By the way, none of the Dems are talking about pulling out of Taliwhacker country, au contraire, they've been talking like they want to send all three MarDivs up there and a couple more Army divisions.
The writer made a good point: That force up there in the mountains with the bad guys all around, is keeping them tied down and off the good guys further down the valley who are being shored up by the Afghan government and the coalition.
The bind is that, all through Afghan history, these guys bite you in the back instantly, when you look the other way. Alexander spent a long time running around Afghanistan stomping hell out of people who did that, and finally he did the political thing and married Roxana to tie up the big cheese and put someone local into the scales on his side so his detachments wouldn't get eaten up after he left. His policy worked: the Greek kingdom he founded up there lasted something like 180 years. Not bad for an outpost. They're still finding Greek cities up there -- the basis of Rudyard Kipling's story (and a damn good Sean Connery/Michael Caine movie), The Man Who Would Be King, which I read before the film came out.
The British eventually left Afghanistan alone, after two of their armies got jobbed up there.
They aren't called Task Force Bayonet for naught. They are the spear - the fodder, if you will.
They need a break and/or some extra boots
“Did you notice, too, that the story is a) by a woman and b) “to be continued”?”
Yeah, I did notice that. There’s some knee jerk pity party playing in the piece, but that’s to be expected from any journo who’s only real understanding comes no higher than tourist level.
Y’all might want to gird up your girdles because Distributed Ops is how things are going to be. Not because we’re short on men, but because communications, weapon and support technology make it possible.
Smaller units working larger areas with command pushed downward as far as functionally possible to the smallest element. This is a pretty big development.
Also, all wars have their ebb and flow, priorities shift and reshift as situations develop. Don’t let the tourists confuse you with post card quality communications.