Remember the Afghan War?; We lost!

As Colonel Danny Sjursen notes in his Tom Dispatch article, history provides a primer into the future of our efforts to "win" the war in Afghanistan.  Hard to believe, but a collection of warring tribes and sects and villages and a religious movement (the Taliban)--who collectively despise and hate the government in Kabul--can fight and beat the greatest military in the world.  Despite the bravery of our US forces, they try to do the impossible: unify Afghanistan and create a central democratic government.  The tribes don't defeat the United States, they just have to reach a stalemate.

Nevertheless, the policymakers refuse to realize we can never win.  From Bush Jr to Obama to the current occupant of the White House--and the alternative, Hillary Rodham Clinton--all refuse to accept this difficult proposition: the US cannot win this war.

That’s right, the local “Taliban” -- a term so nebulous it’s basically lost all meaning -- had managed to drastically alter U.S. Army tactics with crude, homemade explosives stored in plastic jugs. And believe me, this was a huge problem. Cheap, ubiquitous, and easy to bury, those anti-personnel Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, soon littered the “roads,” footpaths, and farmland surrounding our isolated outpost. To a greater extent than a number of commanders willingly admitted, the enemy had managed to nullify our many technological advantages for a few pennies on the dollar (or maybe, since we’re talking about the Pentagon, it was pennies on the millions of dollars).  Links in original.

Even Bloomberg News, no bastion of progressive politics has noted the negative trends going on: [Almost sixteen years after the U.S.-backed ouster of the Taliban, Afghanistan remains in the grip of a war with “shockingly high” death rates among security forces and a record number of casualties among civilians, according to the U.S. government watchdog monitoring the country’s reconstruction efforts.]  (emphasis added)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-01/afghan-deaths-soar-to-highest-on-record-as-u-s-weighs-strategy

US policymakers need to face these facts: operations in Afghanistan have a deleterious effect on the entire US military as reported in Business Insider: "

Years of complex operations and the ongoing demands of units in the field have left the armed forces struggling to maintain both operational capacity and high levels of readiness, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office."]  (Links in original)

So the time has come for our imperious leader to turn his eyes from the false promise of peace with the North Koreans--does anyone seriously think Kim Jong Un will give up his nuclear weapons?--and fix the mess in Afghanistan by getting the Hell out of there and saving lives of American men and women, husbands and mothers, sons and daughters.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan

Way to go NATO, winning hearts and minds as always.

[KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A NATO airstrike struck two houses, killing as many as nine Afghan civilians and four insurgents in an eastern province near the Pakistani border, officials said Wednesday.

The attack occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday during a joint NATO-Afghan operation in the Shigal district of Kunar province, a lawmaker from the area said. The U.S.-led military alliance in Kabul said it was looking into the reports.]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/nato_airstrike_kills_9_civilians_in_afghanistan/

Only a Small Fraction of Millions Went to the Taliban

Most went to corruption: criminals, grifters, frauds and cheats, SNAFU, democracy at the finest.

[In a murky process known as "reverse money laundering," payments from the U.S. pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel and other services to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents obtained by the AP.

"Funds begin as clean monies," according to one document, then "either through direct payments or through the flow of funds in the subcontractor network, the monies become tainted."

The conclusions by Task Force 2010 represent the most definitive assessment of how U.S. military spending and aid to Afghanistan has been diverted to the enemy or stolen. Only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups, said a senior U.S. military official in Kabul. The bulk of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers, said the official, who declined to provide a specific breakdown.] emphasis added
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AFGHANISTAN_CORRUPTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-16-12-25-34