The beat goes on: but instead of sticking platoons of young soldiers in valleys with no tactical much less strategic significance -- to be piciked off by the enemy -- we're using spec ops to fill the deadly void, with the same unfortunate result. We just never learn.
The United States, and especially the United States Army, have never had much interest in training the Afghani Army. Since 2001 the total resources allocated have been laughably insufficient. Training the Afghani Army is just an empty slogan.
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This is another grotesque farce by the US rulers who are loathe to admit defeat in Afghanistan, and Iraq. So the keep bleeding the country, killing innumerable Afghanistanis waiting for the right theatrical scene to get out. It was the same in Vietnam, where although already clearly defeated the US rulers carried out massive bombings that killed over a million Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians. The same was true in Korea where the US was fought to a stalemate, which constituted a defeat. This imperial arrogance has killed millions, all to pretend the Empire is always victorious. One day there will be a reckoning and may justice be merciless.
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I recall General Barno when he visited our compound in Gardez spring of 2003. Special Forces (18 series MOS) prior to Afghanistan were primarily tasked with train and advise missions..hence the reason units are "capstoned" or designated by region, ie 5th Group has the Middle East..etc.
Our time in in Afghanistan can never be termed a success...not in any manner, whatsoever. And for those who were killed, injured or otherwise must somehow asks the reason "why". Since he onset of our involvement, the idea of bringing western style democracy to either Iraq or Afghanistan was a dream..of only the politicians who prayed on the foundation of American ideals...in America. Afghanistan will never change it culture and traditions.
So, what you say in retrograde should American done? Simply, a tremendous show of force..which we did..and tell the Taliban we will be back should terrorist training camps be located in Afghanistan..and to let the Northern Alliance have a say, especially in the north. And lastly, it was not the Talib's who attacked us..it was Saudi, two Yemen's and one Egyptian.
Haiti, Bosnia, Coatia, Nuba Mts, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan & Uganda LTC/05-11A
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At War - this country is always at war - talk about perpetual war first.
The Army’s Failure to Train and Equip Troops in Afghanistan - if NYT was doing its job this would have been exposed 19 years ago.
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How about the elected government’s failure to stop sending out military men and women into endless wars that have no consequence for American’s security. Shame on our leaders for the past 20 years.
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Name me one foreign force that has ever won a war against the Afghans. Just one.
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These ongoing occupations, with deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians at the hands of the US military, well exemplify the decline and ultimate fall of the American empire.
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Insurance is something we pay for and don’t think about because we are too distracted by tweets and fail to understand our mistakes of the past. People need leadership without good leadership we will follow, well you know. Retired Navy Chief
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The Taliban are mortal enemies of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. As we bargain at the negotiating table, the Taliban quake at the thought IS gaining momentum throughout the country. Our enemies should be pitted against each, not fought individually. No combat resources should be used against the IS, and the Taliban will quickly find ways to reach a friendly deal with the U.S.
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Does anyone remember “Charlie Wilson’s War”? Please realize the Taliban were once supplied by us, and must retain a wealth of information that any former “ally” would have. The reasons for sending any American young men over there are dubious. Trump’s not particularly well-defined isolationism may
actually be his best policy. This story, and last years’ Navy problems, suggest our military needs focus both in training and definition of objective.
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The fact that we hardly heard about this most recent death of an American soldier further proves how we as a nation like to give lip service to the troops by saying "thank you for your service" or parading recently returning veterans at various sporting events. We do little to truly support them while they are overseas, and even less when they return home. But you all know this.
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@Ralph Aquila M.D.
Agree. Married to an Army soldier for 20 years and now I have a son in special ops.....I too think that our nation just gives lip service to our troops. I work at the VA and wonder if it makes our vets mad when "thank you for your service" comes out of our mouths. Are we sincere? Is leadership sincere?
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@Sonja
As a Vietnam Vet I feel well treated by the VA, however "thank you for your service" sounds more like "would like cheese on that burger".
The bigger problem is the utter backwardness, corruption, and fecklessness of the Afghans. It's hard to nation-build when the raw material is so lacking. They want to live in our country, not theirs, and yet it is anathema to consider cooperating and modernizing while we've been there and committed. At this point we need to leave and shift our policy to keeping them all there with each other. They probably won't even recognize the opportunity they squandered when they are, once again, dying off in yet another civil war to see which warlord can be more like Muhammad.
Given their perpetual ingratitude after saving them from the Soviets and the Taliban, we should also consider thanking them for their heroin production by individually packaging and airdropping all the drugs we confiscate over their cities. It will perhaps comfort them from any guilt they feel for poisoning the rest of the world since they can't be troubled to educate themselves to develop useful products.
Afghanistan deserves everything that's happened to it, and we should start showing them what we can do when we've been inspired to do the opposite of helping them.
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@Cristobal
Don't forget....the big winners are the Afghan young men who have been able to move to Germany and live a much better life..... and the Afghan businessmen who have been able to move to Southern California on the money earned from the US Government as contractors and suppliers......and the Taliban which finances itself with tolls and payoffs to keep the US supplies moving through. It is very rare to see a fuel truck hit in Afghanistan.....I never saw one hit...... in quite a few firefights.....because the Taliban are paid plenty of money by the contractors to let the jingle trucks roll through and protect them. So there are a lot of winners in the Afghan war......losers are the US taxpayer and Afghan women perhaps.
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First question - Are we winning the war(s)? This is not about chauvinism or jingoism, it is about motive and mission. What is our mission, what motivated us to get in this endeavor and are we succeeding or failing or just flailing?
Second question - Haven't we already lost a lot? In addition to the loss of lives and treasure, we have lost our moral clarity, and whatever moral purity we could claim - we torture, we hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, we do not account for any of our crimes there, and when someone is subject to trial we rig the process and get acquittals for everyone, even when there is photographic evidence of the crimes. We distort our Constitution and laws to pull this venality off with a complicit judiciary and a cheerleading newsmedia. But they are worse! They cannot win! We are the good guys! we exclaim. But that is proof of our defeat - We have become more like them than they have become like us. They may not have won worthwhile, but we have lost.
We need to find our way back. The State Department is filled with mutually admiring Mandarins and insiders who have more committments to CFR, PNAC, Kissinger Associates, etc than they have to clear-headed American interests. The Defense Department is full of equally bureaucratic players, who when tested seem to choose Pension over Patriotism. Even Gen. Mattis, who has a stellar career behind him was on the Board of Directors of Theranos, a sham-company. How many other shams are there?
Wake up folks.
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We have been at war for over 18 years. The military has trained thousands of soldiers, We saw pictures of the soldiers running away when they were in combat and we have seen thousands of people injured, imprisoned hungry etc.
When will this nightmare come to an end If our military officials cant train the soldiers then maybe we should just get out. How many more millions are going to be thrown away on military activities that are not successful.
18 years later and many of us who had family members fight still dont know what the mission was. It just goes on and on. Wars are fought by young men and old men just make money writing books and going on talk shows.
Maybe one day this will end.
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@Tony - It will end when the empire collapses.
The failure of the miltary is a failure of our politics and our press. What exactly is the US trying to accomplish? What exactly does the US government see as a problem that requires US intervention? What would an ideal world look like for the US and how can we get there? Now a liberal interpretation of US intervention might be to stop any behavior that does not meet the standard that we set. So, for example, sex with children under 16 might be considered to be a red line as we see with Epstein. Then sanctions and military action against countries that permit that should be considered. Perhaps, polygamy is something the US does not want. Then sanctions and military action might be debated. Should no countries be governed by Muslim law? If so then war against all Muslim law countries could be undertaken. Obviously, the US has not defined anything consistently that justifies going to war. So this ongoing war on terrorism or whatever is simply an excuse to continue and expand the military industrial complex. The candidate who can articulate why there should be these wars gets my vote and I am a veteran of a number of these wars.
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