Daniel L. Davis, Time: The U.S. Has Failed ‘Spectacularly’ in Afghanistan
Daniel L. Davis is a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army.
Here are 3 ways to repair the damage.
According to its official website, the U.S. Department of State seeks to help promote “a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere.” That is a praiseworthy objective to be sure. Unfortunately, when it comes to the U.S.’s government’s effort in Afghanistan, it has failed to achieve this. Spectacularly.
Instead of acknowledging its shortcomings in appropriate humility and making necessary changes to repair the damage, the U.S. government chooses to shape public opinion by tirelessly spinning the mission to appear as a success. This fact-spinning has resulted in keeping Afghanistan unstable.
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WNU Editor: The focus is on the U.S. and its failure in Afghanistan .... but Afghanistan is actually an international failure .... NATO, the UN, neighbouring states .... everyone has had a hand in making this debacle happen. Could this be corrected and the damage be repaired .... is there any hope to end this war .... sadly .... I have no reason to be optimistic. This 'spectacular' U.S. failure in Afghanistan is also a personal failure for President Obama. This war has been on his desk for 8 years .... but he is now shuffling the hard decisions to the next President. Sighhh .... I had high hopes in the beginning that he would marshal the resources and formulate the necessary strategy to end this conflict .... or to at least contain it. I was wrong.
Hat tip to reader Jay for this link.
7 comments:
"Instead of acknowledging its shortcomings in appropriate humility and making necessary changes to repair the damage, the U.S. government chooses to shape public opinion by tirelessly spinning the mission to appear as a success."
Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Nigeria, Lybia, NWTP, Sudan, Columbia, the Phillipines,
"Spinning failure as sucess".
Obama is failing after dragging his feet and then 1/2 assing the Afghanistan Surge.
Just like Obam is so much smarter than his speech writers, he is also so much smarter than generals in the field.
Sorry Aizino .... but this is a bipartisan screw-up. There is a lot of blame to go around on this one .... a lot.
If you go back to Iraq, the first thing that was done after the invasion was to destroy police, bureaucracy, schools, power, hospitals, etc. and ravage the constitution. Afghanistan is not even a nation formed by the wishes of its people, but is a European construct consisting of varied peoples separated by language, desert and mountains. Since 'Stan' means land of such and such people ( and is a myth ) is it any surprise that the 'country' is likewise ? Into this sandbox troops are poured to roam and kill without sense except random violence. Homes are flattened and emergency response is targeted for execution. Sounds like the PNAC has destroyed things quite adequately.
A "failure" unless you are one of the contractors or vendors preparing the invoices.
Russia spent time getting rid of the U.S. air bridge to Afghanistan through Central Asia.
Supplies to Iraq were stopped to fund them going to Afghanistan. Given the budget allowed, it was not big enough to surge both in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time.
Spectacular, perhaps, expected certainly.
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