Saturday, October 1, 2011

Can We Still Win In Afghanistan?

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Gary Volesky, left, talks to troops as they take a short break while on patrol near Wanat Village in the Waygul Valley, Afghanistan, Sept. 22, 2011. Volesky is the Combined Joint Task Force-1 and Regional Command-East Deputy Commanding General Maneuver, and the soldiers are assigned to the 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Zackary Root

This War Can Still Be Won -- Fernando M. Lujan, New York Times

RETURNING home after 14 months in Afghanistan, I’ve sensed a growing gloom over the American war effort there. Many of the policy wonks, politicos and academics I encounter here seem resigned to failure.

While sipping their Starbucks, a few mutter the word “unwinnable.” They speak in grim sound bites: A gunfight on the United States Embassy’s doorstep. A helicopter shot out of the sky. But before people outside the Beltway accept this hardening conventional wisdom as fact, allow me to offer a different view.

Read more ....

My Comment: I do not share this "optimistic" point of view .... but it is still worth a read because it does give a slight glimmer of hope that not all is lost in Afghanistan.

1 comment:

oldfatslow said...

I'm more optimistic. A
recent major operation to
an area that has historically
been a hot bed of the Taliban
had so little contact with
the enemy, that our guys called
off the week long mission after
only two days.

News seems to take a long
time to get filtered from the
battlefields to the front
pages that we may still be
some weeks away from reading
about it in the papers.

ofs