We ‘lost’ the Afghanistan War: See reality and start talking

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/08/10/we-lost-the-afghanistan-war-see-reality-and-start-talking/

August 10, 2010

- The NATO alliance is failing to win over Afghan civilians, a cornerstone of success in the current strategy employed in Afghanistan. In the two provinces currently at the center of the war — Helmand and Kandahar — 75 percent of Afghans believe foreigners disrespect their religion and traditions; 74 percent think working for foreign forces is wrong; 68 percent believe NATO will not protect them; and 65 percent think Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar should be part of the government. -

By Conn Hallinan in Foreign Policy in Focus


Wars are rarely lost in a single encounter; Defeat is almost always more complex than that. The United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies have lost the war in Afghanistan, but not just because they failed in the battle for Marjah or decided that discretion was the better part of valor in Kandahar. They lost the war because they should never have invaded in the first place; because they never had a goal that was achievable; because their blood and capital are finite.

The face of that defeat was everywhere this past month. snip

We have lost the war. It is time to recognize reality and start talking.

[Uben]

1. We have not been defeated.....

...therefore we have not lost a war. Saying we have lost is ignorant. War was never declared, so one cannot be lost. Afghanistan is a police action, and I would agree it is not worth continuing. Why some idiot would claim our soldiers have lost a war is irresponsible and highschool journalism at best. Dickhead Bush said he would not engage in nation building then did exactly that in two countries. It is time to end his folly and spend our treasure at home putting folks to work and rebuilding the infrastructure.

[PDJane]

2. It's an occupation, not a police action.

You can't win an occupation; both sides lose. The estimates of war dead from those who are not American is over one million people, all of them civilians. There is no military in Afghanistan; the US is training military and police, and have not finished doing so.

There is no infrastructure, no sewers, few schools.....and where there are schools, there are no teachers. A huge proportion of the population is illiterate, women have a very hard time finding medical care, and about 1/5 of the children die before their fifth birthday.

If the amount of money spent on making life hard for the civilians in Afghanistan were spent on assisting them to find sustainable crops, schooling and building the infrastructure, the US would have won a long time ago.

[arbusto_baboso]

3. Precisely. Many are confusing short-term tactical results with long-term strategic issues.

Just like Vietnam. We never lost a battle there. And in the end, that was also completely irrelevant.