poopshovel wrote:fast_eddie_72 wrote:Indeed, and not just real people, but just kids in a lot of cases. Thanks for your service, Dave. I hope you know that I certainly don't mean any disrespect to our troops. Quite the opposite.DustoffDave wrote: I've had close friends killed and wounded in Afghanistan and I have personally loaded some of my own men onto medevac helicopters, turned around, wiped their blood off of my face and hands and loaded another. Bring them (us) all home -- it's time.Wow. Thanks for your service. I was thinking about all this over the weekend. It's kind of a crime that all the economic news so overshadowed the news of the hellicopter downed and the huge loss. I imagine the families of those folks aren't real concerned with their 401k right now. It's really easy to forget what's really going on every day and that those are real people.
I certainly didn't read any disrespect in what you wrote. And I appreciate everyone's support of the guys doing the work in those places (seen or unseen).
I think that we have certainly made it more difficult for the Taliban to continue operations as they did prior to our invasion. As far as making it place where they can no longer operate... I don't think so. If we can't stop terrorists from training and equipping on our own soil (which is where we should have a bit more focus) then we certainly can't ensure that it won't happen in a place like either Afghanistan or Pakistan. We can harass and disrupt with precision attacks from the air and by the guys that wear the green berets (and their other army and navy brethren) and I think that is the best we will ever be able to do about the terrorists in those places. I certainly say that they bad guys fear the special operators a lot more than large, occupying ground forces (which they've been dealing with for centuries).
