Haven’t heard much about Afghanistan since before the election. Media has been awfully quiet about it. I guess between the election, Sandy Hook, Sequester, Jodi Arias, and the Boston Bombings theres not much room for our longest war. What’s going on over there?
Can anyone explain to me why we are still over there losing American lives?
I just got back. Everything is in drawdown mode. There are really only 3 areas that the “fight” is still on, everything else is people driving over IEDs and guarding Hescos.
Our hope at present is to get the Afghan govt strong enough to take over in 2014. We are not leaving in 2014 but drawing down from around 60k troops to around 13-8k troop. We will most likely keep people here until at least 2024. Combat operations have all but ceased for most of Afghanistan. There is some SOF involvement and some action in RC-East but really we are just trying to get out of here with no one else getting hurt.
But yes, it does all beg the question, why are we here? What are we trying to “win” in Afghanistan. In my view this “war” ended 8 years ago. Most commanders measure victory by getting home with all of their men and all of their equipment.
Soon it will be all but crickets…Heard Anything lately about Iraq?? Hardly a peep. If that.
Karzai is busy balancing the Taliban against the presence of US forces, and his ability to line his pockets at the expense of the Afghan people.
Sounds like Iraq in 08, I can not really fathom how the environment has changed there since my time 18k something to 60k plus. I remember when we got on ground in Bagram is was not a bad place at all, I was only there for about 15 hours but no one fucked with us. Made a few trips back over the next year and each time it got a little more gay. When we rotated out it was fucking crazy, there were 13 different SGMs running around being dicks. Once we came in the gate and were instantly bombarded by one, I’m glad I got out of there when I did.
My buddy fly’s dust off out of the north west somewhere and he is still busy 5 or 6 missions a day, I get the impression he is tired.
Here in Kabul, we have a Command SGM that brings a folding chair into the PX and does uniform corrections on people waiting in line. Because that’s useful.
Ouch, sounds rough man. Glad I jumped out of the rotation before this BS. Sounds like post-2007 Iraq. Even my friends who are back in Kunar where there’s still a bit of a shooting war on say that it’s getting retarded. When a major part of your life consists of sitting in a hide-site on the roof of a building on the COP with an M24 discreetly pulling security on the ANA in case they decide to go Green on Blue, you know you’re wasting your time.
How is our national security improved by all of this?
I wish there was a CSM who walked around and sent people home who were being under-utilized. Have time to sit in a chair at the PX? Yeah, you need to go home. I saw a spin competition at PHX and the place was packed. Really? You have time to spend most of your day ‘spinning?’ Pack your shit.
It is really time to pack up and go home.
Some what unrelated question, but does anyone think that aside from state building, wars like these (ie destroy Al-Qaeda’s presence in AFG) could be done remotely from drone warfare?
Opium?
Oh yeah, Joe Biden does.
TAPI
“One man with courage makes a majority.”
The unit we are replacing shortly had a complex attack on it last week. From all I can gather it is turning into a war of big bombs and forgieners taking a last shot at US forces. We are still taking casualties every week. It is probably dying down but tell that to the unit that gets hit or looses someone. This deployment isn’t looking like Iraq 2006/2007 for me. It should be my last deployment, I hope.
That, too.
The TAPI oil pipeline and the opium plus “newly found” mineral wealth and [it] offers close proximity into Eurasia and the Middle East.
The goal is to maintain Western/US/NATO presence one way or another.
“One man with courage makes a majority.”
Not completely but our drone program is WILDLY under-utilized. You will still needs assets on the ground to find bad-guys. Our greatest successes were from ODAs running around the country with a sack full of money and little oversight.
And usually resulted in the least amount of friendly casualties.
You should see how leadership changes mission schedules so they won’t miss cross-fit…
Over a decade of war, a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives lost, tens of thousands of Americans grievously wounded, family lives and careers sacrificed, hundreds of thousands of Iraquis and Afghanis dead and wounded … and for what?
Both countries are still shitholes, it’s just different guys stirring the stick. And within a couple of years, if not months, after the last American troop decamps it will revert back to exactly what it was before. Just like after the Greeks, or the Turks, or the British, or the Russians.
You’d think as well-educated as some of our leaders seem to be, they would have cracked a history book. Most famous last words in history: “This time it’s different.”