Posted on 09/03/2009 5:12:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
War On Terror: A lot of well-meaning people are advising the White House to pull out of Afghanistan. The list even includes some conservative pundits. But they are mistaken. We must stay and finish what we started.
"America should do only what can be done (in Afghanistan) from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that really counts."
Will is not alone. The anti-war left — including Democrats in Congress such as Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold — want Obama to pull our troops out of Afghanistan. Now.
Cries for our departure reached a crescendo recently as Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, called the worsening situation there "serious." He has reason to be concerned.
According to icasualties.org, 153 troops died in July and August, the most since the U.S. invaded in late 2001. The Taliban is metastasizing again, attacking American and allied troops, setting off suicide bombs and retaking territory.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
We’re experiencing mission creep at the same time the Obama administration has imposed severe restrictions on the ROE. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Zerobama has proven over and over that he is a big mistake
There will never be a government that controls all of Afghanistan, the most the central government will control is about a thirty mile radius around Kabul. Even the Taliban only controlled half the country and since we will not use their tactics, I think some of our goals of a unified Afghanistan is a pipe dream.
Somehow people have gotten the idea that wars end on a certain date, following which everyone gets back to their lives.
Sadly, it has seldom ever been true. You fight in response to a danger, and the danger pulls back, reshapes itself, and comes at you again from another quarter. That is the reality of life. Peace and war are not absolutes, they are relative terms.
The last thing you want to do is to give back the ground you’ve won at the cost of people’s lives. Victories, once won, have to be maintained. If you aren’t willing to maintain the victory, then you may as well save yourself some trouble and just surrender right off the mark. Why win it only to give it back.
Yes it is. Our troops are being used as throw away political capital.
There’s some important ideas here. First and foremost, there are 30 million Afghans, and 110 million Pakistanis. Trying to change their situation, we have about 100,000 western soldiers and 90,000 Afghan soldiers, for better or worse.
There are not that many hardcore Taliban, or al-Qaeda left, but as long as there are radical madrassas in Pakistan, they will be able to get more cannon fodder. Also, as long as funding comes to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, they will be able to buy endless numbers of gunmen. Finally, there are the drug gangs, who can and do pay handsomely to stay in business. Most of our direct combat right now is against them.
So what we need is an Afghan government and people who have similar goals to ours. But many in their government are taking bribes from the drug gangs, and have other relationships with the Taliban.
And the Afghans in the North, who we are currently not fighting, have their own agenda, apart from the central government, and they could turn against it in an instant.
Afghanistan shares half its border with Pakistan, and for its part, it remains a divided and chaotic nation. For the time being, though, it is fed up with the mountain Taliban and is trying to pursue and destroy them. But this does not guarantee stability in any way.
So what does the US do? We could stay in Afghanistan until everyone in the US is sick of the place. Or, we could pull out our ground forces, and support both nations armies from the air. Or, as with Vietnam, which the Democrats utterly abandoned and left to fall into tyranny and despair, the Democrats could do that again.
“The latest to call on President Obama to retreat is the influential conservative George F. Will.”
A couple of points
1 I wonder who George talked to, what sources he read before he wrote his column?
2 I would pay good money to watch him (try to) debate someone who actally knows something about...
A. Military affairs
B. COIN
C. Afghanistan...Pakistan
Someone like Robert D Kaplan, David Kilcullen come to mind.
3. As to why we need to stay engaged on the ground a small question....
How long does it take to fly from Kabul to Kansas City?
“Or, we could pull out our ground forces, and support both nations armies from the air.”
A problem with that, the ANA is not that strong...yet. not strong enough to take on the Pahtun Taliban or the warlords.
The ANP still has a well deserved reputation for corruption and is not trusted by the Afghans.
We got some work to do.
Counter-Insurgency is one of the hardest types of war to win, in that it takes a lot of time and until the moment insurgents lose they look like they are very strong.
The trouble with that is, that while the US military is very good at organizing and training other military, it is something of a futile gesture unless the civilian authority is likewise trained and modernized.
This was a Vietnam mistake. Though once the Democrats cut off the South Vietnamese from any support, the ARVN still continued to fight against overwhelming odds for two years before being defeated. But without an orderly central government to back their play, they had no chance.
You might want to go here....
Thomas PM Barnett
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/thomas_barnett_draws_a_new_map_for_peace.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.