Kevin Drum, Mother Jones: Yet Another American Military Mission Is Failing
I suppose you have to read the whole thing to get the true flavor of the situation, but here's the latest from Afghanistan:
In September, the Taliban briefly seized Kunduz, the first city to fall since the demise of its regime, prompting the U.S. military to dispatch Special Operations troops and stage airstrikes to help the Afghan security forces retake control.
Now, the insurgents are on the doorsteps of several provincial capitals, applying more pressure on urban areas than in any year of the conflict. The clashes in Helmand have reflected the Taliban strategy that led to the takeover of Kunduz — seizing surrounding districts before moving in on the provincial capital. Already, the Taliban are in the enclave of Babaji, within the borders of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah.
....Afghans, including senior military officials, no longer even pretend that they can fight the Taliban effectively on their own. “When the foreigners were here, we had plenty of facilities and equipment,” said 1st Lt. Naseer Ahmad Sahel, 30, a civil-order police company commander who was wounded last month in a firefight in Marja. “There were 100 cameras overlooking Marja alone.”
Faqir, the commander of the 215th Corps, said, “We don’t have the air support that we should have.”
There isn't a single country from Libya to Afghanistan where American military intervention has succeeded, nor a single country where American military training has been anything but a disaster. We can't do counterinsurgency on our own, and the troops we've tried to train are too divided in their loyalties to be effective.
WNU Editor: If there ever was a time for a reassessment of U.S. foreign/military/war strategy and policy .... it is now. Unfortunately .... the American political class is more focused on the 2016 election cycle than on the growing military and political disasters that are occurring in multiple locations right now as a result of U.S. action or policy.
Gen. Mohammed Moeen Faqir is the current commander of the 215th Corps, ANA, in Helmand which was the homeland of the Taliban, and was the focus of Obama's 2010 surge. ISAF suffered 952 KIA in Helmand, by far the most for any province.
ReplyDeleteThe previous commander of the 215th Corps in Helmand, Gen. Sayid Malouk was dismissed a couple of years ago. From a June 3, 2012 news report:
Maj. Gen. Sayed Malouk emphasized that the public and the ANA have a common goal—peace. He added the ANA soldiers and Afghan civilian are exposed daily to the danger of war.“They’re tired of war,” said Malouk. “They’re frustrated, they no longer want to be in this war. This (war) is something that’s been imposed by other people from beyond this country; and the Afghan (insurgents) who have been fighting against the ANSF, they themselves have been victims of this war. They have been encouraged by those others.” Brigadier Gen. Ghulam Farooq, deputy commander, 215th Corps: “We’ve had continuous war in this country, we’re tired of war and we wish for peace.”
the self inflicted wounds on our military are made possible by our own backwards administration. it should be noted that this kind of crap has been happening since vietnam and has been responsible for many unnecessary deaths of our own men. despite this, our military has been fighting effectively and heroically in battle with its hands tied for many years, imagine what that same military could do with the muzzle taken off?
ReplyDelete"We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."
winston churchill 13MAY1940
"imagine what that same military could do with the muzzle taken off? "
DeleteJust a higher death toll. The hubris of the US at the first Loya Jurga, the hubris of Bremer, doomed the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan from the early days.
This what, the third time the UK has struck out in Afghanistan? from the files:
ReplyDelete"Every influence, every motive, that provokes the spirit of murder among men, impels these mountaineers to deeds of treachery and violence. The strong aboriginal propensity to kill, inherent in all human beings, has in these valleys been preserved in unexampled strength and vigour.
"That religion, which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword -- the tenets and principles of which are instinct with incentives to slaughter and which in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men -- stimulates a wild and merciless fanaticism. The love of plunder, always a characteristic of hill tribes, is fostered by the spectacle of opulence and luxury which, to their eyes, the cities and plains of the south display.
"A code of honour not less punctilious than that of old Spain, is supported by vendettas as implacable as those of Corsica. . . .. Then the Mullah will raise his voice and remind them of other days when the sons of the prophet drove the infidel from the plains of India, and ruled at Delhi, as wide an Empire as the Kafir holds to-day: when the true religion strode proudly through the earth and scorned to lie hidden and neglected among the hills: when mighty princes ruled in Baghdad, and all men knew that there was one God, and Mahomet was His prophet.
"And the young men hearing these things will grip their Martinis [British rifles], and pray to Allah, that one day He will bring some Sahib[British] -- best prize of all -- across their line of sight at seven hundred yards so that, at least, they may strike a blow for insulted and threatened Islam." -- Winston Churchill, journalist, 1897, aged 23