Rajan Menon, National Interest: There Is No Military Path to Victory in Afghanistan
Fifteen years of fighting and trillions of dollars has not produced success.
Few will say it, but the facts are indisputable: America’s war in Afghanistan has failed. There comes a time when persisting in a lost cause amounts to foolishness, indeed irresponsibility. That time has arrived.
Washington’s minimal goals were to vanquish the Taliban, root out Al Qaeda and build a stable, effective government whose army and police would eventually fight the Taliban independently and successfully while maintaining law and order across the land. These objectives have not been meet.
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WNU Editor: It took the Soviets 8 years to figure out that short of slaughtering the entire population, there is no military pathway to victory in Afghanistan .... a lesson that the U.S. is still trying to figure out. Unfortunately .... the costs keep on rising .... Report: Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan cost almost $5 trillion so far (Military Times).
4 comments:
The USSR could have won in 1986 or a few years later, if the U.S. had done its usual 1/2 ass job.
With out the US/Saudi/Pakistani jihadi highway of foreign jihadi's, arms and money, months before the Soviet Intervention, the "Afghan War" would have just been one of those tribal revolts nobody ever remembers, that last a few months or so.
the Soviets would have replaced 1 puppet with another puppet using their paratroopers and JJ would have frolicked in the streets of some Western city.
Jimmy Carter's gift keeps on giving, 38 years later,
Now of course, his Islamic Jihad stopped killing Soviets a long time ago, now it focuses on "Westerners" and their allies.
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