US trying to trumpet bin Laden death without creating more momentum to pull out US troops - The Washington Post By Robert Burns Associated Press
Here are my comments posted on The Washington Post to this article:
The US is mired down in politics of a most shameful kind rather than any wars. The US military has become the Jessica Lynch Bunch and managed to entrap Barack Obama in its deceit. The key for me is the huge concentration of effort focused on one person who was isolated by his reputation while 500 prisoners tunneled out of Kandahar prison. They made certain there were no tunnels leading out of OBL’s compound but ignored what was most important. Years of effort to capture and incarcerate prisoners went down the drain. OBL does not matter. 500 escaped prisoners in Kandahar do.
Barack Obama’s unseemly trek to NYC and Fort Campbell was painful to be aware of. I didn’t watch or follow these. I read the conflicting news that was put out and changed as time went by reminding me of Jessica Lynch. There is no ability to properly assess and do a job thoroughly and quietly when there is so much to be done. Nobody knows what is going to happen. That has always been the case. They are all bucking for promotion. What's a good career move, eh?
It is not possible to reflect on what those in the field think about OBL living in remote locations while they fight. The same is true of the US forces. Does that make any difference? No. This whole excursion to get OBL was a political show and had nothing to do with the insurgency in Afghanistan. There is an election coming up next year. It was all played for politics.
The US could have quietly done a job and concentrated its best efforts all around but has not done so. Petraeus is moving to the CIA and CIA is moving to DoD. A Marine is moving from Florida to Afghanistan. Barack Obama wants troops out for political reasons when he has failed to close Guantanamo and most especially stop torture in my direct experience since it goes on against me 24/7;365 by retired US Marines and others as it has for almost 13 years. .
There is no assessment. It’s is all wrong as I look at the terror attacks and watch this absurd surveillance against me that is the epitome of the Jessica Lynch bunch. This is what is going to motivate the insurgents and terrorists, and, I believe, they are going to get much, much worse. The brass and politicians are out of touch and won’t listen to those like me who know what is happening and describe it in advance. Maybe that’s easy because the US military is so very bad compared to what it used to be.
If they can hold me captive by surveillance technology for almost 13 years, they could have done the same to OBL given the nature of the surveillance technology about which no one knows anything except those of us being abused by it. Something is really wrong at the top across the board in the US. It’s time for critical analysis to start getting it right while not worrying about whose toes get stepped upon. The problem is everyone is a blabber mouth with nothing to say. $10 billion a month! OMG, this war is going to last forever, and OBL will be proven right.
*****Added Wednesday, 11th May 2011, a day after the above was written*****
With respect to intelligence assessments read this comment by the head of the UK military before the House of Commons concerning the UK's deployment to Afghanistan:
BBC News - Taliban resistance 'under-estimated' by Britain Intel failure to assess capacity & vehemence = "Hornet's Nest"
