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Thread: America Is Headed For Military Defeat in Afghanistan

  1. #1

    America Is Headed For Military Defeat in Afghanistan

    It is time to acknowledge this is more than political. We can lose on the battlefield, and it's happening right now.


    By DANNY SJURSEN • November 30, 2018



    There’s a prevailing maxim, both inside the armed forces and around the Beltway, that goes something like this: “The U.S. can never be militarily defeated in any war,” certainly not by some third world country. Heck, I used to believe that myself. That’s why, in regard to Afghanistan, we’ve been told that while America could lose the war due to political factors (such as the lack of grit among “soft” liberals or defeatists), the military could never and will never lose on the battlefield.

    That entire maxim is about to be turned on its head. Get ready, because we’re about to lose this war militarily.

    Consider this: the U.S. military has advised, assisted, battled, and bombed in Afghanistan for 17-plus years. Ground troop levels have fluctuated from lows of some 10,000 to upwards of 100,000 servicemen and women. None of that has achieved more than a tie, a bloody stalemate. Now, in the 18th year of this conflict, the Kabul-Washington coalition’s military is outright losing.

    Let’s begin with the broader measures. The Taliban controls or contests more districts—some 44 percent—than at any time since the 2001 invasion. Total combatant and civilian casualties are forecasted to top 20,000 this year—another dreadful broken record. What’s more, Afghan military casualties are frankly unsustainable: the Taliban are killing more than the government can recruit. The death rates are staggering, numbering 5,500 fatalities in 2015, 6,700 in 2016, and an estimate (the number is newly classified) of “about 10,000” in 2017. Well, some might ask, what about American airpower—can’t that help stem the Taliban tide? Hardly. In 2018, as security deteriorated and the Taliban made substantial gains, the U.S. actually dropped more bombs than in any other year of the war. It appears that nothing stands in the way of impending military defeat.

    Then there are the very recent events on the ground—and these are telling. Insider attacks in which Afghan “allies” turn their guns on American advisors are back on the rise, most recently in an attack that wounded a U.S. Army general and threatened the top U.S. commander in the country. And while troop numbers are way down from the high in 2011, American troops deaths are rising. Over the Thanksgiving season alone, a U.S. Army Ranger was killed in a friendly fire incident and three other troopers died in a roadside bomb attack. And in what was perhaps only a (still disturbing) case of misunderstood optics, the top U.S. commander, General Miller, was filmed carrying his own M4 rifle around Afghanistan. That’s a long way from the days when then-General Petraeus (well protected by soldiers, of course) walked around the markets of Baghdad in a soft cap and without body armor.

    More importantly, the Afghan army and police are getting hammered in larger and larger attacks and taking unsustainable casualties. Some 26 Afghan security forces were killed on Thanksgiving, 22 policemen died in an attack on Sunday, and on Tuesday 30 civilians were killed in Helmand province. And these were only the high-profile attacks, dwarfed by the countless other countrywide incidents. All this proves that no matter how hard the U.S. military worked, or how many years it committed to building an Afghan army in its own image, and no matter how much air and logistical support that army received, the Afghan Security Forces cannot win. The sooner Washington accepts this truth over the more comforting lie, the fewer of our adulated American soldiers will have to die. Who is honestly ready to be the last to die for a mistake, or at least a hopeless cause?

    continued...https://www.theamericanconservative....n-afghanistan/
    "The Patriarch"



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  3. #2
    We weren't defeated in Vietnam, perhaps if we admit or are forced to admit to a defeat in Afghanistan it will prompt a much needed attitude adjustment in our foreign policy culture.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  4. #3
    We've had military defeat there for years.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  5. #4
    Neither side is "winning".

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Neither side is "winning".
    LOL
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  7. #6
    While back had read an article suggesting that military presence in Afghanistan was also needed to surround Iran militarily/keep pressure on among other things. Trump's non-globalist, America Firster top funder Adeolson seems to have pushed for Iran escalation again apparently.
    Current , recent Afghan war policy makes no sense logically but neocons political slave masters' war policies have rarely made much logical sense.


    U.S. vs. Iran: Military Action ‘On the Table,’ Trump Administration Says After Senate Vote Threatens Saudi Arabia Support
    By Tom O'Connor On 11/29/18
    The United States has warned that conducting military action against Iran is a viable option in dealing with the revolutionary Shiite Muslim power, just one day after senators voted in favor of a measure that would withdraw support for Saudi Arabia.
    https://www.newsweek.com/us-military...upport-1237100





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  8. #7
    So should the Afghanistan occupation be called "Operation Perpetual Defeat" or "Operation spend and Lose"?
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
    "War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Neither side is "winning".
    The Graveyard of Empires never wins. But it always outlasts.

    They need only endure. And they certainly know this by now.

    The Bush chutzpah is astounding. If we don't abandon their insane agenda, it will bury this empire.
    Last edited by acptulsa; 12-01-2018 at 07:33 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...



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  11. #9
    Highlights from Maj. Sjursen:

    the U.S. military has advised, assisted, battled, and bombed in Afghanistan for 17-plus years. … Now, in the 18th year of this conflict, the Kabul-Washington coalition’s military is outright losing. …

    The Taliban controls or contests more districts—some 44 percent—than at any time since the 2001 invasion. Total combatant and civilian casualties are forecasted to top 20,000 this year—another dreadful broken record. … Afghan military casualties are frankly unsustainable: …

    what about American airpower—can’t that help stem the Taliban tide? Hardly. In 2018, as security deteriorated and the Taliban made substantial gains, the U.S. actually dropped more bombs than in any other year of the war. …

    Then there are the very recent events on the ground … Insider attacks in which Afghan “allies” turn their guns on American advisors are back on the rise, most recently in an attack that wounded a U.S. Army general and threatened the top U.S. commander in the country… American troops deaths are rising. Over the Thanksgiving season alone, a U.S. Army Ranger was killed in a friendly fire incident and three other troopers died in a roadside bomb attack. …

    the Afghan army and police are getting hammered in larger and larger attacks and taking unsustainable casualties … no matter how hard the U.S. military worked, or how many years it committed to building an Afghan army in its own image, and no matter how much air and logistical support that army received, the Afghan Security Forces cannot win. …

    Still, sober strategy and basic honesty demands a true assessment of the military situation in America’s longest war. The Pentagon loves metrics, data, and stats. Well, as demonstrated daily on the ground in Afghanistan, all the security (read: military) metrics point towards impending defeat. …

    The United States military did all it was asked during more than 17 years of warfare in Afghanistan. It raided, it bombed, it built, it surged, it advised, it…everything. Still, none of that was sufficient. Enough Afghans either support the Taliban or hate the occupation

    There’s no shame in defeat. But there is shame, and perfidy, in avoiding or covering up the truth. … again.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
    "War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

  12. #10
    meanwhile the poppy production is doing amazing

    In 2017, opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high with an estimated 328,000 hectares, up 63 per cent compared with 201,000 hectares in 2016. ... From the 2017 opium harvest, some 550-900 tons of heroin of export quality (purity between 50 and 70 per cent) can be produced.
    “…let us teach them that all who draw breath are of equal worth, and that those who seek to press heel upon the throat of liberty, will fall to the cry of FREEDOM!!!” – Spartacus, War of the Damned

    BTC: 1AFbCLYU3G1dkbsSJnk3spWeEwpqYVC2Pq

  13. #11
    [QUOTE=enhanced_deficit;6714963]While back had read an article suggesting that military presence in Afghanistan was also needed to surround Iran militarily/keep pressure on among other things. Trump's non-globalist, America Firster top funder Adeolson seems to have pushed for Iran escalation again apparently.
    Current , recent Afghan war policy makes no sense logically but neocons political slave masters' war policies have rarely made much logical sense.

    It makes perfect sense. I agree with this model as to why we are there. It borders Iran, We also are close to Russia's Southern Border, Also, close to Pakistan where we can watch how India and pakistan behave with their nukes. Close to China and their interest in karachi and Pakistan.

    I think all were trying to do is maintain the minimum presence while still trying to meet intelligence and foreign policy objectives. Were not there to win, were there to monitor and exert a presence and influence.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by AZJoe View Post
    So should the Afghanistan occupation be called "Operation Perpetual Defeat" or "Operation spend and Lose"?
    I would settle for Operation Cluster$#@!.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauls' Revere View Post
    It makes perfect sense. I agree with this model as to why we are there. It borders Iran, We also are close to Russia's Southern Border, Also, close to Pakistan where we can watch how India and pakistan behave with their nukes. Close to China and their interest in karachi and Pakistan.

    I think all were trying to do is maintain the minimum presence while still trying to meet intelligence and foreign policy objectives. Were not there to win, were there to monitor and exert a presence and influence.
    And when we run out of Afghanis foolish enough to be our allies...?
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by kpitcher View Post
    meanwhile the poppy production is doing amazing
    "He who controls the Spice, controls the universe!"



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