Posted on 08/19/2009 7:34:29 PM PDT by Syncro
Obama has never managed anything in his life. So why would anyone expect him to be able to manage a war in Afghanistan?
I say pull out all the stops to win or bring our people home.
Road building is a singular art. The Afghans are not Romans, so they don’t know how to build roads. We do. Maybe I shouldn’t give the example of something that ended in disaster, but When Braddock was moving on Ft. Duquesne, he cut a road through the woods almost to the forks of the Ohio. It repeated what the English had to in putting down the rebellion in Scotland. We bound the Ohio Country with the East when we built the Cumberland Road. Transportation unites a country. In this case, it would give the Afghani forces tremendous mobility. It would also bring the mountainous areas in communion with the citiies and towns.
You got that right. he could not manage a McDonald’s restaurant. Of course, neither could I. That requires considerable management skills.
I always took roads for granted and never thought about it until now but that is an amazing point. Thats why I love this site.
A lot of us don't click on links if there isn't a little bit of a clue about what they are.
Thanks
There is no way with Obama as CIC that we can come out on top in any foreign war or skirmish.
Communtity organizers just aren't trained to obtain victories for the Untited States. Just ask Saul Alinsky, B. Hussein's daddy.
Isn't it "man-made disasters"?
Speaking of disasters....
“In this case, it would give the Afghani forces tremendous mobility.”
1st - They don’t yet have enough forces or enough quality in the forces they do have, to fight this war on their own now, no matter how many roads you built today.
2nd - The asymmetrical warfare of terrorism and counter-terrorism is not about moving forces around in large blocks at a time (that’s how the Russians lost and they built a ton of new roads).
The main focus of our time and investment must be getting the Afghan population invested in winning this war, themselves. Once they become invested, counter-terrorism can succeed because more and more civilians will rat them out.
How do you get them invested?
You get more of THEIR sons killed by the Taliban fighting for them.
How do you do that?
Build roads?
No. You draft as many Afghan men as you can and you train them well and equip them superbly and advise them with our experts. The more funerals that then are held for them the more the Taliban will begin to lose the war - the population will quit sitting in the middle and want revenge on the murderers of their sons.
Roads can also be used for commerce and to tie the nation to the Capital Remember the expression: all roads lead to Rome? IAC, you are talking about tactics. I am talking about politics.
“IAC, you are talking about tactics. I am talking about politics.”
No, you are talking about tactics - building roads to move masses of soldiers around the country.(like the loser Russians did)
I, not you, are talking about politics, particularly the domestic politics that wins all asymetrical insurgency/counter-insurgency campaigns - getting the population to fight and die for your side.
Until the Afghan army is massive enough, well trained enough and well supplied enough, their sons are not the majority of Afghan soldiers getting killed. There are more Afghan Taliban soldiers getting killed and their families out number the families of Afghan soldiers killed by them. Until those numbers are reversed, the Taliban have more of the population seeing them as the nationalists and the coalition forces simply as the foreigners.
The Afghan government does not need more roads. It needs more Afghan soldiers and more of them doing the fighting and dying. Then those soldiers families will provide the change in the population that will support defeat of the Taliban. Until then, the rest are mere tactics that in centuries of fighting have never won anything in Afghanistan.
Once the nation has much much greater security, the security that must precede good commerce, there will be plenty of time and resources to build lots of roads for commerce.
The “country “actually a bunch of places side by side. A system of roads would tie the pieces to gather and enable Kabul to extend its authority into the mountains and allow trade to move more smoothly from place to place. As for moving “masses” of troops, you don’t need to move more than a few battalions in order to bring enough force to bear. Roads would also allow police and other services to reach the people.
and terrorist attacks to...Thanks! It was on the tip of my tongue but teflon'd out of my brain...Isn't it "man-made disasters"?
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