I wonder if an almost complete withdrawal wouldn't be more appropriate. Soldiers' safety may be in jeopardy with a gradual withdrawal, especially if enemy forces have a chance to regroup and gain ground as we pull out.
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Robert A. Heinlein
Gunny wrote: I wonder if an almost complete withdrawal wouldn't be more appropriate. Soldiers' safety may be in jeopardy with a gradual withdrawal, especially if enemy forces have a chance to regroup and gain ground as we pull out.
My son is getting ready to redeploy to afgan. Now we have this ahole who pretends he is the president telling everyone in the world what we are doing. His own Generals to not even agree with it. So lets endanger the rest of the folks serving over there. Hell why not just put out flyers telling them what we are doing.
Right now, we should just tell karzi to pack sand, we are going home, the hell with you, and see where how well he does without us there.
I have two years on the ground in Afghanistan. I'm no "expert" but I know a little about the place and what makes it tick.
For instance, I know that the British and Soviets have failed before us. I saw evidence of their time there every day as I traveled the country. I also know that they are a deeply divided country whose wound's will take decades to heal. And I know that, though there are some awesome resources available in the country, it will require decades and billions of dollars to bring the country into the 20th, much less the 21st, century.
We need to be IN either all or nothing. Keep all the troops there and pour our heart and soul into the fight or get out lock, stock and barrel.
One more thing I know. America doesn't have the political will or the treasure to fix Afghanistan. Every drop of blood we spill or dollar we spend there now is a terrible waste. We should get out as fast as we can. Bring all the men and women home. Use air power to contain what ensues there...and let them have it out. After the smoke clears, we can go in with an approach like China is taking. No troops...just investments in resources that will benefit our country.
Taking a few troops out of Afghanistan to look good politically is the worst possible option. Any general or admiral who opposes the President's decision knows they will be gone like McChrystal and teaching at some Ivy League college.
We should ask the Brits and former Soviets how it went for them. Or you can just fly to Afghanistan and see monuments to their terrible failure everywhere you go.
lionshead2010 wrote: I have two years on the ground in Afghanistan. I'm no "expert" but I know a little about the place and what makes it tick.
For instance, I know that the British and Soviets have failed before us. I saw evidence of their time there every day as I traveled the country. I also know that they are a deeply divided country whose wound's will take decades to heal. And I know that, though there are some awesome resources available in the country, it will require decades and billions of dollars to bring the country into the 20th, much less the 21st, century.
We need to be IN either all or nothing. Keep all the troops there and pour our heart and soul into the fight or get out lock, stock and barrel.
One more thing I know. America doesn't have the political will or the treasure to fix Afghanistan. Every drop of blood we spill or dollar we spend there now is a terrible waste. We should get out as fast as we can. Bring all the men and women home. Use air power to contain what ensues there...and let them have it out. After the smoke clears, we can go in with an approach like China is taking. No troops...just investments in resources that will benefit our country.
Taking a few troops out of Afghanistan to look good politically is the worst possible option. Any general or admiral who opposes the President's decision knows they will be gone like McChrystal and teaching at some Ivy League college.
We should ask the Brits and former Soviets how it went for them. Or you can just fly to Afghanistan and see monuments to their terrible failure everywhere you go.
Thank you for your service! I agree with your perspective, lets stay and fight the Taliban or get out and commit our military resources to a more worthy cause. If we are going to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda I'd rather fight them where they are now instead of fighting them here but the reality is that these organizations will continue to promote terrorism around the world, we are already fighting them here.
The question that needs to be answered is how to draw down troop numbers as safely as possible. Looking back at the Soviet campaign for examples of how to get out safely is a poor choice. The Soviet ground troops where primarily conscripts who had minimal training and where often sent in to combat before the professional troops as a way for leadership to determine how much resistance they were up against.
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
If we are going to stay and be "all in" then we need to take the fight into Pakistan as well. Most of the tribesmen we are fighting in Eastern Afghanistan have little regard for the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan drawn by Europeans back in the 30's. It divides a people that we really understand very little. They have relative safe haven in Pakistan while our guys are constantly in the stew.
Talk to any Afghan and he will tell you that really it's mostly about what's going on in Pakistan now. Much of Afghanistan's trouble resides in Pakistan. Because of sensitive political arrangements, our hands our mostly tied when it comes to what's going on in the lawless reaches of Western Pakistan. The people we are fighting get much of their logistical support from Pakistan. Though I was pretty young at the time, it seems there was a similar set up with the enemy finding safe haven in countries bordering Vietnam. Not a good scenario.
If we want to begin to "win" the war in Afghanistan then we need to tell Pakistan to stuff it and move into the lawless western region. Also, on a strategic scale, we need the full support of our Nation in this war. There are many Americans going about their business day in, day out who haven't a clue or a care what's going on in South Central Asia. They are just happy other people are willing to fight there.
Unfortunately, America has neither the stomach or the money to fund the war there anymore. Most see the DoD budget as an extraneous expenditure and would rather cut that budget now. We shouldn't cut the DoD budget when a single American man or woman is in harms way and you can't do more with less. That concept is BS. You just do less with less.
One other thing. Over the past few years, many have vilified the DoD contractor and the companies that send them to the war. What we should be asking the President and the generals/admirals who are going to pull some 30,000 troops out of Afghanistan in the next year just who IS going to do the work of the troops that leave. Who do you think is going to do the work? It won't be other NATO countries...they are busy getting their troops out of there too. It also won't be the Afghan Security Forces...they simply aren't ready to lead yet. It will be those nasty DoD contractors. Americans (mostly retired military) in a different uniform. The DoD will likely pull support troops out to hit most of the 30,000 number. The very support troops who make the war feasible in a very logistically challenging region of the world. Those support troops will be replaced by contractors because the beans and bullets must flow to the fight. Mark my words.
So because of all of this I think the best thing our country can do is just get the hell out of there. Don't spill another drop of precious, young American blood or spend another penny on that hell hole. Since we aren't "all in" we need to get "all out" now.
Well the current draw down must be a political ploy to win some votes.
Just learned this morning one of ours along with a few hundred more will be leaving Friday for the badlands of Afgahan. These are all former troops that have already been there and are returning.
I was reading in the Economist this morning that there will still be over 68,000 troops left in Afghanistan to assist with the "transition" to Afghan security by 2014, the 33,000 being pulled out are the extras that were sent in for the "surge" I think, so yes, a political ploy.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Gunny wrote: I wonder if an almost complete withdrawal wouldn't be more appropriate. Soldiers' safety may be in jeopardy with a gradual withdrawal, especially if enemy forces have a chance to regroup and gain ground as we pull out.
IMO, doesn't work with sex, why would it work here?
Gunny wrote: I wonder if an almost complete withdrawal wouldn't be more appropriate. Soldiers' safety may be in jeopardy with a gradual withdrawal, especially if enemy forces have a chance to regroup and gain ground as we pull out.
My son is getting ready to redeploy to afgan. Now we have this ahole who pretends he is the president telling everyone in the world what we are doing. His own Generals to not even agree with it. So lets endanger the rest of the folks serving over there. Hell why not just put out flyers telling them what we are doing.
Right now, we should just tell karzi to pack sand, we are going home, the hell with you, and see where how well he does without us there.
Please Thank your son, for me, & May God Bless & protect him.
