Saturday, September 29, 2012

Breaking: Obama Halts Close Air Support in 'stan!

(Updated in combox courtesy Grim).

If you have friends or relatives in 'stan, it's time to pray harder.

...The soldier that wrote this letter goes on to note that the Obama Administration has confined our men to their combat outposts (COPs) and Forward Operation Bases (FOBs). The country has been conceded to the Taliban on orders from the Obama Administration.

Worse, our  feckless Commander in Chief has effectively abandoned our soldiers in-country, with no mission, no mobility, and no supporting firepower. The Close Air Support wing of America’s combined arms doctrine—which has saved countless lives—has been done away with in an entirely political move. He has made our military sitting ducks,...

Now we have a case for impeachment.

10 comments:

PianoLessons said...

This is a complete outrage. We can't wait until November to ask our Congressmen to walk down the street and have an Allen West moment with this very reclusive President. And I don't mean they should talk to Valerie Jarret.

Maybe Allen West could lead the march to the White House this week.

Jim said...

Reclusive?

Jim said...

Sources?

Dad29 said...

You could look up "reclusive", Jim.

And the source is a US soldier on active duty in 'stan.

What--you were looking for a piece from Dan Rather? Or an announcement from the US ambassador to the UN?

Or the SCOAMF?

Jim said...

I'm looking for a source other than one single grunt in the field.

I don't need to look up reclusive. The president has public appearances one or two times almost every day. Reclusive?

Anonymous said...

Please go fuck yourself with a shotgun, Jim.

Grim said...

I don't think it's actually possible to impeach the President for commanding the military in a manner displeasing to Congress. (Or even in a really reckless and irresponsible manner, which seems to be the case here.)

We're in a bad situation in Afghanistan, though. It's the kind of thing that could turn ugly very quickly. We should be looking at getting out much faster than planned.

Jim said...

Basically agree with you on this Grimm, except for the "which seems to be the case here" part. One guy in a bunker pissed off and wondering why he is there does not make a credible case for what the overall strategy and tactics are in a relatively large war zone.

Grim said...

I meant to include the overall strategy in my indictment; the semi-surge strategy adopted by the President has cost more than 70% of the lives lost in this war.

However, the report of the end of close air support is false. I checked with a friend at CENTCOM and had him run the traps on it. There was a one-day standdown of CAS (and everything else) for a suicide-prevention training day, but not a permanent suspension of air support within Afghanistan.

Most likely the soldier in question -- he sounds young, I would guess somewhere between private and specialist -- did not actually see the order he is talking about. A soldier as young as that is getting his information about his orders from an NCO, who is getting them from a senior NCO, who is getting them from an officer, who is getting them from higher HQ. The actual written order probably didn't go lower than the senior NCO, if that low.

Jim said...

Thank you Grim. Good information.

As to casualties in Afghanistan during the Obama Administration, I would submit that most of the fighting, and the lives lost, was going on in Iraq for some reason or other. Since 2009, the emphasis has been moved to where al Qaeda actually was.