Posted on 08/31/2009 1:25:00 AM PDT by Jonny foreigner
A report by the top US general in Afghanistan is expected to admit the current strategy is not working, the BBC understands.
General Stanley McChrystal will liken the US military to a bull charging at a matador [the Taliban] - slightly weakened with each "cut" it receives.
His review is also expected to say that protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban must be the top priority.
But the report will not carry a direct call for increasing troop numbers.
The leak came as further results from last week's presidential election were expected to be released, at 1230 GMT. President Hamid Karzai is leading so far.
The independent Electoral Complaints Commission says that of more than 2,100 allegations of wrongdoing during voting and vote-counting, 618 have been deemed serious enough to affect the election's outcome, if proven. Crisis of confidence
BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says General McChrystal's bullfighting metaphor is striking because it is not the usual way that US commanders talk about the country's armed forces.
The general's blunt assessment will also say that the Afghan people are undergoing a crisis of confidence because the war against the Taliban has not made their lives better, our correspondent says.
General McChrystal says the aim should be for Afghan forces to take the lead but their army will not be ready to do that for three years and it will take much longer for the police.
And he will warn that villages have to be taken from the Taliban and held, not merely taken.
General McChrystal also wants more engagement with the Taliban fighters and he believes that 60% of the problem would go away if they could be found jobs.
More than 30,000 extra US troops have been sent to Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
So I guess ordering the USAF to stop bombing the Taliban and the Marines to stop shooting at them in the villages is not working out as well as Gates had hoped....?
Maybe if we would only be nicer...
Talk things out...
Just like TINKER AND TANKER IN AFRICA ! ( Tinker is a rabbit, and Tanker is a hippopotamus. ) They are crossing a river and are accosted by crocodiles. "Don't you have anything better to do than scaring innocent travelers?" remonstrates Tinker. "No! We have nothing better to do!" respond the crocodiles. Tinker and Tanker give them beach balls to keep them occupied, and continue on their way.
I was always impressed by the forthrightness of the crocodiles.
drop the ROE’s , kill the enemy until we have won
no quarter
it really looks like regardless what “we” do it will be allways “wrong”. using more caution and to try desperate not to hurt civilians when fighting the Taliban will result in more dead soldiers. to don´t do this will result in more potentional enemys because as misplaced bombing run for example will recruit many more fighters for the enemy. but then again this is Afghanistan so it´s not even shure who exactly the enemy is right now (they change a lot).
The only thing that could work would be to literally gather all the villagers in a single defensible area. They shuffled folks around rather rudely in Iraq, Baghdad in particular, in order to keep Sunni and Shiite out of each other’s faces. Afghanistan is much more spread out.
We could but who’s going to grow the opium?
yeah but speaking from my own experience it´s quite hard to differ between an afghan civilan and a potentional enemy fighter. nor is there any guarantee that a so called “civilian” of today may not attack you tommorow.
Worst comes to worst, it’s easier to police a small city than an endless backwoods.
true but an other problem is that even many of the “civilians” can easy become violent because of the “lowest” incident. there is not so much difference as you may think between a Taliban and a standart “civilian”.
For example they may not like the Taliban but this does not mean that they would be against vendetta, poppy trade, child marriage, or beating their wifes, or treathing them like cattle in general... and if “you” would dare to interfere in something like this most “civilians” would have no problem in try to kill you over this.
So I guess that Captain Kenya with his hope and change is not working or is he just another Robert McNamara, believing containment abroad and Communism at home virtually ensures success; for whom? Crime Lords, Islamofascists and enemies of America. Oh, that’s right he is best buds with all the Marxists and like minded anti-American crowd; a wolf playing sheep, to the fold.
Although I do have a suggestion, eliminate the playing around using ROE; for dead guys don’t fight back.
If they do, they do. Nobody ever claimed you could make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
Taliban/AlQaeda can be ferreted out because they aren’t happy to just sit put in Afghanistan and treat their wives like cattle, they want to spread their dominance to nearby regions.
Taliban/AlQaeda can be ferreted out because they aren’t happy to just sit put in Afghanistan and treat their wives like cattle, they want to spread their dominance to nearby regions.
Our son is currently slotted to go to California from Camp LeJeune after Christmas for desert warfare training prepartory to shipping out to Afghanistan in the spring. His five year hitch is up in May, and he has decided that he doesn’t care to salute CIC Zer0. I hope that he will be out before orders come thru for his outfit to go to Afghanistan. He accepts, as do his wife, his mother, and me that he is in the profession of arms and that people get killed in that profession. He enlisted originally because he believed that the War on Terror needed to be fought and the filth defeated no matter what, and he has served one tour in Iraq. Zer0 is the tool of his hate America base. I think that every single one of our warriors killed or maimed on Zer0’s watch is a waste of a life whose blood is on Zer0’s hands. This war is no longer about victory, its about saving Zer0’s ass, and not one life is worth that.
A report by the top US general in Afghanistan is expected to admit the current strategy is not working, the BBC understands.
It didn’t work for the Russians either.
Bush was smart not to get too involved in Afghanistan.
i totally agree on afghanistan. this “mission” is not worth the death of “only” a single soldier anymore. but still brave young men have to die because politicians are unwilling to accept the inevitable. that afghanistan is a lost cause as it has allways been. “we” can stay there and fight forever and it will change nothing because the people there will never change. i hope your son stays save.i wish him good luck and may he soon come back to his loved ones.
greetings
We are losing the Afgan war because:
1. We allow the Poppy farming to continue, providing the insurgents with funds
2. We let the Taliban have safe haven in Pakistan
3. We still mostly look the other way at Pakistan’s complicity.
4. We have adopted ROEs that tie our hands and aide the enemy. Like the 96-hour “catch and release” policy
5. We need enough troops to do the job. We have this peverse mindset where we try to do things with just enough troops to keep from losing, but not enough to win.
You had better be careful. Whenever we cut and run, it makes it that much harder for us to succeed in the future.
This scares me since my relatives will be fighting.
Zero has recommitted to the “hearts and minds” failure of MacNamara only this time substitute Muslims.
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