War in Afghanistan cannot be won, British commander Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith warns .
I guess it’s easy for me to defend my country (USA) from behind a keyboard here in the UK. How the heck would I know if this officer is right or wrong?
Thing is, I do believe comments like that should not be made within the enemy’s hearing. It gives em heart.
The Brits are just sore that they, like the Russians, were never able to hold onto that area while the US went in there and rolled over it like butter.
Go buy/rent “Man Who Would Be King” (1975) with Sean Connery and Michael Caine....
Lots of the movie is still appropriate even after two centuries.Not that pulling out 10-30,000 troops out of Iraq and moving on to the Paki badlands wasn’t always the eventual goal. We need another Patton who can pick up, move half a continent and then slam through there to mop up the trash.....
(Just my 2 cents)
Posted by TimO
10/06/2008 at 08:44 PM
This is an interesting shift in language. Mark Carleton-Smith was not long in command in Afghanistan this summer; when he made (on 2 June) his comments about a “decapitated” Taliban and “we have reached a tipping point”, I half suspect that various reporters took the remarks out of context.
He’s had 4 more months now to revise his opinion in light of bitter experience - not only of fighting the Taliban, but also of trying to achieve any kind of success, in the absence of sound and properly resourced political and economic strategies, agreeded and vigorously pursued by the national governements making up ISAF.
Frankly, I’d be surprised if anyone in his shoes had not moderated their language.
Before you dismiss statements like “cannot defeat the Taliban” - you need to ask yourself what would a “Victory” look like?
Bush declared “Victory” in Iraq more than half a decade ago - look what happened there.
Petraeus (an educated, sane and humanitarian voice, compared to his political leaders’ ) has gradually engineered the containment and reduction of the violence in Iraq, yet refuses to allow the word “Victory” be used of his success, or about the future of that struggle.
“Defeat” and “Victory” are what happens to Armies in straight-out, flat-earth, heavy-metal, inter-state wars.
The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are absolutely none of the above. Peace through superior firepower is a panacea pursued only by the terminally misinformed.
Problem with AFG right now, is that no Western government has the stomach to commit the economic and diplomatic (let alone the military) resources required to manage the situation to a point - a long way downstream, even with a fair wind - where we could walk away saying “job done - we made our world a safer place”.
So - our troops and Afghan civilians alike are dying in the dust, while our various Neros rosin up their bows, and play ‘Fire on the mountain, run boys run’ hoping nobody notices their failure ‘til after the next election.
It sucks.
Posted by Stonker
10/11/2008 at 04:41 AM