FALL OF KABUL

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Most will TLDR this, but please scroll to the bottom for the money shot

THOUGHTS ON AFGHANISTAN, from a senior military officer with whom I am acquainted:

I ask that you not use my name. I am a currently serving General Officer and what I have to say is highly critical of our current military leadership. But it must be said.

I don't blame President Biden for the catastrophe in Afghanistan. It was the right decision to leave, the proof of which is how quickly the country collapsed without US support. Twenty years of training and equipping the Afghan army and all that they were capable of was a few hours of delay in a country the size of Texas. As for his predecessor, the only blame I place on President Trump was that he didn't withdraw sooner.

We should blame President Bush, not for the decision to attack into Afghanistan following 9-11, but for his decision to "shift the goalposts" and attempt to reform Afghanistan society. That was a fool's errand any student of history would have recognized. And yes, we should place blame on President Obama for his decision to double down on failure when he "surged" in Afghanistan, rather than to withdraw.

However, most of the blame belongs to the leadership of the US military, and the Army in particular. The Washington Post's "Afghanistan Papers" detailed years of US officials failing to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan, "making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable." That report was two years ago, and the stories within it began more than a decade before that. Afghanistan was, and always will be, "unwinnable".

Of course, I blame President Biden for the disastrous retrograde operation still unfolding. But let us not allow that to deflect us from heaping even more blame on military leaders. They stonewalled President Trump rather than beginning deliberate preparations to exit the country when he told them to. They thought that they could outlast him and then talk sense to his successor. Then after the inauguration, they pressed the new president to reverse course. He wisely chose withdrawal. Then and only then did the generals begin their preparations in earnest. But it was too late to do it well.

The war in Afghanistan lasted more than twice as long as the Vietnam War. Although the cost in terms of American blood was thankfully far smaller, the mistakes are the same: America got involved in a long land war in Asia, in a peripheral region, in order to prop up a floundering and unreliable government, and at a time when there was a much bigger looming threat. In fact, Afghanistan was worse than Vietnam in that at least the Vietnam War was tangentially related to the effort to stop the global spread of communism during the Cold War. Afghanistan was worse than Vietnam in another respect: the military's leaders of the Vietnam era had no precedent to dissuade them from a disastrous path. Today's military leadership has the precedent of not just Vietnam, but also Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. That much obtuseness must be punished and removed from the system.

General Milley must resign. Not only is he the Chairman of the Joint Staff, prior to that he was the Chief of Staff of the Army. While all services share the blame, the Army is the land domain proponent. The 20 years of failure in Afghanistan is an Army failure. Scores of other generals also deserve a thorough evaluation; many of them are complicit in the lies to protect a decades-long failed strategy.

Secretary of Defense Austin also must be fired. The recently retired Army general and former CENTCOM commander was, and still is, part of the culture that is impervious to the fact that 20 years of trying it their way did not work.

Just as it did after Vietnam, the military, and especially the Army, must conduct a comprehensive review of why it exists. The purpose of the Army is to visit profound violence on our nation's enemies; it is not to rebuild failed states. We have decades of experience: counter-insurgencies and nation-building does not work for America. We do not have the stomach for long wars of occupation—and that is a good thing. We are a nation of commerce, not conflict. A constellation of retired stars will tell you that the two can coexist. They are wrong. Retired Vice Chief of Staff of the Army General Jack Keane said only two months ago that because Afghanistan consumes just a small portion of the force, America "can afford the cost of fighting" there. What he does not see is that for 20 years, that "small portion" was the most important portion of the military. Everything else necessarily is subservient to the portion of the force in conflict. It has altered who the Army is and how it thinks. There exists only a handful of officers below the general officer ranks who served during the Cold War and who have lived through an era of great power conflict. From private through brigade commander, virtually every Army Soldier serving today has experienced little other than counterinsurgencies or nation-building while operating out of secure FOBs. Large scale combat operations and insurgencies require different cultures and mindsets. In a resource constrained environment, the same service cannot do both well. The Army today could not win a major war. Yet, winning a major war, is the number one reason why an Army exists. It will take a generation to break bad habits, to think in terms of closing with and destroying the enemy versus winning hearts and minds. Keane sees raw numbers (and ignores the stark evidence that there was no progress over 20 years) and thinks that America's Army can sustain that level of commitment. It cannot, and the opportunity cost to the culture of the force is much too great. Ignore him. Ignore Petraeus, McMaster, Stavridis, and the rest of their ilk.

Concurrent with its review of purpose, the Army must reevaluate its size and how it is organized. The active component is much too large. That makes it too eager to get involved in irrelevant theaters where failure is likely or even preordained. It should be very difficult for an American president to deploy the Army without the National Guard performing most combat operations. You argue that that takes time? Yes, that's the point: it should take time to make the case to the American people that war is worth it.

The Marine Corps must provide the nation's rapid response forces. It is a self-contained deployable multi-domain force. Some would argue that the service has both insufficient combat power and staying power. However, that is a feature, and not a flaw, as it forces the nation to rely on its Army—and hence its reserve components—before engaging in heavy combat or lengthy operations. The current Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Berger, already seems to recognize his service's role—hence his decision to eliminate armor from the Corps.

Congress must reevaluate the authorities contained within Sections 12301 through 12304 of Title X. The president has too much latitude to, on his own authority, mobilize tens or even hundreds of thousands of Guardsmen and Reservists without congressional approval. It must be the policy of the United States that we do not place our service members in harm's way without first making the case to the American people. This also means ending the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force as well as strengthening Congress' role in the War Powers Act such that, absent an actual declaration of war, there can be no war.

Some would argue that such a constraint would limit the nation's ability to respond to a Russian incursion in the Baltics or a Chinese attack on Taiwan. However, recent open-source studies conclude that the US military already is unable to defend against either attack. Pretending otherwise while not having the means to back up our assurances unnecessarily emboldens our partners and allies, making such an attack more likely. We lose nothing by making the law match the reality.

Let us not forget the intelligence agencies. They reported that Kabul was at risk of falling in as little as 90 days. That report was from last Thursday! The capital fell in less than 90 hours. Failure must be punished. And punishment in a bureaucracy means mass firings and a smaller budget—not more money so that they might be better the next time. Congress must consolidate and collapse our intelligence agencies. And when its reorganization is done, if the overall size of the nation's intelligence apparatus is a quarter of what it is now, that still is too large.

And while we are on the topic of "too large," DoD must be halved. There are too many flag officers, too many agencies, departments, and directorates. It is the only secretariat with independent but supposedly subordinate secretaries. There are too many Geographic Component Commands—each led by a 4-star virtual proconsul whose budget dwarfs what the Department of State spends in their regions. The result is a foreign policy that is overly military and underly diplomatic, informational, and economic. Congress must revisit the 1947 National Security Act and the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act. Both were good for their times, but after decades of experience, there clearly are new reforms necessary.

Unreformed, DoD is an inscrutable labyrinth which invites fraud, waste, and abuse. The excess attracts unscrupulous camp followers. Amazon did not choose Crystal City to locate its new headquarters because of low rents and ease of transportation access for its 25,000 employees. It chose the Arlington, Virginia neighborhood because it is two blocks from the Pentagon. That building controls the distribution of three-quarters of a trillion dollars every year. Most of it is wasted. The excess is apparent in the scores of class-A high rises housing defense contractors just blocks from the Pentagon. To end that waste, nothing so concentrates the senses as austerity.

Let me conclude with one last thought]

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/468442/">THOUGHTS ON AFGHANISTAN

[Jeff]

Biden should put Harris in charge of getting our citizens and allies out.  She's has a knack for border smugglin'

Oh no, she was bragging about being the only one in the room with PedoJoe when he made that decision and was on record as fully supporting it and went on to further compliment on his "character" and how he's so great at making the tough decisions.
She's just as much to blame for this fiasco as he is.

[DUM1]

is proof enough that the last 20 years were in vain, and proof enough that the system is broken from within.

this guy has it going on , wish we could have a real government that wasn't broken and twisted .
 I do love being an American  , wish they did.

good read G thanks for posting , gives me a bit of hope .

[beej]

Most will TLDR this, but please scroll to the bottom for the money shot

THOUGHTS ON AFGHANISTAN, from a senior military officer with whom I am acquainted:



Let me conclude with one last thought]

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/468442/">THOUGHTS ON AFGHANISTAN

I've heard this many times. but nation building worked in Japan, Germany, Israel and South Korea. and a few other lesser known places. the real question is why does it work some places and not others that question has to be answered before it can be tried again. And I do not expect that many of us civilians could answer the question easily because, let's face it, when the issue is half way around the world we only know what the people who DO know want us to know.  When I see how bad the reporting is here in the US (ie George Floyd peaceful protests) how could we ever really know what is going wrong in Afghanistan?

[Jeff]

I've heard this many times. but nation building worked in Japan, Germany, Israel and South Korea. and a few other lesser known places. the real question is why does it work some places and not others

Has it ever worked in a place that wasn't Muslim where they're born and raised to hate the U.S.,all Americans and the Western culture?

When all these people know is "Death to America" it's hard to change the culture there IMO.
I wonder if the Afghans that wanted out actually want the Western lifestyle or do they just want to continue living their lives but with no Taliban?

[beej]

I've heard this many times. but nation building worked in Japan, Germany, Israel and South Korea. and a few other lesser known places. the real question is why does it work some places and not others

Has it ever worked in a place that wasn't Muslim where they're born and raised to hate the U.S.,all Americans and the Western culture?

When all these people know is "Death to America" it's hard to change the culture there IMO.
I wonder if the Afghans that wanted out actually want the Western lifestyle or do they just want to continue living their lives but with no Taliban?

I can not imagine that the Japanese people really thought that much of us by the end of WW2.

I've only met one family from Afghanistan. He was a toolmaker and we became close friends and I had dinner with his family a few times. He was Sikh. He left because he wanted to live. he said the Taliban would have killed him if he had stayed. His brother is a brain surgeon here in the US and he begged him to come here. so they did.  The one thing that I learned quickly about him was extreme distrust  in Government, both here in the US and his homeland. he trusted Christians more than Muslims. And he had a real fear that if he left the suburbs rednecks would drag him behind a pickup truck until he was dead, which I kept trying to assure him would never be the case. He would reply with nervous laughter.  That's about as much as I know about the afghani people.

[Jeff]

I've heard this many times. but nation building worked in Japan, Germany, Israel and South Korea. and a few other lesser known places. the real question is why does it work some places and not others

Has it ever worked in a place that wasn't Muslim where they're born and raised to hate the U.S.,all Americans and the Western culture?

When all these people know is "Death to America" it's hard to change the culture there IMO.
I wonder if the Afghans that wanted out actually want the Western lifestyle or do they just want to continue living their lives but with no Taliban?

I can not imagine that the Japanese people really thought that much of us by the end of WW2.

I've only met one family from Afghanistan. He was a toolmaker and we became close friends and I had dinner with his family a few times. He was Sikh. He left because he wanted to live. he said the Taliban would have killed him if he had stayed. His brother is a brain surgeon here in the US and he begged him to come here. so they did.  The one thing that I learned quickly about him was extreme distrust  in Government, both here in the US and his homeland. he trusted Christians more than Muslims. And he had a real fear that if he left the suburbs rednecks would drag him behind a pickup truck until he was dead, which I kept trying to assure him would never be the case. He would reply with nervous laughter.  That's about as much as I know about the afghani people.

A local liquor store owner by me is from Tikrit (same place as Saddam). This guy is one of the funniest and nicest people I know. He got out in the mid to late 80's I believe. If you're a regular and you're short on cash he would lend you some without question. I've been going to his store for 30 years and he hasn't changed. I assume he's muslim because of his homeland but never cared to ask.

That being said, Dearborn isn't too far from me and you can bet your ass that there are a lot of muslims there that hate this country and Americans.

[RobertELee]

Biden should put Harris in charge of getting our citizens and allies out.  She's has a knack for border smugglin'

'You Will Not Pin This Sh*t on Me!'

https://conservativebrief.com/chose-hide-48640/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=DJD&fbclid=IwAR0heB9YWy9wac17AaRiEL_mDp9W_FsRt1UqEUkJAXTdabfeKN4Bp2undno">https://conservativebrief.com/chose-hid ... N4Bp2undno">https://conservativebrief.com/chose-hide-48640/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=DJD&fbclid=IwAR0heB9YWy9wac17AaRiEL_mDp9W_FsRt1UqEUkJAXTdabfeKN4Bp2undno

[RobertELee]

Even CNN seems to be waking up

https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cnn-cant-hide-shame-for-bidens-abject-failure-in-afghanistan.html?mref=23gga&mc=8uxj1&fbclid=IwAR3Bs8WKxjICRb-BXX-jTldNK2iYUmG83UyOg-YJiH1BfPxbx59uSNi8xaA">https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cn ... 59uSNi8xaA">https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cnn-cant-hide-shame-for-bidens-abject-failure-in-afghanistan.html?mref=23gga&mc=8uxj1&fbclid=IwAR3Bs8WKxjICRb-BXX-jTldNK2iYUmG83UyOg-YJiH1BfPxbx59uSNi8xaA

[Del.]

I noticed that too watching them this morning.

No excuse for how this is going down.

An embarrassment for us.

[RobertELee]

I noticed that too watching them this morning.

Did you lose a bet?! WTF would you watch that shit?

[Incogneeto]

I noticed that too watching them this morning.

Did you lose a bet?! WTF would you watch that shit?

Del just outed himself....He's a Flaming / Liberal/ Progessive  

Cause he's not Stoopid he watches both and all sides of the news.























Me too.

[CNCAppsJames]

... the real question is why does it work some places and not others that question has to be answered before it can be tried again.

I think one can accurately answer that question with some basic observation skills.

We tried to convert a largely tribal,  (75% of the population was rural) locally governed (decentralized) nation into what WE have (centralized, federal governance, etc...) IOW we tried to turn the country into Kabul... (only 25% of the country lives in cities). Same shit large city liberals do to small town conservatives here in this country. Doesn'twork here, not gonna work there either.

What we consider corruption in their system... those systems of governance have been in place for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. You're NOT changing that in under 3 generations.

There is a great Afghan quote I heard this week. "America has all the watches, we have all the time." Time... we were not willing to stay for a few generations and that is what it would have taken to get what we Americans have come to expect "victory" to look like. It's no joke that Afghanistan is where empires go to die. From Ghengis Khan to Joe Bidet and everyone in between. That is for real because outsiders think they know how Afghanistan should be.

In our house (USA), I think every single US Army General that has spent time in The Pentagon and the F'n CIA from the time of JFK to today is guilty of gross negligence. Ground operations, nation building and Intelligence comes under their area of responsibility and they individually and collectively have failed at nearly every single opportunity presented to them.

JM2CFWIW

[Jeff]

Even CNN seems to be waking up

https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cnn-cant-hide-shame-for-bidens-abject-failure-in-afghanistan.html?mref=23gga&mc=8uxj1&fbclid=IwAR3Bs8WKxjICRb-BXX-jTldNK2iYUmG83UyOg-YJiH1BfPxbx59uSNi8xaA">https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cn ... 59uSNi8xaA">https://rumble.com/vl8q3g-even-lefty-cnn-cant-hide-shame-for-bidens-abject-failure-in-afghanistan.html?mref=23gga&mc=8uxj1&fbclid=IwAR3Bs8WKxjICRb-BXX-jTldNK2iYUmG83UyOg-YJiH1BfPxbx59uSNi8xaA

Don't let them fool you. They only want Biden out so they can fawn all over the first black female president. They need ratings.Bad.

[ghuns]

Wow. When you're a Dem president and you get called out by Wolfie, damn...

https://twitter.com/wolfblitzer/status/1428104263213924356">https://twitter.com/wolfblitzer/status/ ... 3213924356">https://twitter.com/wolfblitzer/status/1428104263213924356