Tactics or Strategy? -- An Analysis From Bing West On What Is Happening In Afghanistan

U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Roberts and fellow soldiers patrol the Korengal valley during the early morning hours in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 13, 2009. Roberts is assigned to the 4th Infantry Division's Company B, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team. International Security Assistance Force Service members across Afghanistan have increased operations to ensure safety and security during the nation’s second national election scheduled for late August. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew Moeller

From The Small Wars Journal:

I came back from my latest month in the field in Afghanistan disquieted about our basic military mission. Is the military mission to engage, push back and dismantle the Talbian networks, with population protection being a tactic to gain tips and local militia, or is the military mission to build a nation by US soldiers protecting the widespread population, with engagements against the Taliban as a byproduct?

It appears our strategy is nation-building, with fighting and dismantling of the Taliban a secondary consideration. Thus, the number of enemy killed will not be counted, let alone used as a metric. This non-kinetic theory of counterinsurgency has persuaded the liberal community in America to support or at least not to vociferously oppose the war. But we have to maintain a balance between messages that gain domestic support and messages that direct battlefield operations.

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My Comment: A must read article from Bing West. He is essentially saying the same thing that bloggers like the Captain's Journal have been saying for the past two years .... we are not killing enough of the enemy to have an impact for the dollars and lives that we are now sacrificing in Afghanistan.