New Afghanistan Strategy Sounds Old

Kind of makes you wonder - if Obama doesn't want Afghanistan to be his Vietnam, than why is he using the language of Vietnam to describe it?

 US strategy will focus on 'winning hearts, minds and stomachs'

Large poppy field raids coming? Up to sixty-thousand troops in country focused on civilin objectives like the drug war, good governance and judicial reform - or providing security for the US civilians focused on that, perhaps?

What could go wrong? 

"Barack Obama is a pragmatist. He knows we must deal with the world as it is," said Jones. He added that there had been a "failure to harmonise" the various strands of the campaign in Afghanistan. The new policy would place greater emphasis on "going beyond military capacity" to dealing with good governance, judicial reform, a focus on the police, and the "war on drugs".

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

Ms Al Saidie said we should leave the Taliban alone.
But:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1139505/Horrifying-video-militants-beheading-Polish-engineer-released-Pakistani-Taliban.html

[Fred Beloit]

However, the "achievable" goals will cost money. "Ok, OK. Let's put a tax on all opium sales. This is good. This is good. Rahm, you got an extra cig on you?"

[Lala]

I like this column from Ralph Peters - there is no winning hearts and minds of barbarians

n my years as an intelligence officer, I saw colleagues make the same blunder over and over: They rushed to stress the ways in which the Russians, the Chinese or the Iranians were "just like us." It's the differences that kill you, though.

"I was an effective intelligence officer. Why? In junior high, I matured past the French Existentialists and started reading science fiction. The prose was often ragged, but the speculative frameworks offered a useful approach to analysis.

Begin with the view that all opponents are aliens from another cultural planet. Build your assessment from a blank slate. What do the alien collectives desire or fear? How do they perceive the galaxy? What are their unique weaknesses?

Regarding Planet Afghanistan, we still hear the deadly cliché that "all human beings want the same basic things, such as better lives and greater opportunities for their children." How does that apply to Afghan aliens who prefer their crude way of life and its merciless cults?"

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02032009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/taliban_from_outer_space_153318.htm

[Lala]

Hear the new hit songs "hope makes the terrorists dead" or "why don't democrats ever pay their taxes?"

http://patriotmusiconline.com/Home_Page.html

[Sadie]

"Ms Al Saidie said we should leave the Taliban alone..."

That isn't what I said of course. What I said, and say again, is that the only stake we have in Afghanistan is that it not be used as a launching pad for attacks against the United States. That the Taliban are vicious, cruel, barbaric or simply mentally deranged isn't a reason to stay in Afghanistan.

Certainly there are those in this country who think the US military should ONLY be used for humanitarian missions and only when there is no American interest at stake except feeling righteous. That way, they reason, we can be sure that our motives are pure and the world will support us. I'm not one of those people.

[mark l.]

If 150k in Iraq couldn't win in barry's eyes, what are 60k in Afghanistan going to do?

population density of Iraq is 50% greater than AG.

40% of Iraq's population is in three cities.
less than 12% of afghan population is in the 6 largest cities.

[seekeronos]

Here's my take:

-- Leave Afghanistan.

-- Leave Pakistan to its fate (India can deal with it rather capably, or Red China, or Russia)

-- Leave Iraq and Saudi Arabia: negotiate the sale of SOME of heavy equipment (tanks, artillery, other stuff that is hard to get out of the country) in exchange for oil. This will remove the root cause for AQ and OBL's onus against the USA (or at least, it will make it much harder to recruit jihadis on the basis of removing the infidels from the Muslim holy lands)

-- Leave Europe entirely, aside from a few intel and joint forces ops with NATO that can be pared down in time.

-- Leave Africa entirely.

-- Leave South Korea, they really don't like us there anyway.

-- Maintain forces in Japan, until they have rebuilt their surface navy back to a few fleet carriers and a suitable ASW force.

-- Move the bulk of US forces to the Mexican border interdict illegal movements of non-citizens and otherwise repel foreign invasions;

-- Focus the USN on its ASW capabilities to resist Chinese aggression if needed

-- Maintain the USAF ability to deploy nuclear and non-nuclear strategic weapons from US territory to anywhere on earth, as well as developing orbital launch platforms and hyper-kinetic energy weapons (rail guns, etc.)

Redirect revenue saved from withdrawing from foreign entanglements to the reduction of the budget deficit, re-paying the national debt, and seeking further reduction of govt. spending.

[13yankeebravo]

seekeronos = same mentality of politicans after the the war to end all wars, 1918-1941.

[seekeronos]

"--- seekeronos = same mentality of politicians after the the war to end all wars, 1918-1941. ---"

Not necessarily.

Our military's job is to repel invasions from foreign enemies, and suppress domestic insurrections.

That really does not equate to maintaining military outposts in over 130 other countries, much less policing failed states.

In fact, it is one of the most often ignored pieces of advice from none other than George Washington himself: that we should seek trade with all, and avoid foreign entanglements.

You want to know why the Muzzies are in an uproar for the past 20 years? It is because of our continual occupation of their "holy land". Secondarily, it is for our support of Israel.

If we had no troops in the middle east, you could be certain that the "casus belli" for their jihad against the USA would fall apart, and they would resume their time-honoured tradition of ripping each other to shreds in the never-ending tribalist wars they are so fond of.