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I don't buy this idea that we fight with one hand tied behind our backs. That's the excuse we use because we've ended up in stupid wars that were not only ill conceived, but were never winnable in the first place.
Besides, the Russians didn't fight with hands tied behind their backs and got the same treatment we're getting. Trying to subdue nations (if you wanna call them that) that are thousands of years old and don't like foreigners to begin with is an impossible task. We're not going to win in Afghanistan because we can't, not because of the rules of engagement. There is a such thing as "limits of power." After Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, seems that we STILL haven't learned what that means.
I completely agree with you and with the idea of "limits of power." If that didn't exist, we could have easily forced Stalin out of Eastern Europe, cause we were the only nation with nukes at the time.
I was just saying technically we could win, but we'd have to literally sack the entire country inch by inch in order to win, which is of course is not going to happen so winning is really an impossibility.
We can win 'certain' conflicts if our leaders were smart enough to define reasonable goals with a clear plan. Vietnam is a good example of what not to do. Iraq I and Kosovo is a good example of defining conflicts in ways we can manage. I believed those of us that genuinely try to think about this stuff have learned to stay out. However, a majority of people don't care and don't hold their leaders accountable, so we keep seeing the same stuff over and over.
Last edited by LetMePost; 11-28-2010 at 12:00 AM..
It seems like the only way to "win" is to pay afghan forces more than taliban forces, which we might be able to do by cutting into heroin profits, which we might be able to do by coordinating with all other major heroin importers and set up facilities where a person can show up once every two years, admit to being a heroin addict, get locked up in their very own cell for 10 days (just enough time to get it out of their system) and then have that part of their record expunged.
and also jack up prison time for dealing/trafficking heroin/opium.
Considering how well the war on drugs has worked in America, I suspect our efforts in another country where a person can make 1000 times more harvesting poppies than they can harvesting dates, you may have a more difficult time. This doesn't include the fact that the Afghan police forces are corrupted to bad that even US forces cannot trust or rely upon them.
Here is another way to win, declare victory and bring the troops home.
Success at anything is knowing when you've
made a mistake, learned from it, and moved on.
The war in Afghanistan is a perfect example.
Why America keeps beating dead horses is beyond me.
all I'm saying is that as long as we're over there fighting, we need to be paying our guys more. it just makes sense. I also thinks it makes sense to help addicts quit than to kill innocents in all these raids we hear about in Afghanistan. doesn't it make sense, if we want less people to do it, to make it easier to quit and harder to sell?
Some people here seem to not know how much wealth GB got from controlling India....
It was quite a success really and apart from the Sepoy Rebellion,peaceful.
Also illuminating how Indian forces(which included what is now Pakistan) were defeated in that rebellion.
By the way,I think the USSR would have won in Afghanistan eventually If there hadn't been interference from the USA/UK and the loss of the use of air power.
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