Mullen is the same douche who tried to stifle Petraeus. Afghanistan deserves what it gets. we should just poison the poppy crop, bomb the hell out of it and leave them to the tender mercies of the Taliban, dropping a Hellfire on them often enough to keep them nervous. Afghanistan and Pakistan need their borders reorganized tribally anyway, since everyone seems to be stuck in the ninth century.
I have a big problem when we try to build a reasonable society out of “Tribes”. Get out and bring our kids home.
I’m no Mullen fan. Why Bush made an admiral Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the midst of fighting a land war is way beyond my ability to comprehend.
And the reason Afghanistan has not been “pacified” by now is that Bush and Rumsfeld (and the guy that followed Rumsfeld) doubled the mistake that we made in Vietnam. They tried to fight two “minimalist” wars at once. Furthermore, they followed that up, just as in Vietnam, lacking the will to do what was necessary to bring the entire Afghanistan/Iraq campaign to a conclusive and speedy end. And, finally, Bush failed to give the American public a role in fighting the war. Again, repeating a mistake we made in Vietnam.
So much for the concept of studying history as a means to avoid making the same mistakes over and over.
Use our superior technology to designate targets and use our superior Air Force to decimate those targets.
Repeat both as necessary.