The Logic of War!
The Logic of War!
Somewhere between Kandahar and Common Sense, in far off Afghanistan, lies a plan of action that defies logic, kills our troops, accomplishes no meaningful objectives, and raises the disturbing thought that the powers that be know not what they are doing! How can a little known 'blogger' who writes as though his information and sources are impeccable,challenge the General of Generals who only recently was heralded as the one man who can bring victory to the US, and was appointed (or perhaps I should say 'annointed") to bring a peaceful conclusion to the chaos that is the Afghanistan War.
Surely, this writer is not alone in decrying the very existence of a military venture thousands of miles from America - and the sickening realization that I have grandchildren in second and third grades who were born when this war began. Worse, there is no end in sight. No matter what or how, General Petraeus, claims to bring order out of this chaos and even speaks of troop withdrawal, at the same time he has ordered 30,000 more soldiers from the NATO command to attempt an all out devastating blow to the enemy - the ragtag forces of a widely scattered band of dedicated, religious fighters who call themselves the Taliban. Lest anyone thinks that this largely untrained collaboration of zealots who held sway in Afghanistan when the war began, is simply a nuisance and a deadly pain in the prat, how wrong you are!
The Taliban is a fearful enemy. They have little regard for human life. They risk their own lives every day, have little or no organization that supplies food, medical aid, or the basic needs of an army that travels mostly on foot. And they are well armed, adept at creating and using explosives that can, and do, blast high tech US forces' tanks, troop carriers, to kingdom come!
It is this force, this obstacle to success in the field that has turned an attempt to locate and destroy Osama Bin Laden's Al Queda terrorist band believed to be somewhere in the depths of the Afghan mountains, hidden in caves, but prepared to assist the Taliban at every opportunity. So, we are deep into the debacle that has cost us far too many lives, too many maimed and injured, too much American money, and we hail the Generals who guide and lead us into depths way beyond our capacity to accomplish what US forces have so brilliantly acccomplished in past wars from WWII to the stalemate in neighboring Iraq. But not in Afghanistan!
Since there is no 'high command' in the Taliban, isn't it clear to our General planners, and their backers at the Pentagon, that it is virtually a hopeless task to seek even a truce - certainly not a European style surrender! How do we expect to rout out the devils who wear no uniforms, live off the land, kill our brave soldiers then fade into the mounains they know so well, and live to strike again and again as we nurse our wounds, send our dead back home for burial, and fill VA hospitals with the wounded and helpless victims of the war that should not exist!
If the answer is to kill, or drive from the land, every Taliban fighter, are we prepared to see this to a finish?
Do the 'planners' in the field (and in Washington), recognize that, in truth, we are fighting the citizens of the country we have committed ourselves to rescue from terrorism, that the Afghan people, citizens and politicians, are far from pleased with the American presence, and since they do not fear Al Queda, they have little, or no, rationale to support the allied effort to 'get Osama Bin Laden'!
The question must be answered at the highest level - in the oval office, if necessary. How long will the American public support this futile war? How many more dead and wounded can we accept as the price of an unlikely victory?
How many more Generals must we prop up to answer the basic question: can the Taliban be defeated, and, if so, by what means?
And, finally, why, oh why, are be bogged down chasing bad guys out of Afghan cities and towns, when we came there to find and destroy Al Quaeda - a cause celebre never mentioned in dispatches from the front!
If this is the logic of war, let's face it. We are back over 100 years, chasing native Americans, Indians, across the plains and mountains, trying to captue or kill as many as stood in our way - until the last were rounded up, confined to reservations, and with heads high we could claim "Mission Accomplished!"
Richard Carlton
July 15, 2010
Issue No. 14
Somewhere between Kandahar and Common Sense, in far off Afghanistan, lies a plan of action that defies logic, kills our troops, accomplishes no meaningful objectives, and raises the disturbing thought that the powers that be know not what they are doing! How can a little known 'blogger' who writes as though his information and sources are impeccable,challenge the General of Generals who only recently was heralded as the one man who can bring victory to the US, and was appointed (or perhaps I should say 'annointed") to bring a peaceful conclusion to the chaos that is the Afghanistan War.
Surely, this writer is not alone in decrying the very existence of a military venture thousands of miles from America - and the sickening realization that I have grandchildren in second and third grades who were born when this war began. Worse, there is no end in sight. No matter what or how, General Petraeus, claims to bring order out of this chaos and even speaks of troop withdrawal, at the same time he has ordered 30,000 more soldiers from the NATO command to attempt an all out devastating blow to the enemy - the ragtag forces of a widely scattered band of dedicated, religious fighters who call themselves the Taliban. Lest anyone thinks that this largely untrained collaboration of zealots who held sway in Afghanistan when the war began, is simply a nuisance and a deadly pain in the prat, how wrong you are!
The Taliban is a fearful enemy. They have little regard for human life. They risk their own lives every day, have little or no organization that supplies food, medical aid, or the basic needs of an army that travels mostly on foot. And they are well armed, adept at creating and using explosives that can, and do, blast high tech US forces' tanks, troop carriers, to kingdom come!
It is this force, this obstacle to success in the field that has turned an attempt to locate and destroy Osama Bin Laden's Al Queda terrorist band believed to be somewhere in the depths of the Afghan mountains, hidden in caves, but prepared to assist the Taliban at every opportunity. So, we are deep into the debacle that has cost us far too many lives, too many maimed and injured, too much American money, and we hail the Generals who guide and lead us into depths way beyond our capacity to accomplish what US forces have so brilliantly acccomplished in past wars from WWII to the stalemate in neighboring Iraq. But not in Afghanistan!
Since there is no 'high command' in the Taliban, isn't it clear to our General planners, and their backers at the Pentagon, that it is virtually a hopeless task to seek even a truce - certainly not a European style surrender! How do we expect to rout out the devils who wear no uniforms, live off the land, kill our brave soldiers then fade into the mounains they know so well, and live to strike again and again as we nurse our wounds, send our dead back home for burial, and fill VA hospitals with the wounded and helpless victims of the war that should not exist!
If the answer is to kill, or drive from the land, every Taliban fighter, are we prepared to see this to a finish?
Do the 'planners' in the field (and in Washington), recognize that, in truth, we are fighting the citizens of the country we have committed ourselves to rescue from terrorism, that the Afghan people, citizens and politicians, are far from pleased with the American presence, and since they do not fear Al Queda, they have little, or no, rationale to support the allied effort to 'get Osama Bin Laden'!
The question must be answered at the highest level - in the oval office, if necessary. How long will the American public support this futile war? How many more dead and wounded can we accept as the price of an unlikely victory?
How many more Generals must we prop up to answer the basic question: can the Taliban be defeated, and, if so, by what means?
And, finally, why, oh why, are be bogged down chasing bad guys out of Afghan cities and towns, when we came there to find and destroy Al Quaeda - a cause celebre never mentioned in dispatches from the front!
If this is the logic of war, let's face it. We are back over 100 years, chasing native Americans, Indians, across the plains and mountains, trying to captue or kill as many as stood in our way - until the last were rounded up, confined to reservations, and with heads high we could claim "Mission Accomplished!"
Richard Carlton
July 15, 2010
Issue No. 14
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