Six United States Marines Murdered; Two Acts of Treachery; One Day in the True Afghanistan!

The tenth of August has given us two more examples of just how miserable the United States Government's vision for the "war" in Afghanistan is! In what can only be described as an "in-your-face" declaration by the very focused, ideologically motivated forces at work within the borders of Afghanistan, these two incidents, the latest in an ever increasing number of like attacks, once again demonstrate just how wrong our understanding of Afghan culture is.

What is even more troubling is that in the first ambush/attack, the perpetrator was not working alone. He had the help of accomplices, who like him, were declared allies by the United States government. He and his fellow Officers were given unfettered access to our forces and they exploited that weakness in our perception of who these people are and killed according to the doctrines which bind all of Afghan society together.

And why not?

After all, since when are men at war required to do the bidding of their enemy during hostilities? This is where our government has failed and continues to fail in Afghanistan. We refuse to reconsider our original assessment of the whole culture in Afghanistan and as a result, our War Fighters continue to pay the price for the hubris of those whose orders they obey.

With straight faces, the unending queue of government "experts" continues to pedal their well-rehearsed narrative in spite of the increasing mountain of evidence which screams to the contrary. We have gotten to the point that I personally have no desire to continue this "dialogue" with men who have so easily sold their personal souls along with the lives of good men on a fantasy that spins a tale of a peace-loving culture beset by an unwanted, alien force who pervert the doctrines of the "religion of peace".

The facts of these latest two incidences tell us everything we ever needed to know but several years after we should have learned their lesson! The murderers are of that segment of society that our government has presumed want peace and relief form the "unwanted alien insurgency" and yet, they baited a trap for United States Marines who were under standing orders to trust them.

This happened not once on this single day, but twice! And the result is that 6 good men, United States Marines, will not be going home to rejoin their families.

What is so damnable about these two events and the many others which preceded them is that our government insists on continuing to give these people the benefit-of-the-doubt while placing our own sovereign citizens in their midst like some perverted science experiment even though the evidence clearly indicates these kinds of attacks will continue!

Is this the vision of our Government? Sending men who have voluntarily suspended their rights as American citizens and willingly placed their very futures, trustingly, in the hands of those I tell you are lesser men only to have that trust squandered and their lives wasted? At what point are these euphemistically expressed, "green on blue" incidences going to convince the dead in DC or their surrogates, the media, that the current strategy is yielding nothing more than more dead US Service members, NATO, ISAF and civilian worker deaths and greater alienation from the very people the strategy is supposed to protect?

Even the much lauded, "fair and balanced" FOX news could not take the time or space on their scroll to report on these two incidences first thing Saturday morning. FOX was too busy covering a political announcement to report it live and their scroll failed to mention it at all. Here are the stories the "keeper of the scroll" considered more important than the deaths of 6 United States Marines:

·       Announcement of Paul Ryan as GOP VP pick (celebrities - even government trump troops)

·       Lackland AFB Sexual Assault Case (salacious details sell more product)

·       Syrian Rebels pleading with West for aid (even our future enemies are more important)

·       Neil Armstrong Heart Attack (love Neil Armstrong but even in pain he would agree; troops first)

·       Mourning 6 murdered Sikhs (murdered citizens should be mourned but not above that of our troops)

·       Catholic Nuns in Scandal (…REALLY??)

It was 0926 before the keeper of the scroll finally mentioned one of the attacks which took the lives of three Marines but clearly, the focus of effort was the political announcement of the day!

In addition there wasn't a single mention of either of these two attacks in any of the speeches or following commentary by anyone in either party nor was there any mention of any foreign policy vision as it relates to Central Asia, the war in Afghanistan or the plight of our War Fighting community!

Make no mistake about it; this is a direct reflection of the continued inexplicable defense of the current strategy by, seemingly, our entire government! Our "servants" have allowed themselves to be lulled into complacency by the few who have convinced them that their "analyses" clearly indicate that the vast majority of Afghan culture is supportive of our effort and that if we stay the course, it will succeed. While this might have been an acceptable argument ten years ago, it is nothing short of criminal to perpetuate this argument in the light of these continued acts of "treachery" TEN, YEARS, LATER!!

What was missed or rather expunged for the "analyses" was any "derogatory" mention of the religion which binds and directs all elements of Afghan society. And it is this religious doctrine which ultimately motivates those we have declared allies to act against us. What our "leaders" fail to understand is that these men are in fact at war, but not against those with whom they share a common doctrine, common culture, common ancestry; they are at war with us! And if some of these Afghans, many of whom we have declared to be allies, are at ideological odds with us and are not only willing but compelled to wage war with us, we need to perceive them in this way.

When the sitting President of Afghanistan reaches out to an unrepentant Taliban leader, before the cessation of hostilities and recommends he run for President of the very people we have declared he has victimized, it is clear we have no understanding of players and no legitimate vision for the outcome of this 10 year war. Why; because Karzai was our choice of leadership and because not one single voice cried out in condemnation of Hamid Karzai's insult to the price paid by thousands of American Service members to date!

Our government has failed to come to terms with these facts and in the process have caused many thousands of needless horrific injuries and deaths. And this has become so acceptable a price for the survival of the narrative that even the news agencies consider these deaths as secondary to the common and mundane events of daily life here in the US.

Will this election cycle in November really make any difference to how we envision doing "business" in the Middle East and South West Asia? You don't need to look any further than the venues which spew the "news of the day" and listen to the content of the speeches of political hopefuls for an answer to that. If there is no sense of urgency for the unreasonable price being paid for the defense of the inexplicable vision of our apathetic civilian servants, now, some 60 plus days out, what serious hope is there for a troop friendly change in November?

Nun scandal…REALLY?

SF

John Bernard