[skikvt]

Sounds like a retreat. It's a losing strategy. I am thoroughly disgusted.

[SevenMinusOne]

Gen. McCrystal doesn't know the word retreat or defeat. He is a leader, a warrior, a hunter and someone when given a task can get the job done. As he did repeatedly at JSOC - Given, he is given the resources needed to do so. He has a plan that can build off the past 8 years in Stan, which has seen more successes than not, but taking a Country out of the dark ages was always going to be a solution that required a decade of time (min). He also understands amateurs talk tactics while professionals talk logistics, logistics, logistics.

Nuristan is a logistics nightmare. It is a place for DA OPs and better left for SOFs/SF - Not the place with our current force structures to have conventional FOBs. In a few years, yes. Not now, under the current force structures.

[LS]

I agree. This sounds like the opposite of the “Surge” where troops were moved out of “enclaves” into the population. It also sounds like the failed old “strategic hamlets” idea in Vietnam.

[El Gato]

Sounds like a retreat. It's a losing strategy. I am thoroughly disgusted.

Well, sometimes a retreat is the right thing to do. It can shorten your lines of communication and logistics, while lengthening those of the enemy. Without sufficient troops, its about the best you can do. BUT, if the ROE can be changed to once again allow extensive use of air power, at least away from major population centers and using both fixed and rotary wing aircraft, then we can continue on offense in the hinterlands, as well as defending the larger population centers, without destroying them to do so.