Let me cut to the chase: I just don’t see how a 25- and a 21-year-old, both non-special-forces, are going to train 30 Afghanis into shape not to get over-run without US support.

And it defies comprehension to think anybody could believe this possible.

Do they even speak the language? I’ll have to read the rest of the article.

The Korangal Valley is now the shit. This is Obama’s war and all the journalists want to be there. I wonder how many know the history and what a meatgrinder it is. For everybody. Obama and all the generals in the US military (including Petraeus) simply don’t “GET” Afghanistan.

It is and always has been LOSE-LOSE-LOSE. You die, she dies, everybody dies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/world/asia/01firebase.html?hp

“The corporal has tied a flea collar through his belt loops; he needs it like a dog. He served two tours in Iraq. His four-year enlistment ended last month, but he extended for nine months when promised he would be assigned to a combat outpost in Afghanistan.”

So why has he not been made a sergeant? Why has he not been sent to OCS?! This shit absolutely makes blood boil. These are the toughest motherfuckers in the US military, and this is how they are treated? What is wrong with us as a nation?

Read this again. He only signed when they promised him Korengal. The man is sick. That’s what Central Command thinks. He makes Odierno look like the pussy he is.

In all, Corporal Conroy said, in five months here, he and Lance Corporal Murray have been attacked more than 70 times. He said he respected the insurgents’ courage, but was grateful that most of them lacked an essential skill.

With all due respect to Conroy, this skill is a radio that works and close support from Reaper/Predator/Hellfire and F-15/18 500-lb laser guided death.

The Afghan captain who worked here until early April was overweight, lazy and rarely left the firebase. He used Afghan infantryman as valets. “I expected to come in and find the soldiers dropping grapes in his mouth,” Corporal Conroy said.

“Or fanning him with a palm branch,” said Lance Corporal Murray.

A new Afghan lieutenant rotated in last week. He is neat and lean, and has shown self-discipline and tactical sense. The Marines celebrated his arrival by buying a chestnut-and-white bull.

The Afghan soldiers bound the animal’s legs and flipped it onto its side. A soldier worked a blade across its throat. These Afghan soldiers eat meat once every two or three weeks. Tonight they would feast.

They were palpably happy. “Let Barack Obama come here and kill a cow for us,” one said. The rest laughed.

Corporal Conroy watched until the jokes subsided. War, like politics, is local. He reminded the Afghans that a platoon looked out for itself, and that he was the senior American on hand. “You don’t need Obama here,” he said. “I bought the cow.”

That’s what you get for ruining my birthday, Bitch!