In light of a recent dispatch from Michael Yon, “Stuck in the Mud,”
24September 2012, http://www.michaelyon-online.com/stuck-in-the-mud.htm,
I am reminded of what I wrote back in March, 2012:
“Time to Rethink Afghanistan” by Kevin E. Dayhoff March 28,
2012
http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2012/03/time-to-rethink-afghanistan-by-kevin-e.html
http://twitpic.com/92a7wz
So far, 2012 has not been a good year for the war in
Afghanistan. Just last Monday a New York Times/CBS poll quantified what most
Americans already know in their gut: support for the war is dropping sharply
among both Democrats and Republicans.
According to the Times’ article, “Support in U.S. for Afghan
War Drops Sharply, Poll Finds,” “the survey (a copy of which may be accessed
here,) found that more than two-thirds of those polled — 69 percent — thought
that the United States should not be at war in Afghanistan. Just four months
ago, 53 percent said that Americans should no longer be fighting in the
conflict, more than a decade old.”
Inadvertently, the Times article explained part of the
problem when it quoted “Michael E. O’Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings
Institution, who is close to American commanders in Afghanistan, said that the
opinion polls reflected a lack of awareness of the current policy…”
Yes, Mr. Hanlon, you are correct. Ten years of war and at
this point in time, most Americans cannot tell you why we are still risking the
lives of our young men and women.
The rest of the quote from Mr. Hanlon reads: “…the current
policy, which calls for slowly turning over portions of the country to Afghan
security forces, like the southern provinces, where American troops have tamped
down the violence.
“I honestly believe,” said Mr. Hanlon, “if more people
understood that there is a strategy and intended sequence of events with an end
in sight, they would be tolerant…”
Here’s the takeaway: “The overall image of this war is of
U.S. troops mired in quicksand and getting blown up and arbitrarily waiting
until 2014 to come home. Of course, you’d be against it,” said Mr. Hanlon.
Bingo. Increasingly the overall image of this war has become
the feckless foreign policy of sending young men and women into quicksand to
get blown-up arbitrarily.
The additional context of the troubled mission-drift
approach to the war may be found in a recent telling interview with the top
commander in Afghanistan, detailed by Jennifer Hlad and Chris Carroll in Stars
and Stripes.
U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen was quoted as saying that “he
believes the majority of non-commissioned officers; staff NCOs and young
officers are ‘extraordinarily well-trained.’
“Repeated tours in Afghanistan, and prior to that, in Iraq,
don’t inherently reduce the effectiveness of the force or reduce the
effectiveness of small-unit leadership… I’m confident the institution is
solid,” said General Allen in the article, “Allen: Investigation of Afghan
killings to look at leadership climate.”
Anecdotally and unscientifically, all intuition and
instincts indicate that General Allen has unwittingly responded to what has
been, heretofore, only whispers in the hallway… http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=5001
Time to Rethink
Afghanistan by Kevin E. Dayhoff March 28, 2012 The Tentacle http://tinyurl.com/8a4emqm
*****
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