U.S commander talks about the grim situation in Afghanistan

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
21

I have advise for all the arm chair generals.. **You cannot win... period, **no one ever has.

Alexander the Great, Twice the British, The Soviets, Mongols and US now... All left one way or the other.

Well for starters after 8 years of victory after victory now NATO and US has realized the ground realities and said militarily they cannot win, I can populate this tread with zillion links but I want to keep quite until US declares another victory.

So all those doing jumpy jumpy all over the place, go home and read history its always good to save server space and internet bandwidth.

22

The descendants of the Mongols are still there, and unlike a lot of the other ethnic groups in the country, they sure seem to be progressing.

At least the Hazaras value education for both boys and girls, something that the Taliban and their apologists residing in the West and Pakistan are unable to do so.

23

Re: U.S commander talks about the grim situation in Afghanistan

sure they can win, because they have pakistanis on their side. :)

Peace overture: PTI caravan for Waziristan
24

Re: U.S commander talks about the grim situation in Afghanistan

I strongly starting to believe Afghanistan will become "Qabarasatan" of US/NATO military might, at least things are moving towards this direction !

Indeed it is a great achievement of Pakistan Intelligence Services to keep the Nato/US forces at bay after so much losses in Afghanistan. US/NATO presence in our area is not in the interest of Pakistan in long term, we have to get rid of them. Either by Hook or Carat, whichever west prefer. As supply lines are fading away, so the wording of west getting bleak day by day. End of days .. ehh :)

25

Yeah I am sure if we ask the people of Afghanistan they'd say the same. ! Reminds me a front page bullet from official Afghan Womens web site it went something like this.

Before we went out we got beaten up now we get raped and beaten up.

This was about before and after Taliban.. welcome to the world of Afghans.

Timepass- December 2012
26

You spoke about supply lines, intresting development..
The Associated Press: Kyrgyz parliament approves US base closure

Russkies said they won’t allow military supplies through their territory or area of influence.

Timepass- December 2012
27

Still US/NATO has route options:

  1. Currently 75% of Supplies goes through Pakistan Air/Land.

  2. Karshi-Khanabad airbase Uzbekistan (Forced out in 2005, may be Uzbek allow it again)

  3. Bridge over Panj river (Funded by USA, connect Tajikistan)

  4. UAE/Kuwait/Qatar (Air Supply routes will cost 3-4 times more)

  5. Iran (Reports are coming it, Nato is in talk with Iran for supply route)

Timepass- December 2012
28

Can NATO defeat the Taliban? Unlikely under current conditions.

Can NATO provide enough security while helping Afghans build infrastructure, design projects that spur job creation all while building a coalition of trust between varying Afghan sects&tribes which fall under one government? Not well thus far, but there is still time.

To be successful you need to be working on all fronts nearly simultaneously. This causes multiple problems, one being that if one front lapses then all fronts are hurt. Obviously corruption in the government damages success in unifying the country which in turn hurts the security situation as you have those who see it (the govt.) as nothing more than a puppet who is allowed to misbehave and thus they begin to support an insurgency. This is happening now and needs to be addressed and dealt with. If you don't have job creation you have people who can't support themselves or families, they lose faith in the government hurting the already fragil coalition and turn towards a place where they can get support which can end up being an insurgency. Building trust and ridding corruption will strengthening all 3 fronts and under those conditions the Taliban can be defeated, be it by NATO or the Afghan army.

You state you cannot win...period. Depends on what you mean by win. Currently the goal is to stabilize Afghanistan and make it into a viable nation which opposes terror. If that fails what do you expect? Do you expect the U.S. to walk away like they did in the late 80's and allow terror organizations to operate freely and go unabated? Before leaving you can bet the opposition, be it the Northern Alliance or some other group, will be armed to the teeth to wage war with the Taliban. Undoubtedly the country will descend into further turmoil but as long as terrorists can't operate freely that will have to do, that will be the accepted victory.

29

And how will NATO pick such person? What were they doing thus far? I only see this as opportunity for some mafia blackmailing farmers. Failures are just piling up.

From mad_scientists post:

Why can't US/NATO/coalition provide support to farmers for other kinds of crops?

How old are you?
30

Re: U.S commander talks about the grim situation in Afghanistan

^^ NATO are Soldiers they are not Farmers

31

I didn’t know NATO has construction workers in its crew who are doing all the “reconstruction” work in Afghanistan, thanks for the info :k:

32

Limited resources, corruption, and lack of focus is to blame.

There are crops such as Saffron that can replace poppy and still make the farmers a decent profit. Now that NATO is focusing on cutting off the Talibans drug money you will see an effort to replace those fields with such alternatives . The Taliban will likely attack such fields and farmers for switching product claiming it's done so to support the Americans. It's another battlefield.

33

[quote="mAd_ScIeNtIsT, post:12, topic:195795"]

The 12-14 consulate claim always seems to come from non-government sources in Pakistan - I've yet to see the Pakistan government say that. Can you name the cities in which these consulates are?

India has got 1+4 consulates in Afghanistan.India has invested heavily in Afghanistan ,for it's rennovation and reconstruction and 4 consulates are necessarry for India.In addition to this ,in a country like Afghanistan where terrain plays a hostile part,with somany Indians taking part in the reconstruction of that country,and with so many perceived threats from Pakistan,it needs to protect it's interests at any cost..

Qurb K Na Wafa K Hote Hain
34

Re: U.S commander talks about the grim situation in Afghanistan

(U.S.-led coalition kills 13 Afghan civilians - CNN.com)

Who is going to stop brothers of these people from taking ‘revenge’? Call me a terrorist but if my mother is killed in one of these ‘operations’, I wouldn’t really care about my life.

Somehow one afghan life is worth a fraction of one western life.

35

Thats the probelm…
In a times magazine report, a Afghan expert said that what the US should be focusing on is not active fighting, but defense. Perhaps thats the way to go about it.

36

Well, its not PAKISTAN thats a percieved thereat, its Afghanistan that is a threat to Pakistan. If you havent read your history, then you should. Afghans have always been hostile, since the birth of the country.
Pakistan is right in its policy, at least to the extent that they dont want to be surrounded by two hostile countries.
It was partly the same logic that India had over invading East Pakistan.

So bottom line, Pakistan is justified in trying to limit India influence.
Its Indias inability to understand this issue that leads to conflict.