Posted on 12/05/2018 7:40:45 AM PST by SleeperCatcher
Afghanistan’s military and security forces are losing personnel at an unsustainable rate and could not remain intact for long if U.S. forces were withdrawn, according to Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr, the incoming CENTCOM commander.
In testimony before Congress, the Marine three-star also said that the U.S. military and Taliban are “in a stalemate” — which was the most optimistic portion of his description of the current security situation in America’s longest-running war.
His assessment comes on the heels of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s statement earlier this month that nearly 29,000 military and security personnel have been killed since 2015.
During his confirmation hearing, McKenzie said the most important thing moving forward was to improve the way the Afghan security apparatus recruited and trained combat personnel.
(Excerpt) Read more at greatpowerwar.com ...
Has anyone told the government Bin Laden is no longer in the house. When did we forget why we went there? It clearly wasn’t for the nude beaches.
Russia’s turn at the Great Game. Somebody tell Putin to tag-in.
What happened to the “Four Year Rule”?
When I was a kid growing up, the history books were clear on this matter. The US government would get involved, and four (4) years later, they won, and that would it. See: 1861-1865, 1914-1918 1941-1945
I’m only half joking, if a situation can’t be resolved in 4 years, the hell with it. Don’t get involved in the first place either, if the government is not prepared to achieve their objectives. The latter day policies of half-assed BS, criminal rules of engagement and telegraphing war plans, all that’s nonsense. They can’t even articulate why “we” are deployed in all these different shitholes around the world. “Compelling national interest”? Sure, take another bong hit.
Bring the troops home.
You can never defeat a guerrilla movement unless you destroy its bases. IOW, the war won’t be won in Afghanistan; it has to be won in Pakistan.
Otherwise, the Taliban will keep sending in new men forever.
Excuse me, but Afghanistan's military forces are the Taliban, and they seem to be thriving.
The forces referred to above as "Afghanistan's military and security forces" are not of the nation, as is instantly clear when you reflect that they would disappear - will disappear - as soon as US forces are withdrawn.
They have the old home field advantage. To defeat them, you would have to nuke the Pakis so bad that it would take twenty years to get it back together. And before you leave, you would have to kill all the Afghan males from about 10 and up so it would take at least half a generation until they start breeding again.
Bring back nuclear artillery and shell the shit out of them. That would end the stalemate and save American lives
Eric Prince has an excellent plan, but the war machine hates him.
We have a overrun southern border with a “temporary” Army presence and permanent Army presence in a shithole 8K miles away. MAKES NO SENSE.
Gen McKenzie is the real deal, probably the smartest we have. He assimilates data like a fiend and distilled complex problems down to one sentence. He doesn’t miss a trick.
You make a lot of good points, but history shows many of our conflicts lasting much longer. The Indian Wars in the West went on for about 100 years. The so called Banana Wars in Latin America lasted 36 years. We were fighting in the Philippines for 14 years. The Cold War lasted 45.
In today’s reality conflicts tend to be low intensity test of wills instead of large scale wars with set piece battles between national armies. Does the United States still have the will to win? That’s the real issue.
Hi.
I’ve said this before on this forum and I’ll say it again.
You can’t bring a 6th century tribal culture into the 21st century if they don’t want to.
We could nuke the place from orbit, killing only the imams and mullahs, and nothing would change.
We should get out and...nuke it from orbit anyway.
Imho.
5.56mm
we were not hot for the Taliban before 9-11, the primary stated reason to go was Bin Laden and we lost him early. The rest is nation building. I saw the video of the woman shot at the soccer stadium because she showed her ankles getting out of a van. I was very angry. So what! We built them up to fight the soviets and then we went back because they were muslims? That’s BS.
We can’t make every country in our likeness. Do you really give a damn about that pile of rocks? We should be more worried about Iran having a bomb and ICBMs and fermenting terrorism and get the hell out of dodge city. We’re in the wrong country and have been since Bin Laden left, including Iraq. Iran needs a serious beat down and we’re chasing rag head fundamentalist from village to village in a wind swept 10th century nothing country.
They’ll own Kabul by the end of nest year. What you wanna do about that? I say leave now and let them kill each other. if the regulars don’t want the taliban, they will fight. If they don’t fight; why the hell should we?
Sad.
I hope you are doing well.
5.56mm
we should’ve let them take it the first time. At least there would be McDonalds.
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