To my surprise I find that Amash is the only one oy your interlocutors who has much constructive to say. The rest are hung up on tactics, maybe the details of low-level strategy, but Amash is the only one to come close to confronting the reality that the whole concept was based on a misguided, erroneous grand strategy that made the war u…
To my surprise I find that Amash is the only one oy your interlocutors who has much constructive to say. The rest are hung up on tactics, maybe the details of low-level strategy, but Amash is the only one to come close to confronting the reality that the whole concept was based on a misguided, erroneous grand strategy that made the war unwinnable for the United States and its coalition, at this time.
We did not have any vital interest at stake except to deny Afghanistan as a base for operations against us. We did not have to recast their whole society to do that, and we were never realistic about the price we would have to pay (blood, treasure, and time) to even have a chance. So, almost from the beginning our goals were not consistent with our means, with means including not only technical and financial, but moral and the will to see it through. Almost from the start we signaled that we were only there for a limited period, even as we sometimes tried to keep them guessing as to what that time limit war, it was clear there WA such a limit, so they only had to be prepared to wait us out. The classic issue in counterinsurgency--the insurgents do not have to win, they just have to not lose and wait us out. A lesson we SHOULD have learned in Vietnam, but apparently didn't, or a new generation of military and govt leaders were ignorant of it or overcome by hubris.
It is nota matter of what more forceful measures we could have applied and won--beside most such arguments not being credible, we never had the will to do so.
The whole GWOT was much like this--Bush-43 swearing vengeance while telling us that we would not have to sacrifice much, and that the most important thing we could do was go out and shop (to avoid a recession)
Those are not serious people, no mater how they present themselves or think of themselves. And those Bush "Vulcans" were much more serious than the truly lame buffoons who followed them when Obama took office.
And this debacle was highly predictable--just look at the people in charge--Blinken, Sullivan, Milley (appointed to his current role by Trump, so let's be bipartisan about some of it), and so on. They are narrow, stupid, ignorant, and lack any background to suit them to conduct major operations, let alone conduct a shooting war.
As a nation we are no longer serious about anything except our internal fights. To the external world we are clownish.
To my surprise I find that Amash is the only one oy your interlocutors who has much constructive to say. The rest are hung up on tactics, maybe the details of low-level strategy, but Amash is the only one to come close to confronting the reality that the whole concept was based on a misguided, erroneous grand strategy that made the war unwinnable for the United States and its coalition, at this time.
We did not have any vital interest at stake except to deny Afghanistan as a base for operations against us. We did not have to recast their whole society to do that, and we were never realistic about the price we would have to pay (blood, treasure, and time) to even have a chance. So, almost from the beginning our goals were not consistent with our means, with means including not only technical and financial, but moral and the will to see it through. Almost from the start we signaled that we were only there for a limited period, even as we sometimes tried to keep them guessing as to what that time limit war, it was clear there WA such a limit, so they only had to be prepared to wait us out. The classic issue in counterinsurgency--the insurgents do not have to win, they just have to not lose and wait us out. A lesson we SHOULD have learned in Vietnam, but apparently didn't, or a new generation of military and govt leaders were ignorant of it or overcome by hubris.
It is nota matter of what more forceful measures we could have applied and won--beside most such arguments not being credible, we never had the will to do so.
The whole GWOT was much like this--Bush-43 swearing vengeance while telling us that we would not have to sacrifice much, and that the most important thing we could do was go out and shop (to avoid a recession)
Those are not serious people, no mater how they present themselves or think of themselves. And those Bush "Vulcans" were much more serious than the truly lame buffoons who followed them when Obama took office.
And this debacle was highly predictable--just look at the people in charge--Blinken, Sullivan, Milley (appointed to his current role by Trump, so let's be bipartisan about some of it), and so on. They are narrow, stupid, ignorant, and lack any background to suit them to conduct major operations, let alone conduct a shooting war.
As a nation we are no longer serious about anything except our internal fights. To the external world we are clownish.