General Petraeus has written an article in The Atlantic in which he blames US lack of commitment for the loss of Afghanistan. Go here to read it. A few thoughts:
- The Afghanis lost Afghanistan. The US spent endless treasure and over 4000 lives in order to transform Afghanistan into a democracy, with a military that could defeat the Taliban. After twenty years of US effort our Afghan military folded in days before the rag tag Taliban. Our Afghan military outclassed the Taliban in everything, except a will to fight which they had not a particle of. The Afghanis purportedly on our side clearly did not wish to fight and die for what we were trying to give them.
- Petraeus states that after our invasion in 2001 we had a duty to stick with this project. First, we had no such duty. The Afghanistan regime was in league with our enemies, hence the invasion. That made sense. Spending two decades constructing a pretend Democracy did not. In some places in this world all you can do is “butcher and bolt” raids to avenge some atrocity. That should have been our policy in Afghanistan.
- So long as Pakistan was willing to give sanctuary to the Taliban, their military defeat was impossible unless we were ready to go into Pakistan which we were not.
- Petraeus bemoans the lack of military resources allocated to Afghanistan. Is he joking? In Afghanistan we had a military that would not fight, except among some elite units which quickly were defeated after we began to withdraw. Afghani pilots trained in the US would often desert while in the US. Murders of US soldiers were routine by Afghanis purportedly on our side, in so called blue on blue incidents.
- From the outset this was Mission Impossible, with no fantasy outcome possible. More to the point, there was nothing in Afghanistan worth a twenty year commitment.
- What is stunning is that over twenty years the US military had no better ideas than more of the same, with the US staying in Afghanistan forever. The level of military malpractice is stunning. It is said that President Trump had little respect for our generals. If true, the lack of respect was well earned.
On the other hand, it was the Biden administration that oversaw the American withdrawal in worse fashion than the British at Dunkirk and the US in Viet Nam. Quite enough blame to go around.
The Afghanis lost Afghanistan.
Amen to that.
So Petraeus has no concept of the Afghan/islamic mindset and culture? I guess he isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is. What a clown for him to think there is anyone left to fool. Seriously, if only we’d just listened to his brilliance awhile longer, everything would have turned out right in the end. Just an amazing level of arrogance.
Trump had little respect for the generals because Trump is about results and outcome. If you’re going to fail then fail hard and fast. The war dragged on for years with senseless loss of life (particular foreign military life). Yes, hindsight has its benefits but so does foresight. A good businessman will tell you that.
Btw, Afghan Islamic culture is backward and self-destructive. The Taliban are the very personification of Afghan Islamic culture amplified. The Taliban in that photo look like unintelligent gypsies with that tea-towel wrapped around their head. Grimacing like hyenas. No wonder the world sees them as classless, unintelligent peasants. They always will be exactly that. Take away their big scary guns and they are as about as threatening as little rodents.
Fire every single general and admiral. There is not one single general/admiral who gives a rat’s bear butt cabout their men. They only care about their stars and bars and pensions and going to work as lobbyists for defense contractors. Our generals in Vietnam weren’t much better either but todays are far worse. I served in Vietnam Sept 67/oct 68 mostly in the infantry. There was never any desire to win the war. None zero. We could have taken the war to the North and ended it in 6 weeks. To say I hate the military and political leadership that has lead us into unending wars with no desire to win over the post World War II period is an understatement
We didn’t lose the war in Afghanistan because there was no war in Afghanistan. We are fighting a Global War on Terror. Afghanistan was the first campaign in that war and it was one of the most successful campaigns in military history. We drove the enemy, Al Qaeda, out of Afghanistan and took away their base of operations and their freedom of movement. We stayed in Afghanistan for two decades for three strategic reasons: to prevent Al Qaeda from reconstituting their base of operations there; to provide “forward defense” drawing our enemies there rather that to our homeland; and to provide a regional intelligence collection apparatus. You and others are distracted by State Department goals – building a democracy, education for women, etc. But these had nothing to do with why our military remained there. They were there to prevent terror attacks on the homeland and in that mission they were totally successful. People whine that Afghanistan was an endless war. It was not. We are however in an endless war with the same enemy that we had on 9/11. America’s presence in Afghanistan was never about who controlled the government there. It was about safety at home. And the military mission there was highly successful at that mission and the men and women who served there should be proud of that accomplishmnet.