Winning in Afghanistan

I think Pakistan is the root cause of trouble in Afghanistan. If we are able to control the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan then the terrorists will move inside of Pakistan. Pakistan has supported and cultivated terrorism and there are no signs of any change from them. The only way to tackle this is to take control of Pakistan. Take their nukes away and start attacking from inside Pakistan is best strategy. Otherwise we will be chasing a moving target. On the other side we should make sure that Pakistan moves away from Islam. Terrorism cannot be tackled by giving aid to them but by punishing them it???s their language!

I don't understand the total lack of attention to the "off limits" Taliban operational bases in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Without them, this insurgency would be finished. And until that sanctuary is destroyed, any counterinsurgency effort is doomed to failure.

What is wrong with the strategy? We are still there. Like Iraq, we should go in and gut the place, leave it in rebellion, then come back in five or ten years and gut the place again. Much more cost effective, and effective when we demand to operate with an all volunteer army under 2 million in strength. Otherwise, we conscript to over 4.

One would think that some of the lessons from Viet Nam and other insurgencies would have been learned by now. Unfortunately when the BX and other things become entrenched, this is what happens.

Basil Burrell

Win what? By winning you mean making a puppet? Or by winning you mean KILLING the crap out of them?
Who ever said we had to make a goverment? Why? My quess would be to make or give allot of money to those that profit from war. No this could have been over with in a few months. The point is to kill terrorists, not create a safe environment for them to grow up in. That's all this extended stay is doing. It won't stop the hate, maybe if we continue to pay them off, as the Romans did so long ago. But the price is always more. This article is a joke, nothing more than some officer, navy at that, thinking INSIDE the box. Screw the global village, its a failed idea. Something like isolationism is what we need, with a few one to two month long events of massive destruction every 2 to5 years to those that do us harm.

Send in the Peace Corps and get the Army and Marines out.

What is winning? Building an American puppet? or Killing the crap out them?

Conservative columnist George Will opined today that McCain lacks the appropriate termperament to make careful decisions. We can't take a chance on McCain impulsively calling the shots on Afghanistan or anything else.

I had the opportunity to live in Afghanistan from 1967 to 1969. Since that time the only CHANGE that has taken place is the death of thousands of Afghans from wars, starvation and disease. What does the future hold for the people of Afghanistan? More of the same. For those who wish to have an overview of the present disaster I recommend viewing "CHARLIE WILSONS WAR".

comment: I lived in Afganistan for 2 years (1965-1967). Since that time the only CHANGE that has taken place in Afghanistn is the death of thousands as a result of wars, starvation and disease. I recommend that those who wish to have an overview of the present disaster in Afghanistan view the movie "CHARLIE WILSONS WAR".

wow this is crap.. it is aggrivating to read this crap... missleading the american and world people... crap....

For one: The US does not to take anything back. we are supposed to be a support system here. They need to take it back themselves. Thir Army and police need to quit being so damn Lazy and corrupt. How are we supposed to help a country that will not even help themselves. I have been in Afghanistan for 6 months and i got 7 more to go. They are a country that cannot tame there own masses. They take all they can and use it to create Negative. They are internally damaged. It s so much deeper than people want to accept. If we satay or if we go, it makes no difference. There are things happening here that have been told were going to happen thousands of years ago. No one wants to pay attention to the real. They all just want to cover it up with hype and media , and hell lets make a movie outta it. Either way. so strategy known to man is going to work. This is outta our controll as well as theres. " there will be wars and rumors of wars. _____ dicrantled Soldier

I am a Naval Officer currently deployed in Kandahar Afghanistan working as a Police Mentor with the Regional Chief of Police. There are a lot of gaps that the author could/should have addressed.

1. He is correct in stating that many of the military here stay on very large FOB's and never leave them - what he does not address is that there are a lot of 12-15 man Police Mentor teams that live on Fire Bases and work daily to train and mentor and the need. These Teams are only 33-35% manned and must be plussed up.

2. Inerrant corruption of the Afghan Government. This is linked to two sources
a. Opium farming, smuggling and sales some of which are linked to very high ranking officials (elected and appointed) and their family members.
b. MoI and MoD (US/CF/ISAF) supportive money that is being spent to improve infrastructure. I have seen it first hand where ANP pay officers are extorting money from Officers and Enlisted Pay, steeling radios, computers, vehicles and anything else they can get there hands on. Many of the higher ranking ANP or ANA Officers are appointed their positions not based on merit but by how much they pay the friend in Kabul.

3. Humanitarian assistance and understanding the culture. There is a lot of great work that is being done here when it comes to HA but there is always a need for more water wells, schools, hospitals and missions for getting supplies to those that need them. This could be better served by building mosques that encouraging mullahs that denounce Taliban agendas and interpret the Koran correctly.

4. We all have to understand that this is going to be a 30 year war. in order for us to pull out successfully we need to build the capability of the ANSF, educate the youngest generation and improve the quality of life for all the different tribes. That is a lot of work to do and the only real way of doing it is by one year at a time we have to know our "time and space" as well.

There are a couple of other topics that could also be addressed (just off the top of my head)... Pakistan relations, poppy irradiation, alternative crops, the old Russian mentality in the ANSF and winning the public affairs war (I/O campaign).

Unfortunately, you are missled in your information. I agree that the country side needs to be taken back, but it is not the U.S that needs to do it. It is the Afghan Nationals; their own army and police need to be more confident in their approach to take back what is theirs. It is a shame we soldiers are dying everyday for a country that cannot control its wn people. If you have been to the country in Afghanistan you will see the reason why "we" are having such a hard time with these areas. THEY DON'T WANT US THERE... The Taliban is a problem , but we are not scared of them . The peoplw are tired of hollow promises and have trully given up and are taking taking taking and not helping themselves. THis is a war that is the begnning of the end. Pay attention to everything esle in the world and you will see what is really going on.. How can the US or any other country help these people if they cannot even help themselves. think about it.. "There will be wars and rumors of wars"
When thinking about stradegy, you must put EVERYTHING into perspective. No strategy given by man is going to win this "WAR", ----- Disgruntled Soldier

We can not wage a police action against the Taliban. It sounds cruel, but we need to put all Afghani's in one area. Either in Kabul or send them all packing to Pakistan.
Level every village until there is no place to live, therefore no reason to be there. Set up a 1 mile wide no man's land along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and patrol that area with drones. Put up signs that tell everyone in signs or pictures if need be, that they will be terminated if they wanders into the area. Set up highly protected crossing areas in the passes. Scan everyone coming back into the country and if they want to go back to their villages, they will be given a ride and they must go there to rebuild their homes. Give them the best materials available so they want to rebuild and set them to work. Have a set of agriculturists there to help them grow food crops instead of dope. If they are building or working, they won't be killing or causing trouble.
We can not continue to have police actions where total war needs to be implemented.

After spending a year operating from a tiny camp in Kunar, I have to agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Johnson's illustration of our 'manpower distribution problem.' We're extremely thin on the ground, and it leads to numerous problems. In addition to an inability to secure the villages, it also leads to an unfortunate reliance on indirect fire and airstrikes. But I have to wonder, given much of what I know about life on the super-FOBs (BAF being the king), how much of this really comes down to the more general tooth-to-tail ratio of our force. There's more at work here than raw numbers. Chucking the population of BAF into the village fight means either a hell of a lot of retraining our OPTEMPO doesn't allow, or the spectacle of village defense and reconstruction being attempted by platoons of computer technicians, mechanics, supply sergeants and other Service & Support soldiers and marines. Nobody wants this (especially the cooks!), so we seem left with the surge idea if we want more combat-capable troops in the rural fight. Thoughts?

You dont win the hearts and mind of the Afghanistants by killing them with missiles and bombs fron thousands feet. You win the hearts and mind by building the the rural villages with schools, hospital and roads

Dan, you're on the right track regarding your article "Winning in Afghanistan." Having served in Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Ghazni, Afghanistan, I would add Military policy to execute both conflicts with rotational troops was also a doomed stategy. If policy had been that all troops deployed would stay until operational success had been achieved there would have been sustained knowledge insurgency tactics, maintained higher cognitive level of engagement with local goverment officials supporting effort, and improved knowledge base in regards to fraud, waste and abuse. But the single biggest advantage to not deploying troops on rotational basis would have been changing the mind set that has been too risk adverse. Military Officers would be less incline to let thousands of Soldiers sit idel on Forward Operation Bases, if they understood they were not going home till this was over. Why take risk if you know your tour is only 12-18 months?

There is no difference between T McVeigh and OBL, but a green card!! not the act,, so when are we going to war against our own terrorist? How can we WIN???