"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live."
Catch-22 - Yossarian to Clevinger.
They're quite worried about perception. At a NATO meeting in London earlier last week where the top focus was on Afghanistan and the need for solidarity, Robert Gates said: "If we are making progress, if it's clear that we have the right strategy, then I think the people will be patient. The one thing none of the publics, and I would say including the American public, will tolerate is the perception of a stalemate. All of us, for our publics, are going to have to show by the end of the year that our strategy is on the track, making some headway."
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In at least one way, this is just like Vietnam. If you can pull out with tail between legs in 1975, why not 1974? Why not 1973 or 72?
"Four U.S. troops were killed Wednesday when Taliban fire brought down their helicopter in the southern province of Helmand, the scene of a major U.S. offensive centered on the strategic farming region of Marja over the past several months. That brought the death toll of NATO soldiers just this week to 23, including 10 killed in various attacks around the country on Monday, the deadliest day for NATO forces in two years."
"It's been a tough week," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday.
http://www.commondreams.org/...
Yes, Mr. Spokesman, it's been a tough week. And a tough eight years. But perception is everything and somehow Robert Gates and his cohorts will seek to change that perception so they can stay in Afghanistan. Since 53% of Americans now oppose the occupation, you can imagine his concern. It doesn't matter that more will be killed. What matters is perception and how to make the public perceive we are "winning".
Who will be the last soldiers killed before they finally realize their Catch 22 cannot be sustained? Darwin Lee Judge and Charles McMahon, Jr. were the last soldiers killed in action in Vietnam. Darwin was a 19 year old All American kid from Iowa when he gave his life for our country. Charles was a beloved son from Woburn, Mass. On April 29, 1975, Americans were evacuating Saigon. Lance Corporal Darwin L. Judge and Corporal Charles McMahon Jr. were killed during a mortar attack on Ton Sun Nhut Airbase, the last two of over 58,000 Americans who died serving their country in Southeast Asia. They are still dearly missed by their family and friends over 35 years later.
Someone is going to join the ranks of Darwin and Charles as the last to die in a criminal and unnecessary war. Until then, many more will die trying to alter the perception of the world for their leaders.
If we can get out at the end of 2011, as Obama has suggested, then why not now? What can they expect to accomplish in eighteen months? We've been there over eight years. It's been nearly five years since Katrina hit us and we still haven't built up that area. Who are they trying to fool? Oh ya, the public.
No, it's clear they want to stay and to do that they realize they need to change the perception. They need to make the public perceive that we are making progress and that leaving would not be in our or the Afghanistan people's best interests. Right after Gates pronounced that the public perception must be changed, the story in the New York Times was planted stating that one trillion dollars of mineral wealth had been "discovered" in Afghanistan.
An interesting thing about that. The naysayers who proclaimed that the notion we are in Afghanistan because of oil and natural gas pipelines is nonsense because of security considerations suddenly take a different tact regarding this news. They act as if this is actually "new" news. These are people who still believe or want us to believe in the war on terror. The latest news about the mineral wealth, put forth in an effort to change the public perception, actually reinforces what many knew from the start. That fact that Afghanistan is part of the "resource wars" is old news and has been shouted from the rooftops since right after the illegal invasion.
We're going to have another Darwin Lee Judge and our Charles McMahon Jr. sooner or later. There's nothing to be done about that. Someone has to be last. But we can still save many lives by getting out now. They won't unless the public makes them. Don't believe the perceptions they will try to create. The military occupation of Afghanistan must end now. If you really want to stop these illegal, aggressive actions of your country, tell your representatives that they must stop approving the war supplementals or they will lose your vote.