Losing Afhganistan

[eagleseven]

Michael Yon's War - Politics - The Atlantic

Yon is no ordinary reporter. A former Green Beret with U.S. Army Special Forces, he has spent more time embedded in Iraq and Afghanistan than any other journalist. His dispatches have produced some of the most memorable combat narratives of the war, and a large share of its most iconic images...


...Yon believes the war can still be won, but that a change of command is in order. At this level of warfare, he says, "McChrystal is like a man who has strapped on ice skates for the first time. He might be a great athlete, but he's learning to skate during the Olympics." Yon adds that publicly denouncing the commanding general of a war is not an easy thing for him to do, especially considering it means crossing swords with General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, two men he greatly admires. Indeed, if anyone can turn this war around, Yon believes it is General Petraeus. He concedes such a return to the battlefield is unlikely, and suggests another general whose name fewer people have heard. "General James Mattis from the Marines. I get a good feeling about Mattis but I don't know. General Petraeus is a known entity and he is solid gold."

Short of that, Yon's outlook is bleak. "Even if the President commits more forces [next year], they will not be effective until 2012. By that time, more allies likely will have peeled off, requiring us to commit even more forces to cover down. We lost crucial time in building the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army and so forth, and today we are paying the price. This is not to mention that the Afghan government is sorry at best and criminal at worst."

He concludes, "The trajectory of this war leaves a sick feeling in my stomach. It's as if I've watched a space shuttle liftoff while sitting at launch control, with full knowledge that it will abort to the Indian Ocean. We are trying to reach orbit with insufficient fuel."

Without a dramatic change of strategy, it seems we will lose by 2012.

 

[rightwinger]

Get the hell out by 2012......

Ten years is more than enough time. If the country is still fucked up at that time, I don't give a shit

 

[Samson]

Get the hell out by 2012......

Ten years is more than enough time. If the country is still fucked up at that time, I don't give a shit

2 years should have been enough.

 

[The Rabbi]

One of the more likely scenarios I see unfolding is Karzai getting the idea that allying with the Americans is a bad idea, given they are on their way out, and he will declare he is allied with the Taliban to rid of the country of foreign oppressors.
In fact, I cannot see why he will not do this. Obama has done all he can to alienate him and his strategy for Afghanistan was a loser from the moment he spent 9 months to come up with one that his general said had a small chance of success.