The Pentagon is preparing to send nearly 4,000 troops to Afghanistan to fight in America’s longest war in an effort to turn the tide against the Taliban.
A Trump administration official told the Associated Press that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is likely to make the troop deployment announcement early next week.
This expected decision follows on the heels of President Donald Trump’s move to grant Mattis the authority to set troops levels in Afghanistan.
“We are not winning in Afghanistan right now,” Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “And we will correct this as soon as possible.”
A resurgent Taliban coupled with Islamic State militants have challenged U.S. forces in the region and are taking back territory formerly under control of U.S. and Afghan troops. As of February, the Afghan government controls 59 percent of all districts in the country, which is down 11 percentage points from the same time period in 2016.
Four months ago, Army Gen. John Nicholson, who commands U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said he needed several thousand more troops.
Most of the new troops heading to Afghanistan will play the role of training and advising Afghan troops. A small minority will directly participate in counter-terrorism operations against Taliban and ISIS fighters.
Afghanistan is America’s longest war, beginning in 2001. More than 2,300 Americans have been killed so far and 17,000 more wounded.
As such, Mattis is looking to end the war as soon as possible.
“We’re not looking at a purely military strategy,” Mattis told a House Appropriations panel Thursday. “All wars come to an end. Our job is to end it as quickly as possible without losing the very mission that we’ve recognized, through several administrations, that was worth putting those young Americans on the line for.”
#1: Vicomte13 To: Deckard (#0)
The only way this war can ever end is either with our retreat in defeat, or our extermination of most of the population.
These are Afghanis - tribal, medieval and Muslim. They will not change their views, they will not change their culture, they are persuaded by nothing. They will kill or be killed, that is all.
We don't have an army in there anywhere big enough to control and pacify the country - by killing off most of the population.
Therefore, we will certainly lose. It's not a question of "if", only "when".
If he is looking to end the war as soon as possible, then just fly US forces out of there now and be done with it. He's looking for ending the war without defeat. That's impossible, so if we won't accept defeat as a fact, we will simply sit in there are marinate in our defeat for decades, to the tune of another 2300 dead and another 17,000 crippled. The cost of our defeat is 20,000 destroyed American lives per decade, about 2000 per year, which is about 7 per day.
To not admit defeat, we will expend 7 American lives per day, forever. I suppose it's worth it to those who think that admitting defeat is worth than destroying the lives of seven American families every day - as long as it's not their own.
There are, after all, plenty of lower and working class families we can destroy this way, pretty much forever, without ever having to admit failure, defeat and weakness.
Of course Mattis and his ilk really believe that the war is winnable, "if only..." If only we could get a few more thousand men (into a vast country of millions). It's absurd.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-06-16 09:36:51 Reply Private Reply
#2: paraclete To: Deckard (#0)
I thought generals were supposed to be smart, the Russians couldn't pacify the Afghans with divisions of troops, the British had to leave or be massacred. You cannot pacify Afghans with instructors, the Afghans know that if the americans leave, the Taliban will take over, unless you are going to bomb every rock, collapse every cave and demolish every house you might as well go home now or bomb the crap out of Islamabad
paraclete posted on 2017-06-16 09:52:24 Reply Private Reply
#3: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
That'll bring the total to 14,000.
We still have U.S. troops in Germany (40,000), Japan (50,000), and South Korea (28,000). How long have those wars been over?
misterwhite posted on 2017-06-16 10:29:54 Reply Private Reply
#4: rlk To: Vicomte13 (#1)
Yup!
rlk posted on 2017-06-16 10:59:13 Reply Private Reply
#5: Stoner To: rlk (#4)
I guess some will tell us that this is just 10 D chess .
Stoner posted on 2017-06-16 11:24:05 Reply Private Reply
#6: A Pole To: Vicomte13 (#1)
A Pole posted on 2017-06-17 05:04:10 Reply Private Reply
#7: Vicomte13 To: A Pole (#6)
Massive.
Yet another reason to legalize drugs and let people do as they please in private. Our war on drugs acts economically to build our enemies' armies.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-06-17 06:55:41 Reply Private Reply
#8: A Pole To: Vicomte13 (#7)
Which enemies?
A Pole posted on 2017-06-17 12:04:18 Reply Private Reply
#9: Vicomte13 To: A Pole (#8)
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-06-18 08:07:45 Reply Private Reply
#10: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#7)
Heroin and crack?
A K A Stone posted on 2017-06-18 08:46:58 Reply Private Reply
#11: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#10)
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-06-18 10:33:52 Reply Private Reply