Anyone who knows me is very aware of just what the colors green and blue mean to me. One is good, one is bad. The green is Michigan State University. The blue, the rival, University of Michigan.
However right now this phrase means something more life and death than sports. It is the expression that describes the violence of Afghan National Security Forces against US Forces. In this case Green is the Afghan forces and Blue is the Americans. There has been a stunning surge in violence against American forces from our Afghan counterparts this year.
As a matter of fact, at this moment American soldiers are more likely to be killed by ANSF than IED's. Why? Because some idiot decided to open his mouth on YouTube. Because others decided to post inflammatory photos on facebook. Americans are being killed here in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world and we have got to find a way to make it stop.
This article from Time may help you to understand just where the paradox lies in trying to decide what to do next.
We cannot just pull out of Afghanistan. That would not be right. We also cannot thoughtlessly invade every country that pisses us off. That would not be right either. I have no idea what is right, but what I do know is that this is a crisis as worrisome to me as any American crisis of the past. Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis have so many American lives been threatened at home and abroad.
I want to thank everyone for the messages on facebook and the emails with your concern for our safety here. I promise we're doing everything we can to protect ourselves. We still have a mission to complete here and we're giving it our greatest effort. This is a very daunting challenge, but as we've always done...we will soldier on.
Until next time...
Chris
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