep,” the sheriff said.

“He had absolutely zero remorse when I talked to him,” the sheriff said. “Every other word is the f-word, but that’s OK because he’s Jesus.”
It didn’t appear Evitt was under the influence of drugs, the sheriff said.
Cole said he is trying to figure out why a veteran who among other postings served in Afghanistan and who received several medals could be violent toward his parents.
“An award-winning soldier,” Cole said. “He doesn’t look like it now.”

Maybe it’s time to bring the boys and girls home, don’t you think?

However, the powers that be don’t think along these lines at all.
US Defense Chief, Bullet Bob Gates, was in Belgium this morning laying down a stern message that more war is needed to win the Afghan war.
From Stars and Stripes:

“Frankly, there is too much talk about leaving and not enough talk about getting the job done right,” Gates said at NATO headquarters Friday, specifically calling out “capitals on this continent.”
“Too much discussion of exit and not enough discussion about continuing the fight. Too much concern about when and how many troops might redeploy, and not enough about what needs to be done before they leave.”

And in leaving, it is harder to actually get out.
In comparison to another, similar experience in Vietnam and how shit-storm-like it is in withdrawing from a losing war — Lyndon Johnson nailed it: “I don’t think we can fight them 10,000 miles away from home and ever get anywhere in that area,” LBJ asserts. Moreover, the United States, once committed to a war, might find it impossible to get out. “It’s damn easy to get into a war, but … it’s going to be awful hard to ever extricate yourself if you get in,” LBJ asserts with remarkable prescience.

Bob Gates, of course, doesn’t see Vietnam in Afghanistan.
US peoples, however, beg to differ — in a poll by Rasmussen Reports earlier this week, 52 percent of respondents wanted troops home from Afghanistan within a year and 21 percent of that total wants them home immediately.
And that means right now.

(Illustration above found here).

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