Posted on May 20, 2019
Ex-Navy SEAL who claims to have killed Bin Laden: Afghanistan War ‘can’t be solved with bullets...
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“That’s a difficult question,” Robert J. O’Neill said in response to a Herald reporter’s inquiry about the Afghanistan War, while he attended a veterans event Sunday in Malden. “It’s definitely worth trying to defeat the radical ideology we’re up against.
“Having been to combat so many times, the 43-year-old Rob O’Neill is not as eager to go to war as the 27-year-old Rob O’Neill was,” he added. “There’s a lot of stuff out there that can’t be solved with bullets and bombs. I hope there’s a better way.”
His comments at Boston’s Wounded Vets Run Motorcycle Ride come after violent Taliban attacks last week in Kabul. Militants attacked an American-run contractor, killing nine people. Twenty others were wounded.
American officials in the last six months have met with the Taliban several times in order to reach a peace agreement and withdraw from Afghanistan, but those meetings have not been fruitful. President Trump in April called the war “unfortunate” and “ridiculous,” and numerous Democratic candidates for president are calling for the the U.S. to end the conflict there.
“Having been to combat so many times, the 43-year-old Rob O’Neill is not as eager to go to war as the 27-year-old Rob O’Neill was,” he added. “There’s a lot of stuff out there that can’t be solved with bullets and bombs. I hope there’s a better way.”
His comments at Boston’s Wounded Vets Run Motorcycle Ride come after violent Taliban attacks last week in Kabul. Militants attacked an American-run contractor, killing nine people. Twenty others were wounded.
American officials in the last six months have met with the Taliban several times in order to reach a peace agreement and withdraw from Afghanistan, but those meetings have not been fruitful. President Trump in April called the war “unfortunate” and “ridiculous,” and numerous Democratic candidates for president are calling for the the U.S. to end the conflict there.
Ex-Navy SEAL who claims to have killed Bin Laden: Afghanistan War ‘can’t be solved with bullets...
Posted from bostonherald.com
Osama Bin Laden
Navy SEALs
Afghanistan
Malden
Motorcycles
Posted 5 y ago
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When I was there, I passed mountains once viewed by Alexander the Great, stayed in a fort once garrisoned by the British, and a camp once manned by the Soviet Union. Everyone's had a go, and no one has left the place "victorious". Is that because the Afghans are better fighters? Is it because the terrain itself is so ruthless? Is it because for every insurgent killed, five more seem to spring up from the ground?
No-It's because every nation that went in there misunderstood what they were there to do, misidentified the reasons for resistance, and misapplied the lessons learned by others. It would be like someone invading Texas and hoping to ally with one denomination of Christians to defeat another, while assuming everyone affiliated with one or the other was an "ally" or "enemy"...while completely ignoring everyone who subscribed to neither.
There isn't one war in Afghanistan: there are myriad tribal wars, gang wars, holy wars, and proxy wars being fought...each for different reasons. Neither is there one unified "Taliban"...there are Talibs that want peace, some that want war, and some that want both.
Perhaps our (and others) greatest error is in presuming that "they" don't understand our divisions, our conflicted purposes, or our differing ideologies. We look at a dirty Afghan kneeling in his ancient dust and imagine he doesn't "get" that each of "us" is just trying to get home... while he is already at home. We listen to their odd, sing-song speech and imagine they are not intelligent enough to know that as long as we are there, American dollars will keep flowing. We stare into sun-beaten eyes that seem to belong to a more "savage" species...and fail to realize those eyes look upon us with similar contempt, even when compelled by their own interests to work with us. We drink chai, talk about education and peace... even show token deference to their beliefs, all while providing choices few of them can ever make.
We think they want our war to end...when what they really want is to win the war they were already fighting when we got there.
No-It's because every nation that went in there misunderstood what they were there to do, misidentified the reasons for resistance, and misapplied the lessons learned by others. It would be like someone invading Texas and hoping to ally with one denomination of Christians to defeat another, while assuming everyone affiliated with one or the other was an "ally" or "enemy"...while completely ignoring everyone who subscribed to neither.
There isn't one war in Afghanistan: there are myriad tribal wars, gang wars, holy wars, and proxy wars being fought...each for different reasons. Neither is there one unified "Taliban"...there are Talibs that want peace, some that want war, and some that want both.
Perhaps our (and others) greatest error is in presuming that "they" don't understand our divisions, our conflicted purposes, or our differing ideologies. We look at a dirty Afghan kneeling in his ancient dust and imagine he doesn't "get" that each of "us" is just trying to get home... while he is already at home. We listen to their odd, sing-song speech and imagine they are not intelligent enough to know that as long as we are there, American dollars will keep flowing. We stare into sun-beaten eyes that seem to belong to a more "savage" species...and fail to realize those eyes look upon us with similar contempt, even when compelled by their own interests to work with us. We drink chai, talk about education and peace... even show token deference to their beliefs, all while providing choices few of them can ever make.
We think they want our war to end...when what they really want is to win the war they were already fighting when we got there.
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I read his book. I think some other operator nailed UBL first, but O'Neil claims credit. Others say it was not him although he did shoot him.
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