New Afghanistan strategy

[Peter F]

double post

Edited December 5, 2009 by Peter F

[Guest American Woman]

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

I tend to agree, after reading different thoughts, that the Taliban can't afford to bide it's time and pretend that things are safer than they are. I think that would make it too easy for the U.S./Allies/Afghanistan government to accomplish their goals and become a stronger force so that the Taliban would have a much more difficult time fighting to regain power.

I think the Taliban and al Qaeda need to keep appearing strong, too, in order to gain recruits maintain strong support. If they start appearing weak, I think it would hurt their cause.

Also, it sounds as if the 18 months time span was just in reference to when troops will start withdrawing. It also sounds as if it's not written in stone, but more a reference so that Afghanistan has some idea of the time frame we expect them to be able to deal with some of these issues on their own.

[Moonlight Graham]

The Taliban can't, and never has been able to, kick US arse.

I didn't mean it by saying the taliban are completely winning the fight. But they are bringing it to the US/NATO, the fight is about even between the two sides. Both sides are really causing trouble for each other. The U.S./NATO did most of the damage to the Taliban at the beginning of the war when they ousted them from gov't and drove them out of areas, but since then NATO is having a real hard time making overall gains.

[Moonlight Graham]

You're welcome.

I tend to agree, after reading different thoughts, that the Taliban can't afford to bide it's time and pretend that things are safer than they are. I think that would make it too easy for the U.S./Allies/Afghanistan government to accomplish their goals and become a stronger force so that the Taliban would have a much more difficult time fighting to regain power.

I think the Taliban and al Qaeda need to keep appearing strong, too, in order to gain recruits maintain strong support. If they start appearing weak, I think it would hurt their cause.

Also, it sounds as if the 18 months time span was just in reference to when troops will start withdrawing. It also sounds as if it's not written in stone, but more a reference so that Afghanistan has some idea of the time frame we expect them to be able to deal with some of these issues on their own.

Great points. I think the timetable has several goals. 1. it puts pressure on the Afghan gov't & tells them the US wont be there forever, 2. It lets the Afghan people know the US isn't there indefinitely, which is good for Afghans because they resent foreign occupation, 3. It lets the American people know the war isn't forever, providing the admin domestic political gains.

I'm sure there are a myriad of other positive reasons the Obama admin sees for providing a timetable. They obviously weighed the decision against the pros/cons of not providing a timetable and concluded this was the better course of action. i guess we'll have to wait to see if they're right.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Moonlight Graham

[DogOnPorch]

I didn't mean it by saying the taliban are completely winning the fight. But they are bringing it to the US/NATO, the fight is about even between the two sides. Both sides are really causing trouble for each other. The U.S./NATO did most of the damage to the Taliban at the beginning of the war when they ousted them from gov't and drove them out of areas, but since then NATO is having a real hard time making overall gains.

This is mainly due to constraints which reduce Allied command control and overall effectivness to something closer to pre-WW2 than the 21st century. That is to say...hands tied behind your back in a fist fight. You can't just order your armored corp up the road to take the Taliban controled areas/villages...many other factors come into play like how it will look on the news...are their civilians who might get hurt...is their really orders to take out the village from the highest levels...etc, etc. Things that normally an NCO on the ground should be able to decide. Instead we have a system similar to the old Soviet style, where request must move up the chain of command while orders come down the various layers of the chain of command.

[Sir Bandelot]

There is no reason to believe that the Taliban can ever be permanently defeated in Afghanistan, nor that the people/ culture/ political/ economic system can be transformed in less than two years. What Obama has done is given the US an exit window, which is probably good, even if it is created by a temporary illusion.