Change of tactics in Afganistan?

[JackLuis]

I caught this link about "Are we doing the right thing in "Surging in Afghanistan'?

Here

Interesting.

 

[rgraham666]

If the Brits and the Soviets, who were much better at the imperialism thing than the U.S., couldn't beat the Afghans, I fail to see how the U.S. will succeed.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yeah. We need a major policy reassessment of what we're doing in Afghanistan. More than Iraq, we face a Vietnam situation in Afghanistan, an indigenous population that doesn't share our values, doesn't want us there, and has been waging a nationalistic struggle for their own independence for decades.

There's no military solution to Afghanistan, only a political one, and if Obama isn't careful, the country will be his Vietnam.

 

[R. Richard]

If the Brits and the Soviets, who were much better at the imperialism thing than the U.S., couldn't beat the Afghans, I fail to see how the U.S. will succeed.

The US suceeded by using mainly Afghans to fight Afghans. For all of his supposed stupidity, GW Bush had a very clever plan.

Unfortunately, there is a place named Pakistan,next to Afghanistan. The Taliban who were forced out of Afghanistan, went to Pakistan and regrouped. The US,and even Afghans, couldn't legally go into Pakistan and wipe out the Taliban.

Fortunately, the US military had a really clever strategy. They use unmanned drone aircraft to launch missiles against Taliban strongholds in the Waziristan area of Pakistan. The US military used the unmanned drones against the Taliban under GW Bush and they're now doing the same thing under Obama.

The Pakistani government doesn't like the drone attacks. However, they can prove nothing.

 

[R. Richard]

Yeah. We need a major policy reassessment of what we're doing in Afghanistan. More than Iraq, we face a Vietnam situation in Afghanistan, an indigenous population that doesn't share our values, doesn't want us there, and has been waging a nationalistic struggle for their own independence for decades.

There's no military solution to Afghanistan, only a political one, and if Obama isn't careful, the country will be his Vietnam.

I must disagree with you. There are several indigenous populations, most of whom hate the other indigenous populations. Most of the indigenous populations hate the Taliban. The situation can be handled by someone who can think.

The Taliban foot soldiers are mostly from the indigenous populations. The Taliban leaders are mostly foreigners. Pay the Afghans and the Pakistanis to turn in the foreign Taliban. Pay the Afghans and the Pakistanis double if they turn in the foreign Taliban with confessions of murder, correct descriptions of where the Taliban are located in Waziristan and a two part, two day turn in process. Head the first day and the rest of the body the second day. Let the UN then supply the captured Taliban leaders with full and complete legal representation. If the UN has problems with the Afghan's treatment of the Taliban leaders, then let the UN go into the remote Afghan tribal areas and deal with the Afghans. [I don't know where you took high school English, but where I took high school English, the dead can walk and talk for real. A useful concept.]

 

[JackLuis]

It would be cheaper to pull the Army out and just use the money we're spending to bribe the Afghan Govt. The Taliban is not a threat to us and if they start to be we just swoop in and spray the poppies just before harvest.

We can convert the A-10's to effective Crop Dusters.

Let the Afghan's figure it out, just cut the opium production and that will cut off the money that feeds the bad guys.

 

[R. Richard]

It would be cheaper to pull the Army out and just use the money we're spending to bribe the Afghan Govt. The Taliban is not a threat to us and if they start to be we just swoop in and spray the poppies just before harvest.

We can convert the A-10's to effective Crop Dusters.

Let the Afghan's figure it out, just cut the opium production and that will cut off the money that feeds the bad guys.

You envision vast fields of poppies growing out the horizon. The Afhan poppy fields are much smaller, widely scattered plots that feed Afghan families. Kill the poppies, starve the families to death.

As was posted earlier, substituing saffron for the poppies works.

However, the Taliban come into an Afghan village and tell the villagers that they will grow the poppies [narcotic in the local lingo] and then the Taliban take the lion's share of the money. The only way to solve the problem is to convert the Taliban into good guys. The only good Taliban is a dead Taliban.

 

[amicus]

To sound a sour note in this discussion, I suggest replacing the word, Taliban, with Islamic Terrorists and then comparing that term to international Communism.

It isn't a cold war all over again, with two superpowers nose to nose in all corners of the Globe, no, not at all.

But is is a global conflict between Islam and the West and as a character said in, "Vantage Point", it is a war that will never end.

The West met the Soviets in Korea and Vietnam and is still opposed by Russian weapons in the middle east and has been since the Arab/Israeli conflict began in the 40's.

It is not difficult to predict the direction of the new administration; they are and will continue to gut the military and the intelligence community until an event such as 9/11 brings their floppy ears to attention again.

Another Clinton era of taking it on the chin and turning the other cheek for more.

Such a deal, eh?

Amicus...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We originally went to Afghanistan to capture bin Laden. Osama used Afghanistan as a haven for al Qaeda. Guantanamo is filled with al Qaeda, remember?

 

[JackLuis]

Change of Tactics?

We went into Afghanistan to get Bin Ladan and , "missed him by that much!"

After eight years of "Nation Building" let's just declare victory and leave.

The Afghans will be happier and we'll save a ton of casualties. It's not like we are doing any good there, the schools we build get blown up, the roads are all mined, the bridges we would build will be blown up. Lets just pull the troops.

Armies are made to kill and destroy not nurture and rebuild. Didn't we learn from Viet Nam that if the people don't want you there it is only a matter of time before the cost of an Army of Occupation becomes too expensive to keep?

Now those who say we need to support the Afghan Government have a point. After all we were the ones who tore down their old Government and set up the new one. So support them with money, preferably, NATO's money.

Now I know that the surge worked in Iraq, but the reason it worked is not more troops doing the same thing, it was more troops doing rational things.

The rational thing to do in Afghanistan is move out the Combat troops and let Special Forces do their thing. SF was winning the war and tracking down Osama, then the Generals started agitating for larger forces and more Generals in charge of things so they could get their tickets punched and get promoted.

Nation building is what the SF has trained for and is good at. Let them do it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The rational thing to do is shoot ragheads whenever one of them pops his head out of his burrow. Ragheads are the problem.