Truth, lies and Afghanistan - How military leaders have let us down

Armed Forces Journal | February 2012 | LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS

[neverdem]

http://armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030

[neverdem]

I'm at a loss for comment, but this needed to be posted. It can only be linked.

[soupbone1]

I've been thinking for a long time where is our generations Billy Mitchell. Do we have one senior leader who will stand up and say Afghanistan is a lost cause. Once Osama was killed we should have packed bags and left that crap hole.

[Monterrosa-24]

On the strategic level one cannot battle hard-line Mohammedans (Taliban) by supporting squishy Mohammedans. One needs to use freedom, support alternative beliefs (Christian), and paint the Talis as effeminate busy bodies who will tell you what to think, what to wear, and what to pray.

[Monterrosa-24]

We have great troops in Afghanistan but the higher leadership has failed on many levels. We've missed such great opportunities for sharing our culture instead of suporting the worst of their culture.

[Owl558]

“Once Osama was killed we should have packed bags and left that crap hole.”

Once the Taliban were overthrown, we could have put our sob Northern Alliance dictator into power and withdrawn, sending lots of $$ and arms.

We used to know how to fight proxy wars.

[Sola Veritas]

“One needs to use freedom, support alternative beliefs (Christian)”

The most glaring failure in both Iraq and Afghanistan is that we are not ensuring the “one” central American right that would best pacify those countries. This is “Freedom of Religion.” There should be an absolute, government ensured, right to believe (or not) whatever the dictates of your conscience says. If you chose Islam...so be it. If you chose Christianity..so be it. If you chose to be athiest...so be it. Forced Islam is a terrible thing. True, government enforced, Freedome of Religion would break the stranglehold militant Islam has on these people. It would help pacify them if militant Islam didn’t enjoy government support...and was not the “law” of the land.

Were I to advise a POTUS, I would tell them that our failure to ensure Freedom of Religion in Iraq has set it up for failure...and is doing the same in Afghanistan.

[FreedomPoster]

If we aren’t willing to completely crush a country and run things for a generation or so to get the population retrained the way Mark Clark did in Germany and MacArthur did in Japan, then it’s punitive actions only and get the heck out. No so-called “nation building” on the cheap.

Bush and his “peaceful friendly Islam” did us a huge disservice.

[FreedomPoster]

You’re never going to have a culture that is acceptable to Westerners who truly believe in individual liberty and similar ideals, that believes in Islam.

Beyond that, see tagline.