Posted on 12/04/2018 2:13:25 PM PST by Mariner
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fight in Afghanistan is at a stalemate, and the significant number of Afghan troop deaths in the war is not sustainable, the Marine officer nominated to command U.S. forces in the Middle East told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie warned the Senate Armed Services Committee against an abrupt withdrawal of American forces or change in strategy despite frustration over the status of the 17-year conflict. He said he doesn’t know how long it will take to develop an Afghan force capable of defending its own country.
“If we left precipitously right now, I do not believe they would be able to successfully defend their country,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie said the U.S. and its allies need to keep helping the Afghans recruit and train forces to fight the Taliban’s estimated 60,000 troops.
“They’re fighting hard, but their losses are not going to be sustainable unless we correct this problem,” McKenzie said, in one of the U.S. military’s more dire assessments of the Afghan losses.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Our interests there are peripheral, at best.
Gee, General...what was your first clue?
hide your wallets, it’s that time again.
History showed us it would easy to conquer, but impossible to control Afghanistan.
What was/is needed, simply, is a travel ban from most countries of the Mid-east, North Africa and South Asia. No low IQ, in-bred, illiterate jihadis = no terror in the USA.
17 years of American dead in Afghanistan is the price our politicians, media and deep state are willing to pay for their political correctness bona fides.
Use neutron weapons to depopulate large areas of rural Afghanistan . Esp the mountains along the Pak border and the Taliban south ( to include all opium producing areas ) Just nuke them out of existence , 100%
We should never have gone in in the first place.
Those who argue we should have need to answer as to why Bush II rebuffed the Taliban offer to extradite OBL. All they asked for was the proof that OBL was involved in 9/11.
Did we not have that evidence? Do we have that evidence now? The public sure doesn’t have it.
We went into Afghanistan after 9/11, because of 9/11.
Did we ever have the ability or intention of wiping out the Taliban?
Can we declare victory and go home? Let Allah sort it out?
The US cannot change a Muslim culture by force of arms and should realize by now that only a very small percentage of their populations are truly receptive to Western values, institutions and practices. Our business if Afghanistan was over when the death of Bin Laden was confirmed. Our presence there is only giving fervent Muslims the rationale for revenge in the form of creative terrorism against America and Americans.
Which means we are there indefinitely. There won't be a president who is willing to preside over the withdrawal and collapse of Afghanistan.
Tribes, tribes, and tribes is what we are dealing with there. They are happy with their short life spans, so long as they are left alone. If we weren’t there they’d keep killing themselves until the strongest survives. What is there to understand? Its all staring you in the face. What do they want most from us? “Get the F out of our country!” Oblige them!
Agree 100%. Some people are making a lot of money by us staying, bleeding & bankrupting ourselves there.
Put a 40-mile No-Go zone around Bagram airbase (to piss off China and Iran) and leave the rest to the savages.
They’ve never had A country. Arbitrary borders drawn around a variety of tribal territories that civilized outsiders didn’t want to deal with.
So it is Vietnam, after all? /s
How about changing the rules of engagement for a few weeks, and then leaving?
Step 1. Destroy the poppy fields, poppy processing facilities and all transportation infrastructure associated with said facilities.
Step 2. Salt the earth.
Step 3. Leave.
Stratergy!
See 15. GMTA
Exactly. It’s not a nation. They don’t get, and don’t want, our values (with a few exceptions). Or they DO get them and disagree with them. After 17 years, it should be clear that nation building can’t succeed there.
WHAT?? Afghanistan...going poorly...and would fall apart of we left? OMG...MIND BLOWN! That’s some astute analysis.
Our generals are so fast on their feet! They are like Palo Alto startup smart! I mean, I was under the impression Afghanistan was nailed down and solid. I’m wayyyyy behind the curve.
These aren’t generals, they are more like super generals, or something.
Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where Islam is practiced by 99% of its citizens.
So all us Infidels can count on are Muslim apostates and heretics to fight the Taliban, who are fundamental Muslims, and are going to die doing what Allah wants done, and will follow the examples of Muhammad and 1400 years of Muslim history. -Tom.
At least Vietnam had a catchy “Peace with Honor” escape phrase. Let’s not forget the Iraq folly that lit the Mideast on fire within the 17 years of the “war on terror”. We will soon have the sons and daughters of those who fought in 2001 as the next generation to fight this war. It’s not supposed to be like this. That’s not how a war is fought unless there are nefarious reasons and opportunistic gains by some. It has stretched our military to the breaking point as we are destined to fight China,a new front opens up in space and we are being invaded at the Southern Border.
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