The Challenges Ahead for American Forces in Afghanistan
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-05-20/challenges-ahead-american-forces-afghanistan
U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Thurman of Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Divison, provides security while on patrol in Spera, Khowst province, Afghanistan, March 11
Sgt. Jeffrey Alexander for DVIDSHUB via Flickr
Taliban suicide bombers take direct aim at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan one day after an attack on a NATO convoy. Challenges ahead for American forces in Afghanistan.
Guests
Stephen Biddle
senior fellow for defense policy, Council on Foreign Relations; author, "Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle."
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
senior correspondent and associate editor at The Washington Post.
Lawrence Korb
senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.
Laura King
foreign correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, based in Afghanistan.
Comments
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The people of Afghanistan want the troops to leave. American troops are fighting “insurgents,” not Al Qaeda terrorists – American intelligence reported last December (while Obama was deciding to send an additional 30,000 troops over there) that there are probably only 100 Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. So the original purpose of attacking Afghanistan (Al Qaeda) is no longer the purpose. The troops are an occupying army, killing innocent civilians (because of the impossible situation they’ve been forced into), and making more Afghanis hate the US. But the real purpose from the beginning was to get a stranglehold on that whole area because of oil – not just to make sure the US gets enough of it, but to also control how much the competitors’ (China, Europe) get.
As an infantry vet of Vietnam, I'll just lead all readers to Gen. Smedley Butler's book published in 1922; "War is a Racket". Afghanistan will be the same as it is now, in 30 years. Why does each generation believe it is smarter than the last? Humans don't change! We don't get wiser except individually. En masse we are just as stupid year after year. Go home, make friends with your community, grow a garden, learn a useful skill that doesn't require petroleum, and love your family.
In my understanding the counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq turned, at least in part, upon the diverse civilian "awakening" movements which asserted themselves as (more or less) cohesive collections of indigenous agents campaigning against the insurgency. In the opinion of the guests are there any indications of similar groups forming in Afghanistan (especially in the more hotly contested provinces) and are NATO forces taking any concrete steps to support or help to organize such movements?
The only way Alexander was able to conquer and then rule Afghanistan was overwhelming force and he left a ton of his soldiers there to marry the locals and live in Afghanistan.
Alexander was able to feed his soldiers off the local population's work.
The US is spending upwards to a million bucks a year to maintain one soldier in Afghanistan. We do not have this money and are borrowing the money.
The Afghanistans do not want us in their country. We are the major source of income to the locals.
Bush did it right over there for a while letting the CIA run the war and kill off locals. Bush screwed it up.
Obama is screwing up more than Bush.
We are killing our best men and women in Afghanistan for zero return.
The only way Afghanistan will ever be a country that looks like the USA will be when the locals decide they want it.
Till then, all we are doing is bankrupting the USA and killing off our best and brightest.
Wake up Obama. Declare victory and get out of that country.
The military solution, that is, a solution which involved interactions between Western military forces and the Afghan population, can produce at best a state of uneasy equilbrium with no end in sight.
I would suggest following the lead of Greg Mortensen, which involves building confidence at the village level and encouraging the Afghan population to engage in its own development. Note that nearly all of the schools facilitated by Mr. Mortensen continue to operate.