Major General Fuller is Right
Major General Peter Fuller lost it yesterday and committed an unpardonable political sin – spontaneously telling the truth to reporters:
US general fired from Afghan training job
….Referring to Karzai’s recent assertion that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if Pakistan got into a war with the U.S., Fuller was quoted as calling the comments “erratic,” adding, “Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me . I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you’re telling me, I don’t
really care?”
Fuller said the Afghans have at times made unreasonable requests for U.S. assistance.
“You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish,” Fuller was quoted as saying. “We’re giving them fish while they’re learning, and they want more fish! (They say,) ‘I like swordfish, how come you’re giving me cod?’ Guess what? Cod’s on the menu today.”
Fuller also said the Afghans don’t understand the extent to which the U.S. is in economic distress or the “sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security.” He said the Afghans are “isolated from reality.”
Allen said the “unfortunate comments” don’t represent the solid U.S. relationship with the Afghan government….
The relationship of the Karzai’s regime to the United States is a lot like that of a 32 year-old drug-addict living in his parent’s basement. The parents keep muddling through life, hoping their son will suddenly wake up one morning and decide to clean up his act, get a job, move out, get married and have 2.5 kids, a dog and a house with a white picket fence. The parents cling to that hope and cherish it but the reality is that the son staggers out of bed every day, sometime in the afternoon, only to go find their dealer, score some heroin and get high.
Karzai’s egime has less chance of governing Afghanistan effectively than the average heroin addict does of kicking their habit. And the reason is a) far and away Hamid Karzai and, secondarily b) Most Afghans fear a strong central government. The US has managed to do two things at the strategic level that a nation should never do in fighting a counterinsurgency war – support a government that will not take sensible measures even in the interest of it’s own survival and permit insurgents a sanctuary and third country sponsorship.
General Fuller’s career is now effectively over. Too bad we cannot say the same for Mr. Karzai.
November 5th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
. . . doesn’t represent the solid US relationship with the Afghan government?? Solid like what – jello? I’m glad somebody over there has the integrity to tell it like it is. God bless him. Now to find a puppet to replace him.
November 5th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Thinking back over the last few years, I am troubled by how many senior military officers have been fired for what they *said*. And not because anyone seriously thought what they said was inaccurate or divulged properly classified information: no, only because it was embarrassing to someone.
November 5th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Fuller should retire and run in the GOP presidential primary. Now that would be interesting. We’d have a much better debate on Afghanistan.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:46 am
"Fuller also said the Afghans don’t understand the extent to which the U.S. is in economic distress " As the American’s here in America, if they did I am sure they wouldn’t ask for so much. I wonder what Miss Manners would say about talking money when occupying a country? To me the General went off the deep-end. Probably too much stress and distress. I am sorry to see it, but it has hit the lower ranks years ago. The sad part is that his sacrifice didn’t do anything to help the position of our troops left in Afghanistan. Without resources we are kind of screwed in Afghanistan. It doesn’t seem like the "second" team is interested.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Fuller was right. He was absolutely right. But in the politically-charged environment within ISAF, being right doesn’t matter as much as being careful (with your words). There isn’t a senior leader in Kabul who doesn’t already know that Karzai has a loose round in the chamber, but he’s what we’ve got today and they have to support him publicly.
If anything good comes of this, MG Fuller will land on his feet somewhere and get back to doing what he does best: lead troops.
November 6th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Hi DM
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"There isn’t a senior leader in Kabul who doesn’t already know that Karzai has a loose round in the chamber, but he’s what we’ve got today and they have to support him publicly. "
.
We should have swallowed hard and threw him overboard in 2009 when his people did.
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"If anything good comes of this, MG Fuller will land on his feet somewhere and get back to doing what he does best: lead troops."
.
Let’s hope that is the case and that vindictive heads do not prevail
December 9th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Larry…
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