Michael's Dispatches

the quality of American Generals is equal to the British Generals in WW1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,donkeys leading lions.

Thanks for always being honest Michael, the truth hurts sometimes! God bless our troops!

Unfortunately you are correct. Time to blast a final swath through the country as we withdraw and let the chips fall. Recent news clips have talked about how the Afghan war has been relegated to the background by the national news media. To Obama it is just a side issue and all he is concerned with is his re-election.

Thanks for post Michael. Your words are sad but true. While our politicans point fingers, we are simply spilling blood for no reason. Time to rest our military and give our soldiers a break.

If we leave now, what about all those who actively or passively helped the Coalition in Afghanistan?

Taliban et al. do not seem like the merciful types to let that slide.

From the beginning I have always thought that we are creating a time space - time to let the afghan forces train propery- time to get the rule of law in place- to get teaching working- to allow tribal leaders to become politicians - to allow famers to grow something else than opium- to allow a chance to interdict with the drug barrons - to allow cross border dialouge - to allow trade - to get finance running. All this and more yet here we are years after 9/11 with thousends of our soldiers killed and injured to come to the same realisation as others before and think hard- are we going to make the difference?

For the people of Sangin whose market was opened under the Brit Rifles yes it made a difference but for others I cannot speak.

As an old saxon wrote over a 1,000 years ago. The British are buying time so we may meet with them. By meet he meant marry, interact and trade and they became Anglo Saxons. None of this happens in Afghanistan.

All this with 3M supporters just across the border in Pakistan.

We are at that defining elemant where the political will may force the military hand and it all un-ravells with tears before bed time. I hope I am wrong, I have seen to many boys come home to see this recorded as a wasted effort.

I think it was Jim Coyne who had a withdrawal plan for VN even a politician could understand: "On the planes. Now." It's still valid.

"This bastard war will have a thousand fathers and nobody will claim it." I often say "Success is a bastard, failure is an orphan!"

#Ending Badly
You wrote " I have seen too many boys come home to see this recorded as a wasted effort." I presume you meant killed and injured soldiers. In finance there is a term "sunk costs". It refers to money, time, effort, etc... that cannot be recovered and is often a mental trap where people keep going in the wrong direction because they do not want to admit that they wasted the resources that have already gone into an effort. I am in no way equating soldiers' deaths or injuries to finance but the concept is the similar. Who has the "courage" to say that it is time to leave without fearing that saying so cheapens the lives of the soldiers who have died or are griviously injured?

I'm not a brilliant strategic "Great Game" thinker, I've never served, I don't purport to know military or political strategy, I'm just an old man and father. I cannot pass judgement on the overall success or failure of our Western effort in AF. If the goal was to punish and kill AQ members and deny them sanctuary, it seems to have been done. If the goal was to create a Central Asia version of Texas, well that can never happen.

At one time, I thought that the West should simply buy the poppy harvest at a higher price than the Taliban can afford. It would help farmers prosper, cut Tali finances, and keep opium out of the market. On further reflection I realized that this can only work in a rule of law market. The Talis will just kill farmers who sell to the West and the rest will go back to selling to the Talis.

It's a wacked out part of the world, I am saddened by the children who through no fault of their own are stuck in that place. Remember the horse and water, some people just cannot be helped. And with PK next door just as riven with ancient hatreds, this problem cannot be "solved" in a few generations.

I could not agree more and have been saying the same thing for months. I just don't understand why we are there. As a retired Air Force combat veteran with a son who has had four tours I think it is time to come home.

There may be 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover...but there's only one way to leave Afghanistan: Load everything and everyone American on the trucks and LEAVE NOW!

Pull conventional forces back to the FOBs, and consolidate to the bases that will be required to project force into Pakistan and Iran.

Evict all Afghans from them, so that they can no longer collect intelligence on coalition forces and engage in so-called "green on blue" attacks. Use the FOBs to support SOF. Keep enough arty to maintain good range fans. Keep enough helicopters and fixed-wing to support SOF with an "embarrassment of riches." They should have tactical air on-call at all times.

If SOF wishes to continue to train their dedicated commando units, and to go tear-assing around the country killing Talibs and AQ and drug dealers, then support that. Afghanistan should replace the Republic of Pinelandia and Robin Sage should become a live-fire capstone exercise. Let Afghanistan revert to a Rod and Gun Club for SOF. But the priority should be targets in Iran and Pakistan.

We should no longer prioritize the creation of Afghan military and police units. Too many of the Afghans that would staff such units are illiterate, their loyalties are to tribes, not to a nation-state, and such units too often degenerate into muscle for warlords. Better to train them and to make them loyal to SOF as hired guns. We should recognize that our idealism is not realistic. We cannot "nation-build." It is a bad theory.

The most important thing that can be done for modern Afghanistan is the removal of the Karzai clan, all of it, from the country. Their stolen assets in Dubai and elsewhere should be frozen and seized. They should be prosecuted, all of them, for theft from America.

Then a systematic cleansing and purge of all corrupt political actors in Afghanistan should be executed. If this leaves a vacuum, so be it. Somebody will fill it. If they are corrupt, we should purge them, too. We should continue cleansing until a Darwinian process of evolution finally produces strong, honorable leaders that can lead Afghanistan into the 21st century.

Support them, but within limits, and never losing sight of the fact that we retain forces in Afghanistan purely to project power into Pakistan and Iran.

This, at least, would be an honest endeavor.

The biggest problem is that this war is again run by rookie politicians and their lack of commitment to follow through. From being too politically correct to the ROE, Medevacs, it just one big clusterfudge. Our warriors are the ones who ultimately pay the price.

Take the gloves off, and we could have the whole thing wrapped up in weeks. Since we arn't going to do that I have to agree that it's time to go.

We should have re-written their entire constitution like we did in post-WWII Japan, instead of letting the Afghans elect "Taliban-lite". We should have cleaned out the Taliban safe-haven in Pakistan, instead of letting the Pakistanis pretend like they are our allies and "take care of the Warzistan problem" for us. We should have used ROE that put the lives of our troops above the lives of the enemy, instead of twisting ourselves in double-jointed pretzels to adhere to conventions that our enemy wasn't even a signatory to.

Unfortunately, in war it's the side who makes the least mistakes that wins.

Michael, this question is totally off-point with today's post, but, I've been searching for the article and pictures you posted of grapes growing in/under/around/through a solid structure in AF. No luck finding the associated post. Could you direct me to it's date?

Mike, I have worked in Afghanistan as a contractor twice. Once at a FOB and once at a megabase. You are completely correct. We are throwing good money after bad which is secondary to the loss of even one of America's valiant warriors. That country only knows the pain of history and it is satisfied with it. We need to leave the horse at the well.

Personally I don't recall one not ending badly. I'm from the Nam era. We loose for the most basic reasons. Politicians, Military Brass riding a desk at the Pentagon, the liberal news media and most of all the American public who actually pays to support wars that kill our soldiers because we don't know how to win. We care more about our reputation in front of our enemy. I always believed that the ones who have the best and smartest atitude when it comes to war and fighting to win is Israel. They take no S*** from anyone except our stupid politicians in Washington. The name of the game is to get in with everything and get out with least ammount of casualties. We do not need to make a career or be the beta test team for contractors when it comes to dealing with any enemy in the 21st century. Drop a small Nuke and it would be the last time anyone would think about threatening this country. History needs to repest itself except we have a bunch of weak people running this country. Never had these problems in the 30's 40'or 50's ask your parents or grand parents. We are a doomed nation and our enemies think we are weak and to caring! Thank your liberal neighbors for this. Time to go to Mexico!!! Were our real problem is.

Attention returning soldiers; would the last one out please put a bullet in Karzai's head?

Thank you.

Yep, Time to go.

All that time, blood and treasure wasted. So sad.

I do agree that George Bush and Dick Chaney were (and still are idiots) and possibly O'dumbo for listening to the Pentagon morons (who war-fight from a desk).. I am a Republican and I hope and pray that Romny and Ryan have better sense than the last Presidents. Syria is an Arab problem as Iran is an Israeli problem.. all of this s*&t is lining up just like it God said it would in Revelations and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it other than wait and watch - amazing that even our best and brightest (right) don't understand prophecy.

I agree Michael. Why fight a war we will not win. Enough of our young men have been lost on this losing cause. Bring them home.

Don't stop telling the truth. Don't stop trying to get more people to listen. Don't stop shouting about what needs to be addressed.

You do this for our military men and women, and they are worth ALL our effort. I will do what I can, which is talk to people about it, write about it, and pray.

God bless you,Michael. Keep at it. We need you.

- your friend and reader, Rose in Wyoming

Michael

Can you please name one country which has emerged stronger after abandoning a war?

American retreat will be seen as a victory by Islamists worldwide.

Don't forget that Bin Laden was motivated partly by a perception of American weakness.

You are kidding yourself if you think you can get out cost-free. It will be remembered that you were defeated and that you abandoned those Afghans who sided with you.

Cutting and running will cost America dear one day. What do you think the Chinese will think of it? Or the Iranians?

As a former Adviser in Viet Nam, I still hurt for the good ARVNs we left behind. That said, Viet Nam was winnable and actually won when we quit and ran like yellow dogs. I was getting my family out during the evacuation and was one of those yellow dogs that ran.

Afghanistan is different. We came in and trashed the bad guys in a few weeks and except for perhaps leaving a few SF teams, we should have been out for at least 10 years. The VNs were and are reasonably civilized. I haven't heard anyone accuse the Afganis of that.

This problem belongs to Russia, China and Pakistan. Let them fix it.

Michael, I could not agree more. And you (as always) eloquently explain why. I felt that the “surge” tried before should have been at least twice the size it was and the Afghan training also sped up and our exit out of there as well, but the will and leadership wasn’t there from the Administration to do that (not a political statement, just a citizen’s view). God bless you Michael. Thanks for being the voice of so many of us.

I said the same 18 months ago. Once we gave up on a surge, and we gave up on common sense ROE's, and we gave up on holding Karzai accountable, what is the point of American and British and German and other kids dying or being horribly wounded.

The Afghan elite are rich with our gold. Our friends will have been betrayed by our fickle policy and the part of Afghan society that had the chance to modernize will be sucked back into the maelstrom.

And somehow, at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill or at the White House, no one will bear responsibility.

I have been following the stump speeches and I have not heard Romney or Ryan mention our Troops in the Stan or their plan to deal w/the war. I haven't seen the war mentioned on any of the questionnaires as what is the most important concern to the people filling out those questionnaires. I am angry as well as very disheartened. We have another forgotten war on our hands and I find that disgraceful.

I get it, jobs and the economy are a priority, but so is the blood of our fellow Americans making sacrifices for us. It will be interesting to see if they get mentioned at the conventions.
I can make a safe bet the DNC won't, but will the RNC?

Truly, you can't help a culture that still has the mentality of the stone age.

God Bless our Troops, they are loved and appreciated. Bring them home!

I agree with you, Yon.

Why should our troops die for another man's freedom if that man doesn't have the will/ability to fight and keep it?

Bring our troops home. But then upon doing that [from the air] make sure the Taliban has the pleasure of running the country from a deep dark hole.

There was an excellent radio show on NPR about a month ago. The president of STRATFOR was briefing on the AfPac war. He said the first thing is to define things.

A US WIN would be an Afganastan that looks like Pakistan: some lawless areas, but basic rule of law in the major cities, and periodic elections, if not actual democratic succesion of the key leaders.

A US draw would be the fall of the Karsi government, but a failure of the Taliban to create safe havens for the re-growth to Al Queda.

A US loss would be the re-introduction of Al Queda safe havens and the collapse of regular commerse in Kabul.

He went on to say the successful infiltration of the afgan security forces by the taliban has put a win out of reach. But that the schools and commercial infrastructure we have built during our war have created enough friends that we will have the ability to operate CIA teams after the withdrawal of the traditional military forces. This will prevent the establishment of safe areas for Al Queda. Thus, we are headed for a draw.

As nearly all people are aware there is an adage that goes, "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

Unfortunately this can be applied to nearly all allied forces during both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns because the lessons hard learnt in Vietnam have been totally forgotten. The generation of officers who came through Vietnam, such as Colin Powell, have been totally sidelined by politicians who thought they knew better. Fools.

The Taliban don't have to win against the allies, they just to have patience, just as the North Vietnamese did, they will possess the field at the end of the day. Heaven help those who pinned their faith on Western nations being able to lead them to a better life. The dark ages will have nothing on what will happen in Afghanistan.

exactly right Sir!It is obvious to me that after so many years and there is still major problems there is a flawed strategy which is being ignored by the Generals same as Vietnam.As I said in another post Donkeys leading Lions!

hahahahahahahhah :lol:
keep workingg hard. its long time to be in afghanistan. afghanistan is a contry where you can come on your wish but when you want to pull out its on the wish of Taliban. So i think you need to take feet of Taliban and if they Get mercy on you i hope they will forgive you for your sins. and let you go but wait till the time come.

This war started going downhill the moment Bush decided to send half of the Army to attack an entire country to find one man. Has there been any good news?

Michael,
I am currently deployed and enduring my second deployment to Afghanistan. I have lost a very good friend over here, lost many of my fellow Soldiers, and worked to keep many Soldiers alive in spite of their life-threatening battle wounds. The hard work and sacrifices are Soldiers have made will never be sustained by this country. It is blatantly obvious everyday and is heartbreaking. God bless the sacrifices our Soldiers are enduring everyday over here and I pray the rest my boys and I get home safely.

Informative article, just what I needed.

Take a look at my page ... youngest day trader: http://112.124.11.186/bbs/home.php?mod=space&uid=497462&do=profile

This is a topic which is near to my heart...
Take care! Exactly where are your contact details though?


Stop by my web blog ... agency management systems: http://www.cloudams.com