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| Afghanistan |
| In Afghan war, an officer becomes a whistle-blower |
| 2012-02-07 |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 Let me get this straight - our ground forces are liars to a man, including the retired personnel? I think this guy's a little too impressed with himself. Hundreds of thousands of US troops have rotated through Afghanistan. If the mission were in real trouble, we'd have heard from more than one person. One estimate is that the number of full-time Taliban is around 2000. That's about 60 per province. We have over 100,000 troops in-country. Let's say the total is 100,000. That's almost 3000 per province. So in a given province, 3000 GI's can't get 60 Taliban to keep their heads down? The Taliban aren't exactly the Vietcong, with their battalion-sized attacks on American fire bases and regiment-sized running battles with heli-borne troops, resulting in an average daily GI death toll of 20 a day (58,000 GI dead vs 1.2m Vietcong and NVA dead). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2012-02-07 18:48 |
| #5 The Taliban are just the latest twist in a Pashtun vs Pashtun civil war that's been going on for 200 years. Why we should expect it to be resolved in a couple of years ( with or without SF in charge) is beyond me. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2012-02-07 12:31 |
| #4 on our way out - turn over any eqiuipment we aren't bringing home to the tribes of the northern alliance as a giant FU to Karzai, the caped restauranteur, and the Pashtun |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-02-07 09:20 |
| #3 There is no such thing as an Afghan. After 40 years of civil war, they are Pushtuns, Tadjiks, etc. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2012-02-07 08:23 |
| #2 It has long been obvious that the US is just treading water in Afghanistan. The Afghans are incapable and unwilling to run their own affairs, outside of dictatorship, and the Taliban offer only chaos and rule by whim. Perhaps the best thing the US could do to salvage the situation is to cede the South to the Pushtun to do with as they please, and defend the North as a de facto independent state, no Pushtun allowed. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-02-07 08:16 |
| #1 More power to him. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-02-07 05:51 |