Prepare For A Deal
Recently, Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand Province in Afghanistan said the Taliban controlled more than half the province.
According to UK commander Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the Afghan war is unwinnable. He is Britain’s most senior military commander in Afghanistan and warned the war against the Taliban cannot be won and the country should prepare for a deal. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith assessment followed the leak of a memo from a diplomat who claimed that the British ambassador in Kabul had told him the current strategy was doomed to fail. Carleton-Smith told a newspaper: “We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency… I don’t think we should expect that when we go there won’t be roaming bands of armed men in this part of the world. That would be unrealistic and probably incredible.”
Carleton-Smith said the sting had been taken out of the Taliban this year, but pointed out his brigade had suffered heavy losses with 32 dead and 170 injured. He added: “We want to change the nature of the debate from one where disputes are settled through the barrel of the gun to one where it is done through negotiations. If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that’s precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this.”
One day before the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mullen made it clear, that Afghanistan is his greatest concerns, by stating: “I’m not convinced we’re winning yet in Afghanistan....It is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan. And frankly, we’re running out of time... We can’t kill our way to victory in Afghanistan.”
Michael Scheuer author of “Imperial Hubris,” was the CIA’s expert on Afghanistan. In 2004, he wrote: “Unless U.S. led foreign forces are massively increased and are prepared to kill liberally and remain in Afghanistan permanently, the current Afghan regime cannot survive. In Afghanistan, above all other places, familiarity with foreigners breeds not just contempt, but war to the death. The reestablishment of an Islamic regime in Kabul is as close to an inevitability as exists.”
According to UK commander Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the Afghan war is unwinnable. He is Britain’s most senior military commander in Afghanistan and warned the war against the Taliban cannot be won and the country should prepare for a deal. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith assessment followed the leak of a memo from a diplomat who claimed that the British ambassador in Kabul had told him the current strategy was doomed to fail. Carleton-Smith told a newspaper: “We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency… I don’t think we should expect that when we go there won’t be roaming bands of armed men in this part of the world. That would be unrealistic and probably incredible.”
Carleton-Smith said the sting had been taken out of the Taliban this year, but pointed out his brigade had suffered heavy losses with 32 dead and 170 injured. He added: “We want to change the nature of the debate from one where disputes are settled through the barrel of the gun to one where it is done through negotiations. If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that’s precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this.”
One day before the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mullen made it clear, that Afghanistan is his greatest concerns, by stating: “I’m not convinced we’re winning yet in Afghanistan....It is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan. And frankly, we’re running out of time... We can’t kill our way to victory in Afghanistan.”
Michael Scheuer author of “Imperial Hubris,” was the CIA’s expert on Afghanistan. In 2004, he wrote: “Unless U.S. led foreign forces are massively increased and are prepared to kill liberally and remain in Afghanistan permanently, the current Afghan regime cannot survive. In Afghanistan, above all other places, familiarity with foreigners breeds not just contempt, but war to the death. The reestablishment of an Islamic regime in Kabul is as close to an inevitability as exists.”
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:01 AM
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