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| The Western way of war |
| 2010-06-26 |
| US General Stanley McChrystal has paid a huge price for his decision to give Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings free access to himself and his staff. But he performed a great service for the rest of us. US President Barack Obama fired McChrystal – his hand-picked choice to command NATO forces in Afghanistan – for the things that he and his aides told Hastings about the problematic nature of the US-led war effort in Afghanistan. But by acting as he did, McChrystal forced the rest of us to contend with the unpleasant truth not only about the US-led campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He told us the unpleasant truth about the problematic nature of the Western way of war at the outset of the 21st century. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #5 As Biden has explained it, the alternative would involve deploying special forces units and airpower to target the Taliban as it becomes necessary, and otherwise disengage from the country as quickly as possible. McChrystal and his allies dismissed BidenÂ’s strategy as a recipe for disaster. Without a sufficient number of forces on the ground, the US would lose its ability to gather intelligence and so know what targets to attack. I guess that's why there are no dronezaps in Pakistan. /endsarc Biden is right. Troops on the ground are the problem. Without them the war could be waged for decades with minimal opposition. When was the last time anyone protested the Pakland dronezaps and now the Yemen dronezaps. The Western way of war is now keyboard jockies and data miners in suburbia. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-06-26 21:24 |
| #4 "The Western way of war" is the title. In both cases, forces in the western model and methodologies were the foundation of success. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-26 12:04 |
| #3 Western forces fought to victory. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-06-26 11:11 |
| #2 ..or Sri Lanka. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-26 10:53 |
| #1 There were only two instances in the last 10 years where Western forces fought to victory. Sort of misses Columbia's success in the analysis. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-26 10:52 |