Hey, Crip.... we overlapped a little in our posts - timing and points... imagine that...
Imagine that indeed...
Hey, Crip.... we overlapped a little in our posts - timing and points... imagine that...
Imagine that indeed...
So what about all those voices I hear about 'you can't kill your way out of an insurgency" ? Or should I understand that killing the bad guys is part of winning the hearts and minds ?Fart noises...
This is what alot of people do not understand about COIN. In this fight, we don't really need to give a shit about the families and friends of insurgents. They are already against us, it is not an issue.
What we need to care about is the populace in the areas that are being used as safehavens for shit heads. The Afghan populace needs to see us (along with Afghan Partner Units) crushing the enemy and driving them away from their villages. The Afghan people will never trust anyone other than the Taliban if we do not legitimize the security forces and the aid of the U.S. Government. This is how COIN works. Provide saftey, security and legitimacy for the populace. In order to do this we must utilize a strong counterterrorism strategy, which is what our commanders are doing presently. Killing is very much a part of COIN and must continue until the Afghan people have confidence enough not to support the Taliban out of neccessity.
As for the original report, those numbers are grossly overstated. Success is clear in recent months, but this report is ridiculous.
So what about all those voices I hear about 'you can't kill your way out of an insurgency" ? Or should I understand that killing the bad guys is part of winning the hearts and minds ?
I remember reading on another board that a SFer wrote that "its not a door-kickers war".....
Btw, every time I log in here I learn something new - thank You :)
I think that people are too wrapped up around “COIN” to think straight on this. Doctrine is not the real issue here IMHO, PID'ing our enemy is. We have an enemy, that enemy is global (not just Iraq/Afghan) they want to kill and terrorize our women and children. Our response is to rebuild shit hole nations and win over the populations?
The Taliban is not who attacked us on 9-11, they were the dumb shits that allowed Al Qaeda to build a base in Afghanistan. Why are we focused on the TB and rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq, when Al Qaeda is right across the border? Why are we not attacking AQ on a global scale, meaning find them and kill them?
JAB, answer your own questions, why do we try and build nations? Why do we not invade/raid every country on earth where Al Qaeda have elements?
Think about it, it's a no brainer.
I don’t think you truly understand what I am talking about.
The Taliban want to defeat the “Invaders” where Al Qaeda wants to kill the “infidel”. The TB is attempting to fight an unconventional war to kick us out of Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda is a global threat attacking/planning to attack every non-believer in every country. Al Qaeda is everywhere, they are “global” they are a network of jihadist using terrorism to fight a genocidal war against all non-believers. How do we fight AQ? We do it through global intelligence, FID (training other countries to fight them/ share intelligence) and we do it through locating and capturing or killing them. That is not counterinsurgency that is Intel, FID and counterterrorism.
I would agree with JAB on this occasion, for what that's worth. The Taliban, as themselves, aren't a threat per say to anyone outside of Afghanistan. They were providing a safe haven, this is true, but Al Qaeda were moved out of Sudan we should remember without a lot of force, just pressure. Perhaps the Pakistani government could have been convinced to put pressure on the Taliban to expel AQ, I don't know.