How To Win In Afghanistan

This war has been raging for 18 years……and there is no end in sight. Out troops will continue to have multiple deployments and we continue to throw money at a hopeless cause.

Plus I listen to the major Dem candidates when asked about Afghanistan…..most have a common stand…they do not want to leave our troops in Afghanistan but they would remove them in a responsible way…….sounds like the last two presidents……what it means is they will stay in Afghanistan until the weapons industry says we can leave.

I have been asking for years just what would it take to declare victory and bring our weary troops home for a much deserved rest?

It appears that the only strategy we have is to wait the Taleban out…….

The Thirty Years War? The Hundred Years War? The Forever War? More than 17 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime, the United States has failed to crush the resulting Taliban insurgency and cannot withdraw without allowing them to return to power. Political frustration is building. The United States is questioning an ongoing presence. United States Senator Rand Paul recently said, “[W]e’re in an impossible situation. I see no hope for it.” Among the many depressing aspects of the situation is the $13 billion being spent each year in maintaining approximately 16,000 American service members in Afghanistan. The lower estimate for maintaining one service member in Afghanistan is $500,000 per year. More realistic estimates put the number at $1 million per year. (In 2018, to maintain the current force of 16,000, the United States spent $13 billion on U.S. forces and $5 billion on Afghan forces. This provides a cost of approximately $812,000 per U.S. service member per year). The 175,000 strong Afghan National Army (ANA) costs about $5 billion per year or $28,000 per member.

Presently, the United States and NATO maintain discrete military units in Afghanistan. These units operate against the Taliban and train ANA troops. Each year, significant numbers of ANA troops desert. A bigger problem is tens of thousands of ANA “ghost soldiers.” According to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, these “soldiers” are just names on the ANA’s rolls enabling corrupt high-ranking Afghanis to steal their salaries. The present system of giving money to the Afghan government is not creating an ANA that can ever achieve victory.

So there is my answer….we will just wait the Taleban out…eventually they will tire of fighting and come to a peace accord.
The Taleban seems to think that the US is ready to set a date for departure……
Taliban negotiator spokesman Mohammed Sohail Shaheen, currently in Moscow from the recent talks between Taliban and Afghan officials, reported that he expects, during the next round of talks with the US, the Americans will announce a specific date for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

The US and Taliban have been known to be advancing toward a deal for months, centered on the US withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Taliban promising to keep ISIS and al-Qaeda out of the country in return.

Shaheen said that if the US does set a date, it will create a very real possibility of settling the war in Afghanistan, now ongoing for some 18 years. President Trump has talked up the merits of such a deal, though some US officials are said to oppose any deal that doesn’t leave a remnant US force in Afghanistan.
Seriously?  Did they check with Raytheon or Boeing or any other of the MIC?
And they call me a dreamer!
$13 billion a year is the cost…bring the troops home and we can use that cash for a damn silly wall and Trump can claim the Afghanistan paid for it.
Peace Out!

4 thoughts on “How To Win In Afghanistan

  1. I would like to see an actual physical roll call of the Afghan Army. Most of it only exists on paper, and many of the ‘soldiers’ are just Taliban fighters getting weapons at the expense of the countries supposedly ‘helping’. So much of the aid goes into corruption and bribery, and the only real answer to the war there is to just get out and call it a ‘draw’.
    Best wishes, Pete.,

    1. That is indeed the prudent thing to do…but the US has Vietnam hanging around its neck and will do everything to avoid the comparison….chuq

  2. My next door neighbor is in Afghanistan now for about his fourth 90 day your . He is a doctor in the army reserves.
    He says he enjoys the time he spends on these tours. He gets more rest than he does in his civilian job in an emergency room doctor.
    He thinks there is nothing in the whole Middle East that we can fix. Any and all money we spend there is just a waste.
    Time to call it a day. Russia finally did, and before them England, And other empires back to the Greeks and beyond.

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