Help me understand some of it

[ozark]

The war in Afghanistan is getting bigger and bigger. We are fighting it in a conventional manner sending more and more troops into the country. Our mission appears to be to train their military an police how to control their own country. Other than trying to find and eliminate the leaders and followers of terrorist why are we there?
We are not supposed to cause any suffering of the people but to somehow get them on our side as close friends. Will we succeed? If we do will it last? We know Russia tried and had to pull out. The current commander claims we need to double the number of US troops to have a chance. Will he get that request? Should he? Why is this a US led war rather than some other country? If the people there wants a different governing group why do they not have a revelotion? A young friend of mine who took care of me on hunting trips, did work for me and seemed to have no future here in Leslie is now in Afghanistan as a Marine. I feel guilty for influencing him to get into service rather than patrol the streets of leslie until he got into trouble. I know I had an influence on his decision and I wonder and worry about that. Now I ask the $64,000 dollar question: Are we again in a No Win situation? Yes or no?
If I lose my young friend I will never again encourage a person to join. I hope some of you can encourage me. I need it. Is there a PTSD for old men like me who gives the wrong advice?

[ozark]

I expected some responses but got a PM that our enemies had been supplied with Savage ML2's and that our best bet was to just surrender. LOL

[petev]

I think we have to fight in Afghanistan because the Al Quada that attacked us are there. Russia was trying to bully Afghanistan and control it. I see that as different than our mission. I have to get off because we have lightning, and I am going to unhook the phone line. Pete

[artjr338wm]

I think the single biggest obstacle to victory in Afghanistan we face is Afghanistan itself. We are not fighting a enemy with a culture and society as advanced as ours as was the case in WW-II. In the case of Afghanistan we once again find our selves at war with a enemy much more primitive in culture much like the VC in Viet Nam, and we all know what happened there.

One of our biggest problems we have faced in nearly all wars we fought since WW-II is Curtis Lemay's policy of "Bombing them back into the stone age" has proved of little use against enemys who are only slightly more advanced than the stone age, like the enemy we face in Afganistan. It is nearly impossable to defeat a emamy whos infrastructier is only slightly more advanced than the invention of the wheel or fire.

One has only to look at the country of Afganistan itself with its seamingly endless mountain ranges whos elevations are all at or above 10,000' 90% of which are devoid of anything even resembling a road, and most US house holds likely have more cell phones, computers, TVs, and so on than can be found in 99% of any entire single provence that make up the country, and you start to realize the fact that Afganistan is most likely the most remote amd primative country we have ever waged war in.
IN short how do you defeat a enamy who has almost nothing to loose in terms of infrastructure, let alone almost no "high value targets" like command and controll centers or major cities?

Also like Vet Nam, the topography of Afghanistan is a absolute night mare to fight in for our troops, the extreme elevations is alone enough to kill even the best in shape of our forces. The fact that there are more miles of roads in my town than in all of Afghanistan and that makes matters that much worse.

Also like the enemy we fought in Viet Nam, the foes we face in Afghanistan have been more or less in a state of constant war for much, much longer than America as a country has even existed, having defeated many past armies from countries like England, Russia, and the like. So they know (again from lessons all our potential enemies learned from Viet Nam) to defeat us or any country, simply play the waiting game of war by attrition in that Afghanistan like the VC and NVA are more than willing to loose literally endless numbers of troops to defeat us, were as we will not as a country do so.

I personally have no idea what we as a nation hope to achieve or accomplish by waging war in Afghanistan as it is a mish mosh of many separate Provence's controlled by waring tribes who's primary source of income is drug trafficking and as a country is devoid of any thing that even vaguely resemble a central government that controls anything outside of its city limits.

I pray for the sake of our troops we don't get involved in a ever widening war due to that most dreaded of all things in this type of war known as "Mission creep".

Given all the factors aligned against us in fighting a war in Afghanistan, and they are as worse as any we have ever faced in any past war, I simply do not see how we can win unless we fight this war as we did in WW-II. Literally with almost no limits to the complete severity of which we will go to prosecute the enemy, and we have already ruled out such tactics.

I fear we shall suffer a fate similar to that of all past armies that tried to invade, conquer and than remain in Afghanistan.

If I recall correctly they lost, every last one of them.
I believe it was Kipling who in one of his poems wrote words to the effect if your going to go to war in Afghanistan save your last round to use to blow your own brains out and spar your self torture at the hands of your Victors once you loose.