Posted on 09/04/2009 3:57:14 PM PDT by neverdem
THE Afghanistan debate is increasingly focused on two words: troop numbers.
Those numbers certainly deserve serious attention as President Obama decides whether to raise them even further this year. But in Afghanistan, as in past counterinsurgencies, it is important to remember that all troop numbers are not created equal. When it comes to indigenous forces, quality often matters more than quantity, and quality often declines when quantity increases.
Current recommendations of American and Afghan troop strengths are, for the most part, based on the size of the Afghan population. Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, has produced figures using a ratio of 25 troops for every 1,000 Afghans. His methodology assumes that increasing American troop strength by, say, 20 percent will increase counterinsurgency capacity by roughly the same amount. That assumption is correct, because the quality of the additional American units will be broadly similar to that of the others.
Where the methodology fails is in its assumption that...
--snip--
Some will object that those colonial wars are not relevant to our postcolonial world. Yet in postcolonial Vietnam, foreigners commanded indigenous troops through the combined-action program, an initiative long heralded as a paragon of enlightened counterinsurgency. The program succeeded by placing South Vietnamese militias and United States Marines under the leadership of American commanders.
Foreign intrusion into the leadership sphere will elicit accusations of neocolonialism and will slow the development of indigenous leaders. But the short-term benefits may justify the long-term costs if the indigenous leaders are grossly incapable, as they too often have been in Afghanistan, and if political realities demand rapid improvement. It could be better to protect the weak fledgling from its predators and teach it to fly later, than to insist on self-reliance and take the chance that it will be eaten on the ground.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We`can’t lead them. They either need to lead themselves or deal with the suppression of their murderous (I know not all) tendencies and actions.
No we cannot. The infidels are not going to dictate what Islam is to Muslims.
The only way to save the MIddle East from another thousand years of terror and oppression would be to invade them and forcibly convert them to any religion that isn’t Islam. In a couple of generations prosperity will be on the rise and there’ll be enough people who don’t consider themselves under the rule of Islamic strictures and imams and Islamic law that even those try to hold to Islam would behave better.
Unfortunately our Post WW-II world would frown on such region pacification.
I’ve decided that the height of Islamic culture and civilization in the Middle East was entirely by virtue of the accident that the Byzantine Empire left its conquerors with a taste for finery and civilization that Islam otherwise lacked the means to build for itself. And frankly they were unable to maintain it as they were literally a bunch of barbarians grafted on top of a civilized base that they eroded over time until it was diminished into non-existence in modern times.
Not actually advocating that anyone attempt it, but heck that’s how Islam took over the Middle East in the first place. Killed and conquered their way to the top and then forced everyone left alive to convert or join the dead.
On top of they have now taken over large sections of Europe. Will the West wake up before it is too late?
51% Say Congress is Too Liberal, 22% Say It’s Too Conservative
How American Health Care Killed My Father Long, but a good read from a rat, no less!
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Not possible. We cannot shed any more precious US blood for even one more Afghan Muslim.
Not the way we battle within the rules of engagement in the post modern sick and twisted NWO.
You don’t think these ragheads won’t claim that they defeated the Great Satan?
Thanks for the ping!
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