In Jaghatu, Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers are counting the months till their deployment ends. Between now and when they leave, they are “not doing a thing” and “not firing [their] weapons.”
They sit with their chins on the butts of their rifles and are told this constitutes “success on a mission.”
All U.S. troops are scheduled to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and in the interim the experience of the soldiers in Jaghatu is being repeated throughout the country.
In many cases, it appears soldiers are simply there because they’re not here. And as those in Jaghatu demonstrate, they are in-country sitting down, looking at each other, and talking about their wives and girlfriends back home. From time to time they walk to the homes of Afghans they’ve come to trust just to shake hands or small-talk or take pictures.
To date, the Afghanistan War has cost nearly $500 billion and over 2,000 American lives. And now, many U.S. outposts are full of soldiers seeking successful missions by “not doing a thing” and “not firing [their] weapons.”
It’s like M.A.S.H. without Alan Alda.
If this is how Obama’s going to fight it, it doesn’t make any sense to keep our troops there.
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