Afghanistan

[BugI02]

It's a moving post, Hough; but perhaps the pain is too personal for him to see with clear eyes

The inability to follow the enemy because of lines on a map or political concerns is the same whether it places Pakistani territory off limits, or Hanoi or land across the Yalu. A soldier should also be a student of history, and nothing about that history leads me to believe that government won't sacrifice countless soldier's lives to secure what they feel is a favorable narrative for their larger strategic goals - assuming they actually have any

I cannot fathom how anyone who came of age in the last 50 years could believe 'this time will be different'

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade

That was written in 1854

 

[BehindBlueI's]

The following is a post made by a friend of mine this morning. It speaks for itself:

I would say I’ve transitioned my mindset better than most I know from being a Marine to being a civilian.
God has granted me peace with the things I saw and did while in the Marines in Afghanistan. But this entire situation going on with the withdraw and reconquering by the Taliban has been really angering.

These cities and places aren’t distant names on the news from a foreign land. These are places I have been. When I read how the Taliban re-conquered the Garmsir district, that was an area that I personally was involved in taking over from the Taliban. My boots were literally the first American boots to ever enter those cities. I took life and watched the lives of some of my closest friends get taken in those places.

It honestly has made me feel like those in charge felt like it was for nothing.

I’m so tired of hearing how Afghanistan could never be conquered and it was an un-winnable war. That’s a load of crap. We walked into countless gun fights essentially with our hands tied behind our back. We had air support and artillery that we weren’t permitted to use constantly. We on countless occasions had the Taliban on the run and trapped and would just get up and go back to our base leaving them alive because those in charge would not allow us to blow them away because of what it might do to the “hearts and minds” of the locals and also wouldn’t let us pursue them closer because of imaginary lines in the sand limiting our advance.

These are people who are tough behind their AK-47s and IED’s but when they are captured, whine like little girls. 90 pounds soaking wet who my wife would be able to take in a fight. They aren’t unconquerable war machines. They are simply people who are lucky that our own leaders wouldn’t actually let us fight them in the manner we were capable of.

This was completely mismanaged by our leadership. One of them gave a speech this week calling the land a “graveyard of empires”, knowing full well that we could have easily annihilated the Taliban if actually given the permission to do so.

I don’t know how to not take the mismanagement of the exodus from Afghanistan personally. If we continue to fight future wars in the same manner this one was fought, we will never win another war again.

I think the conventional war was very winnable. America's war machine is phenomenal at that. I think you could even argue we did win the conventional war in that we accomplished the original objectives of dismantling Al-Qaeda and capturing/killing Osama Bin Laden and then stuck around due to mission creep until we lost. It's when we transitioned into nation building the wheels came off, and killing more wouldn't have changed that.

The Soviets killed a lot more Afhans, both combatants and non-combatants, and the end result was the same. Unless we're going to argue for genocide, I don't think less restrictive ROE would have changed much globally. Locally, sure, and I'm sure the frustration of not being able to do what the military was supposed to do (wage conventional warfare) feeds into your friend's feelings. He was a hammer being asked to do a wrench's job, and that's not his failure, that's where the civilian leadership from Bush on failed them.

 

[AlVine]

The whole situation disgusts me. I lost half my team there in a 22 hour period, and all the .gov is doing is pissing on their sacrifice and the sacrifice of every Soldier, Sailor, Airmen and Marine that was lost. Not to mention the price everyone of us that served there paid.

Agreed. It's sad and infuriating to see all their effort and sacrifice so casually dismissed. It's also infuriating to know we left enough weapons and equipment there to make the Taliban one of the best armed forces in the world. We even left them drones, imagine what they, or whoever they sell them to, could do with those.

 

[DadSmith]

The following is a post made by a friend of mine this morning. It speaks for itself:

I would say I’ve transitioned my mindset better than most I know from being a Marine to being a civilian.
God has granted me peace with the things I saw and did while in the Marines in Afghanistan. But this entire situation going on with the withdraw and reconquering by the Taliban has been really angering.

These cities and places aren’t distant names on the news from a foreign land. These are places I have been. When I read how the Taliban re-conquered the Garmsir district, that was an area that I personally was involved in taking over from the Taliban. My boots were literally the first American boots to ever enter those cities. I took life and watched the lives of some of my closest friends get taken in those places.

It honestly has made me feel like those in charge felt like it was for nothing.

I’m so tired of hearing how Afghanistan could never be conquered and it was an un-winnable war. That’s a load of crap. We walked into countless gun fights essentially with our hands tied behind our back. We had air support and artillery that we weren’t permitted to use constantly. We on countless occasions had the Taliban on the run and trapped and would just get up and go back to our base leaving them alive because those in charge would not allow us to blow them away because of what it might do to the “hearts and minds” of the locals and also wouldn’t let us pursue them closer because of imaginary lines in the sand limiting our advance.

These are people who are tough behind their AK-47s and IED’s but when they are captured, whine like little girls. 90 pounds soaking wet who my wife would be able to take in a fight. They aren’t unconquerable war machines. They are simply people who are lucky that our own leaders wouldn’t actually let us fight them in the manner we were capable of.

This was completely mismanaged by our leadership. One of them gave a speech this week calling the land a “graveyard of empires”, knowing full well that we could have easily annihilated the Taliban if actually given the permission to do so.

I don’t know how to not take the mismanagement of the exodus from Afghanistan personally. If we continue to fight future wars in the same manner this one was fought, we will never win another war again.

Exactly point on. If the Federal Government would unleash our military it would have been over in a few years or less. As I said before they tie the hands of our military to prolong all wars since Vietnam. I'm totally disgusted with it. One of the reasons why I tried to talk my children out of joining in the first place. Only one listened to dad. The other three found out the hard way.

Want to win wars let the military use whatever means necessary to win and they will. Like we did in WWII.

 

[BigRed]

i guess no one told that guy with the RPG it’s not a CQB weapon....

What do you expect from a bunch of goat humpers?

 

[jwamplerusa]

It's also infuriating to know we left enough weapons and equipment there to make the Taliban one of the best armed forces in the world. We even left them drones, imagine what they, or whoever they sell them to, could do with those.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, does amount to treason. Our elected leaders either through malice, ignorance, or incompetence has armed our enemies. Think about that for a little bit and let it settle in.

I believe the line goes something like, aid and comfort to the enemy, what else do you call effectively handing our combatant enemy billions of dollars of US arms?

 

[1DOWN4UP]

 

[MCgrease08]

The Taliban is killing people for waving flags and not wearing burqas. I'd say they haven't changed much despite their claim to want peace.

Taliban Opens Fire On Crowd After They Wave Afghanistan Flag, Fatalities Reported | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

Afghan Woman Killed For Not Wearing Burqa As Taliban Make New Claims To Protect Women’s Rights | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

 

[Hawkeye]

And with that equipment, lots of high tech that we’d like to keep secret from our adversaries. Maybe they already had it. Maybe they didn’t. It’s no mystery now. The Chinese and Russians are busy dissecting.

What "high tech" did we give them?

 

[printcraft]

Afghan Woman Killed For Not Wearing Burqa As Taliban Make New Claims To Protect Women’s Rights | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

Ward previously came under fire after an edited clip of her saying Taliban fighters were “just chanting ‘death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time.” The full clip showed Ward saying the situation was “utterly bizarre.”

Because that's better?

On Tuesday, the Taliban claimed it would protect women’s rights, with a spokesman saying “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is ready to provide women with environment to work and study, and the presence of women in different (government) structures according to Islamic law and in accordance with our cultural values.”

Which is pretty much... NONE.

The statement stands in stark contrast to what is being reported, both by BBC anchor Hakim and others.

“Local reports say Taliban fighters are already going door-to-door and forcibly marrying girls as young as 12 as Jihadist commanders order imams to create ‘marriage lists’ and offer girls for sexual servitude,” the Daily Mail reported earlier this week. “Taliban soldiers are to marry the women aged from 12 to 45 … because they view them as ‘qhanimat’ or ‘spoils of war’ — to be divided up among the victors.”

I'm betting they are not checking the "12" age very closely...

 

[JCSR]

 

[Cameramonkey]

And point of order... Marriage is code for "Legalized Rape." Its not rape if she is your wife. So if you marry her (even against her will) you can say sex was consensual because it is now her duty as your wife to service you.

Sick a** mother****ers.

 

[Cameramonkey]

View attachment 153660

Who cares? Is Hillary a member of the govt?

Thats no different than him calling me. I'd take his call. Sure, just to tell him what a worthless waste of skin he is, but I'd take the call. And it still has nothing to do with Biden taking calls.

I cant believe they act like she is still relevant.

 

[armalitesheepdog]

"I refuse to put any more Americans in danger in Afghanistan!" 2 minutes later... "I will be sending in 6000 additional troops to Afghanistan." What a blithering idiot.

Yea. 6000 troops to a airport surrounded by 1500 taliban. Armed with the best weapons American money can by.
That probably will end bad

 

[armalitesheepdog]

Who cares? Is Hillary a member of the govt?

Thats no different than him calling me. I'd take his call. Sure, just to tell him what a worthless waste of skin he is, but I'd take the call. And it still has nothing to do with Biden taking calls.

I cant believe they act like she is still relevant.

The same Hillary that said " what difference does it make" referring to Bengazzi.

 

[Alpo]

My boots were literally the first American boots to ever enter those cities.

That comment, in and of itself, is an indictment of our "mission" in Southwest Asia. We were there to extinguish Al Queda. Everything beyond that is mission creep.

 

[Hatin Since 87]

Who cares? Is Hillary a member of the govt?

Thats no different than him calling me. I'd take his call. Sure, just to tell him what a worthless waste of skin he is, but I'd take the call. And it still has nothing to do with Biden taking calls.

I cant believe they act like she is still relevant.

It’s illegal for a non member of government to talk to foreign leaders about government. Trump administration got ran through the coals because someone was accused of doing exactly that.

 

[Cameramonkey]

It’s illegal for a non member of government to talk to foreign leaders about government. Trump administration got ran through the coals because someone was accused of doing exactly that.

except nobody really cares. When was the last time the Logan Act was taken seriously? Didnt Biden get caught doing it? Same with Kerry? I could be mistaken, but I recall Dems violating it in the past and nobody batted an eye.

And why is he even calling her?

 

[Brad69]

Kabul airport is in kinda of a bowl. Only one main route in and out of airport. It was sketchy even in the best of times.

Buildings are close to the fence not a good defensive position.
Last time I visited was 2011 and it was a s#^# hole.

I hope this turns out better than I fear it will.

 

[DadSmith]

I hope this turns out better than I fear it will.

You and I both.