CDR Sal, you are to be praised for reminding us of the failure so we do not repeat it. Traditional military approach: Identify a problem, self asses, identify solutions, plan of action and milestones (to use the popular euphemism), and execute the required actions. To our shame, this didn't happen.
The failure of Abbey Gate is a microcosm of the twenty years of Afghanistan. The withdrawal was necessary, and with the Russian withdrawal as an object lesson of how hard it was going to be (and they could do it by land...we had to use an "air bridge!). And hard it was; it was ALWAYS going to be a mess. But in the immortal quote from the Duke: "Life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid." And stupid we were. The after action reviews and congressional hearings (is there anything less useful with regards to fixing a problem?) were exercises in finger pointing and blame shifting. Self assessment? Not observed. Last senior officer I can recall who resigned in protest over a civilian decision was General Fogelman in 1997. No one took responsibility for Abbey Gate, the decision to abandon Bagram, the decision to PULL THE MILITARY OUT BEFORE THE EMBASSY PERSONNEL, on and on ad infinitum. No one resigned; I think some got promoted. Accountability and responsibility are apparently no longer in our professional vocabulary.
I am sure achievement, commendation, meritorious service and superior service medals were handed out by the truckloads at every HQ from the FOBs to the Pentagon. Bronze Stars, too.
If there is some master list of Stolen Valor, these awards and medals should be added to it. And if any awardees seek redemption, they should start by throwing their medals over the White House fence.
And more than the complete silence of omerta, Alan, some of the DC mafia dutifully mouth, in Gregorian chant, the talking points of the fools & feebs in charge. As if there is any real difference in passive or active support for evil.
The loss of those Marines means no more to most Americans than a weekend shooting spree in Chicago. They are unable to draw any connection between the defeat in Afghanistan and the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen.
The media is no more interested in Kabul than they are in Jeffrey Epstein's "suicide" or the useless and counterproductive mask mandates. And woe unto anyone who questions the official narrative.
The only reason the media would ever care about Afghanistan if it somehow affected voter turnout in Michigan or New Jersey.
America became an unserious Tik Tok nation and ill-suited to being a world power.
A very powerful and emotionally moving column here. Since our self anointed nomenklatura won’t accept responsibility for their grotesque and deadly failures, it is up to our true leaders like yourself to solemnly and soberly address the issues that cost American lives and betrayed American values around the world with an astonishing carelessness and callous attitude.
Sal, your initial graphic is spot on. The Obama White House, this administration, and any potential Harris administration worships at the feet of Moloch. The unborn, the uneducated, and the military will always be their victims. They insist on eliminating the unborn and adding to the ranks of the uneducated. The military? Despise them and dispose of them. Class A people hire Class A help; Class B people hire Class C help. We’ve been electing Class C people for way too long, and only a total disaster will turn things around.
Due to the leftoid march through the institutions, the people of the US have essentially become Class B. No wonder they hire (elect) Class C personnel.
I believe you have summarized the unvoiced goal of the NEA - to produce compliant perpetual children who can be led by their nose rings by the DNC Propaganda Ministry. My wife and I had the goal of not raising good children, but instead raising young men and one young woman to be functional adults capable of making their own decisions. Yes, that has led to disagreements, but I’d rather that be my legacy than three dutiful followers of Big Brother.
You hit the nail right on the head. This is a spiritual conflict not just a political one. The prophets in the Old Testament denounced the pagans for child sacrifice. The new pagans now lecture us on "reproductive rights." And abortion is their unholy sacrament. They would have told Mary to get an abortion.
Biden will carry the distinction of being the only POTUS to ever be held in contempt, by unanimous acclamation of UK's Parliament, for "Dishonour" onto the pages of history.
Getting America out of that shithole is the only service that Biden has ever provided his country. When I was deployed in 2010, not a single officer I ever spoke with thought the GIROA could ever win. The dishonor lies with those who sought to continue the war anyway.
Agreed. We should have pulled out of Afghanistan in 2010 rather than do Obama's surge. Obama/Biden were never committed to win there and it was a betrayal of everyone they sent into that meatgrinder.
There is no such thing as "winning " against a foe like Afgh or Hamas short of killing every male. Even yesterday after 40K of their brethren dead Hamas leaders stated that while we may agree to a short term truce with Israel we will never recognize their right to exist...i.e. continue to fight to the last man standing. Given that attitude Israel is acting accordingly.
Yes, this was a bad American failure exacerbated by a remarkably incompetent and feckless American President and military, headed respectively by Joe Biden and Mark Milley, both of whom are or were terrible at their jobs and unfit for purpose. This does not change the fact that Afghanistan is a dreadful, primitive society infected with horrendous cultural norms that has rightly earned it the name "graveyard of empires." Afghans are, in the main, terrible people and when a country is stupid enough to let in Afghan immigrants, rape and crime are the uniform results. Ask the Swedes. Ask the Germans,. Ask any European country that was dumb enough to admit Afghans. America should never have deluded itself that it could reform this dreadful country. After 9/11 we should have quickly gone in, killed the terrorists at the camps, bombed the appropriate targets, and quickly left. The idea that if "you break it, you bought it" was simply wrong. What was needed was a quick punitive expedition to kill the large clumps of terrorists. We should have bombed and killed our enemies there in a very short time, and left the Afghans to deal with it. They are not our friends, were never going to be our friends, and all we could ever hope to do with them was to kill our enemies there and then quickly leave.
I get you Commander, and that you want to give a dose of cold water. But I think your "realism", as well intentioned as it is, merely perpetuates myths of "victory" by guerillas and the "invincibility" of Afghans and the whole "graveyard of empires" BS. Why grant them that through your frustration and guilt? Why descend into that cynical and pessimistic mind set? I get the "embrace the suck" mentality, but let's not get carried away.
Lack of will to win? Sure...and that contributes to strategy and tactics. Did we need to do things differently? Undoubtedly. Was the withdrawal a goat f*ck of the first order by Biden? Yep.
In the end, war as you recognize is a battle of wills - especially against an insurgency. They had more will to stick to their guns and see us leave after we got tired of it - and substantially achieved our tactical objectives while failing in the mission creep of state building on top of a rubble. That rubble wasn't the physical infrastructure, as bad as it was, but the moral and cultural underpinnings of a tribal, fundamentalists religious culture at odds with what we were trying to build.
BUT, you can't complain about all of that and then complain about "never ending wars" etc. - because if they want a never ending war and you only define victory as "NOBODY, anywhere, is taking pot shots at us", then you GRANT them the victory no matter the effort. You quit because of some combination of politics, will, boredom, frustration, etc.. And when you quit, they "win" by your definition....even if you remain engaged in other ways, efforts, and means on other battlefields and fronts. Perhaps it is the problem of our way of war.
Sherman had it right that war is hell, and you must break the will of the other side, and use the methods that will achieve that as quickly as possible, and that is the only way to make war better...end it as quickly as possible. But the modern rules of war, that we adhere to when fighting terrorists, works to minimize "collateral damage" and ROEs put our personnel at higher risk with a hand - sometimes both hands - tied behind their back. We aren't teaching the enemy the cost of their actions - we're showing them that we're the parents saying "now Johnny, you stop that!" over and over and over again, without consequences that matter...punishment that TEACHES the population supporting the terrorists the folly of their path.
You have, as have all our vets, earned the right to have your opinion on these matters - perhaps you more than most and your opinion is certainly more informed than most. But you also have a burr under your saddle, as I do mine, over this issue and I just can't accept your definitions of what winning and losing looks like today - not your analysis, but your definitions - on some of these issues.
Human behavior 101: You get more of what you reward, less of what you punish. Sherman understood that. We don't act that way, it's almost (almost) like we'd rather keep the status quo than bring matters to a conclusion. Are we that incompetent? Or do we have some other underlying motivation. The world wonders...
I will take "other underlying motivation?" for $500, Alex.
To quote Walter Mead's explaination of Jacksonians from a quarter centtury ago.
"Not everybody qualifies for such lenient treatment under the code. In particular, repeat offenders will suffer increasingly severe penalties. Although many Americans were revolted by the harsh and greedy peace forced on Mexico (Grant felt that the Civil War was in part God's punishment for American crimes against Mexico), Santa Anna's long record of perfidy and cruelty built popular support both for the Mexican War and the peace. The pattern of frontier warfare, in which factions in a particular tribe might renew hostilities in violation of an agreement, helped solidify the Jacksonian belief that there was no point in making or keeping treaties with "savages.""
Repeat offenders certainly describes the various players in the sandbox. Given the mention of Santa Anna, the cartel lords of Central America should also be paying attention. Should the American people get to the fed up point and elect leaders with a Jacksonian bent, there would be a shocking (but not unforseen) change in approach. I certainly wish that the IDF had been unleased to execute COA C.
Neither Sherman nor Grant nor anyone in the North ever broke the will of the South. General Lee's men were willing to follow him to the hills and fight forever. But being the great man that he was, he would not ask his men to do what was no longer possible and so he sought to end the conflict on the best possible terms. Credit to General Grant for being reasonable and not vindictive.
Is it any coincidence that the miserable people responsible for the fiasco in Kabul are so eager to tear down statues of Lee, Jackson and so many others? Mark Milley is not fit to shine Lee's boots.
The question is the center of gravity OF that will. In this case, it was Lee that had to be taught futility. He just realized it before others and saw the path they were on. As I said, were there people still ready to fight - to take "pot shots"? Sure there were, but deprived of the support and resources of the population, leadership, and government that HAD learned the futility of the effort, they were brought to heal...even if there were hard feelings and violence that remained for nearly 100 years in the South. But I don't think you would contend that the South won the war thereby.
Aside from that whole secession thing, slavery, wild racism, and extra-judicial abuse and killing of black people...sure, they were completely honorable. Somebody sold you a bill of goods on "The Lost Cause".
I suspected you were a fraud. Now I know for sure now that you have exposed your true colors by having expressed your hatred toward the South. Go tell John Kirby you were caught.
Minimizing collateral damage is an illusion: people who should have died quickly and humanely in short order, have to endure years of strife which slowly kills them.
Thanks for this. There are still those who do not blame the feckless twits in DC for this. Your clarification is most welcome. A humiliating own goal defeat.
CDR S, I respect and honor your tribute to these 13 fallen heroes, how about a mention of the 5 Americans STILL held by those bastards in Gaza. The WH doesn't mention them, much less condition Gaza aid on their instant return. The MSM abets the WH by avoiding the topic.
No network anchor ends each broadcast with: "it's Day 325 and counting since 5 Americans were seized by Hamas!
Quick story from my year in AFG (2011) as NTM-A command historian. There were 13, yes count 'em, 13 US/NATO GOs in a command of close to 6,000 personnel. (How big of an army would you need to give 13 GOs a job?). Anyway, one of the 1-stars, who was in charge of overseeing all the training facilities across the country (one of the good ones, BTW), had an interesting counter to our counterinsurgency effort. He called it "SOGRR." It stood for "Sacks of Gold or Ruthless Retribution." Basically boiled down to telling the Afghans we'd show up with bags of gold, so long as they kept thing under control. But if they didn;t, we'd come back in heavy and will conduct another beat down like we did in the first 6 months of the war.
Can't blame the planners for the first year. It was a textbook op, and we only lost one dude (CIA operative). It was the ensuing 19 years, when the "smartest guys in the room" decided we could turn AFG into a market capitalist deomcracy. And everybody went along, to the tune of over 2K KIA, and 20 times that WIA.
AFG should have been carved up amongst it neighbors (friend and foe alike) then given the SOGRR to the new owners. Diplomats adherence to lines on a map are ahistorical. Countries and cultures rise and fall, spoils divided, and lines redrawn. That is punitive. And to the neighbors on their thrones who just had their territories expanded - it can all be taken away just as easily. Take the gold and enjoy it. This insanity of coloring within the lines and "making" new Western polities of every little box has got to stop.
Yes, 'The shame is all ours, red, white, and blue.'
Thank you for sharing this somber truth/reality. 🙏
God forgive us. We have sinned against You!
God was canceled. The State now gives us everything we need.
CDR Sal, you are to be praised for reminding us of the failure so we do not repeat it. Traditional military approach: Identify a problem, self asses, identify solutions, plan of action and milestones (to use the popular euphemism), and execute the required actions. To our shame, this didn't happen.
The failure of Abbey Gate is a microcosm of the twenty years of Afghanistan. The withdrawal was necessary, and with the Russian withdrawal as an object lesson of how hard it was going to be (and they could do it by land...we had to use an "air bridge!). And hard it was; it was ALWAYS going to be a mess. But in the immortal quote from the Duke: "Life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid." And stupid we were. The after action reviews and congressional hearings (is there anything less useful with regards to fixing a problem?) were exercises in finger pointing and blame shifting. Self assessment? Not observed. Last senior officer I can recall who resigned in protest over a civilian decision was General Fogelman in 1997. No one took responsibility for Abbey Gate, the decision to abandon Bagram, the decision to PULL THE MILITARY OUT BEFORE THE EMBASSY PERSONNEL, on and on ad infinitum. No one resigned; I think some got promoted. Accountability and responsibility are apparently no longer in our professional vocabulary.
No one was ever held accountable for this fiasco.
I am sure achievement, commendation, meritorious service and superior service medals were handed out by the truckloads at every HQ from the FOBs to the Pentagon. Bronze Stars, too.
If there is some master list of Stolen Valor, these awards and medals should be added to it. And if any awardees seek redemption, they should start by throwing their medals over the White House fence.
One of my most common phrases in this blog is that the Potomac Fleet never sinks. The Mafia term “omerta” always applies in cases like this.
And more than the complete silence of omerta, Alan, some of the DC mafia dutifully mouth, in Gregorian chant, the talking points of the fools & feebs in charge. As if there is any real difference in passive or active support for evil.
"reminding us of the failure so we can not repeat it"😂
So much further humiliation awaits us...Kabul is not even 2/3 to the bottom.
"reminding us of the failure so we can not repeat it"
Seems I have read that before. Several times. After each and every failure. I think it's called "lessons learned" in the after action reports.
Some very harsh truths in this piece. Thank you, sir.
Few Americans care or remember.
The loss of those Marines means no more to most Americans than a weekend shooting spree in Chicago. They are unable to draw any connection between the defeat in Afghanistan and the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen.
The media is no more interested in Kabul than they are in Jeffrey Epstein's "suicide" or the useless and counterproductive mask mandates. And woe unto anyone who questions the official narrative.
The only reason the media would ever care about Afghanistan if it somehow affected voter turnout in Michigan or New Jersey.
America became an unserious Tik Tok nation and ill-suited to being a world power.
I care. And I remember. They were my brothers and sisters in arms. And I take it personally.
Youn and me and CDR Sal and all who contribute to this site.
A very powerful and emotionally moving column here. Since our self anointed nomenklatura won’t accept responsibility for their grotesque and deadly failures, it is up to our true leaders like yourself to solemnly and soberly address the issues that cost American lives and betrayed American values around the world with an astonishing carelessness and callous attitude.
Sal, your initial graphic is spot on. The Obama White House, this administration, and any potential Harris administration worships at the feet of Moloch. The unborn, the uneducated, and the military will always be their victims. They insist on eliminating the unborn and adding to the ranks of the uneducated. The military? Despise them and dispose of them. Class A people hire Class A help; Class B people hire Class C help. We’ve been electing Class C people for way too long, and only a total disaster will turn things around.
Due to the leftoid march through the institutions, the people of the US have essentially become Class B. No wonder they hire (elect) Class C personnel.
I believe you have summarized the unvoiced goal of the NEA - to produce compliant perpetual children who can be led by their nose rings by the DNC Propaganda Ministry. My wife and I had the goal of not raising good children, but instead raising young men and one young woman to be functional adults capable of making their own decisions. Yes, that has led to disagreements, but I’d rather that be my legacy than three dutiful followers of Big Brother.
You hit the nail right on the head. This is a spiritual conflict not just a political one. The prophets in the Old Testament denounced the pagans for child sacrifice. The new pagans now lecture us on "reproductive rights." And abortion is their unholy sacrament. They would have told Mary to get an abortion.
"...worships at the feet of Moloch." Spot on, an accurate tag.
Biden will carry the distinction of being the only POTUS to ever be held in contempt, by unanimous acclamation of UK's Parliament, for "Dishonour" onto the pages of history.
True, until it is erased and those witness to the deeds have passed on to another life. Then it will be as if it never happened.
Which goes to Kamala's recommendation to "be unburdened by what has been."
Magan Carta, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights can all be a burden to a Utopian with a machine gun who wants to create the perfect society.
That's kinda harsh! /sarc. Someone's "utopia with a machine gun" is really just another's "neighborliness".
Orwell did say something about corrupting the language.
Spot on.
Doesn't matter. He's done the damage.
Getting America out of that shithole is the only service that Biden has ever provided his country. When I was deployed in 2010, not a single officer I ever spoke with thought the GIROA could ever win. The dishonor lies with those who sought to continue the war anyway.
Agreed. We should have pulled out of Afghanistan in 2010 rather than do Obama's surge. Obama/Biden were never committed to win there and it was a betrayal of everyone they sent into that meatgrinder.
There is no such thing as "winning " against a foe like Afgh or Hamas short of killing every male. Even yesterday after 40K of their brethren dead Hamas leaders stated that while we may agree to a short term truce with Israel we will never recognize their right to exist...i.e. continue to fight to the last man standing. Given that attitude Israel is acting accordingly.
"short of killing every male"
If you're not willing to go there, don't start something you're leaving unfinished.
It's why the Houthis have beaten the US Navy.
I couldn't give a rat's ass what the Brits think: they've been nothing but a drain on the US.
Before they cast aspersion across the pond, they should start in their own house, starting with the crown clown show and the imbecile PMs.
Good advice for everyone, but they were not wrong in their assessment of Biden.
Yes, this was a bad American failure exacerbated by a remarkably incompetent and feckless American President and military, headed respectively by Joe Biden and Mark Milley, both of whom are or were terrible at their jobs and unfit for purpose. This does not change the fact that Afghanistan is a dreadful, primitive society infected with horrendous cultural norms that has rightly earned it the name "graveyard of empires." Afghans are, in the main, terrible people and when a country is stupid enough to let in Afghan immigrants, rape and crime are the uniform results. Ask the Swedes. Ask the Germans,. Ask any European country that was dumb enough to admit Afghans. America should never have deluded itself that it could reform this dreadful country. After 9/11 we should have quickly gone in, killed the terrorists at the camps, bombed the appropriate targets, and quickly left. The idea that if "you break it, you bought it" was simply wrong. What was needed was a quick punitive expedition to kill the large clumps of terrorists. We should have bombed and killed our enemies there in a very short time, and left the Afghans to deal with it. They are not our friends, were never going to be our friends, and all we could ever hope to do with them was to kill our enemies there and then quickly leave.
Where is Admiral McRaven and General Mattis who betrayed Trump? Are they happy with this current gang?
McMaster was making the rounds this morning on NPR. Sucking up to the D.C. elites.
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/26/nx-s1-5042515/mcmaster-trump-at-war-with-ourselves-memoir
No reason to believe that others will not be making the rounds as well.
I wonder if they have been infected by the Beltway Bug or just sold out.
Marchinko was right about McRaven.
I get you Commander, and that you want to give a dose of cold water. But I think your "realism", as well intentioned as it is, merely perpetuates myths of "victory" by guerillas and the "invincibility" of Afghans and the whole "graveyard of empires" BS. Why grant them that through your frustration and guilt? Why descend into that cynical and pessimistic mind set? I get the "embrace the suck" mentality, but let's not get carried away.
Lack of will to win? Sure...and that contributes to strategy and tactics. Did we need to do things differently? Undoubtedly. Was the withdrawal a goat f*ck of the first order by Biden? Yep.
In the end, war as you recognize is a battle of wills - especially against an insurgency. They had more will to stick to their guns and see us leave after we got tired of it - and substantially achieved our tactical objectives while failing in the mission creep of state building on top of a rubble. That rubble wasn't the physical infrastructure, as bad as it was, but the moral and cultural underpinnings of a tribal, fundamentalists religious culture at odds with what we were trying to build.
BUT, you can't complain about all of that and then complain about "never ending wars" etc. - because if they want a never ending war and you only define victory as "NOBODY, anywhere, is taking pot shots at us", then you GRANT them the victory no matter the effort. You quit because of some combination of politics, will, boredom, frustration, etc.. And when you quit, they "win" by your definition....even if you remain engaged in other ways, efforts, and means on other battlefields and fronts. Perhaps it is the problem of our way of war.
Sherman had it right that war is hell, and you must break the will of the other side, and use the methods that will achieve that as quickly as possible, and that is the only way to make war better...end it as quickly as possible. But the modern rules of war, that we adhere to when fighting terrorists, works to minimize "collateral damage" and ROEs put our personnel at higher risk with a hand - sometimes both hands - tied behind their back. We aren't teaching the enemy the cost of their actions - we're showing them that we're the parents saying "now Johnny, you stop that!" over and over and over again, without consequences that matter...punishment that TEACHES the population supporting the terrorists the folly of their path.
You have, as have all our vets, earned the right to have your opinion on these matters - perhaps you more than most and your opinion is certainly more informed than most. But you also have a burr under your saddle, as I do mine, over this issue and I just can't accept your definitions of what winning and losing looks like today - not your analysis, but your definitions - on some of these issues.
Human behavior 101: You get more of what you reward, less of what you punish. Sherman understood that. We don't act that way, it's almost (almost) like we'd rather keep the status quo than bring matters to a conclusion. Are we that incompetent? Or do we have some other underlying motivation. The world wonders...
I will take "other underlying motivation?" for $500, Alex.
To quote Walter Mead's explaination of Jacksonians from a quarter centtury ago.
"Not everybody qualifies for such lenient treatment under the code. In particular, repeat offenders will suffer increasingly severe penalties. Although many Americans were revolted by the harsh and greedy peace forced on Mexico (Grant felt that the Civil War was in part God's punishment for American crimes against Mexico), Santa Anna's long record of perfidy and cruelty built popular support both for the Mexican War and the peace. The pattern of frontier warfare, in which factions in a particular tribe might renew hostilities in violation of an agreement, helped solidify the Jacksonian belief that there was no point in making or keeping treaties with "savages.""
Repeat offenders certainly describes the various players in the sandbox. Given the mention of Santa Anna, the cartel lords of Central America should also be paying attention. Should the American people get to the fed up point and elect leaders with a Jacksonian bent, there would be a shocking (but not unforseen) change in approach. I certainly wish that the IDF had been unleased to execute COA C.
Neither Sherman nor Grant nor anyone in the North ever broke the will of the South. General Lee's men were willing to follow him to the hills and fight forever. But being the great man that he was, he would not ask his men to do what was no longer possible and so he sought to end the conflict on the best possible terms. Credit to General Grant for being reasonable and not vindictive.
Is it any coincidence that the miserable people responsible for the fiasco in Kabul are so eager to tear down statues of Lee, Jackson and so many others? Mark Milley is not fit to shine Lee's boots.
The question is the center of gravity OF that will. In this case, it was Lee that had to be taught futility. He just realized it before others and saw the path they were on. As I said, were there people still ready to fight - to take "pot shots"? Sure there were, but deprived of the support and resources of the population, leadership, and government that HAD learned the futility of the effort, they were brought to heal...even if there were hard feelings and violence that remained for nearly 100 years in the South. But I don't think you would contend that the South won the war thereby.
I don't claim the South won but she acquitted herself with honor unlike America in Benghazi, Kabul or Saigon.
Aside from that whole secession thing, slavery, wild racism, and extra-judicial abuse and killing of black people...sure, they were completely honorable. Somebody sold you a bill of goods on "The Lost Cause".
I suspected you were a fraud. Now I know for sure now that you have exposed your true colors by having expressed your hatred toward the South. Go tell John Kirby you were caught.
BTW Sherman is the greatest war criminal in American history.
"Sherman had it right..." but Gen. Curtis LeMay had it righter.
Minimizing collateral damage is an illusion: people who should have died quickly and humanely in short order, have to endure years of strife which slowly kills them.
It was murder.
Thanks for this. There are still those who do not blame the feckless twits in DC for this. Your clarification is most welcome. A humiliating own goal defeat.
I wept when I read what I knew was right.
The blame is on Biden/Blinken and senior commanders alone who did nothing to oppose chaotic retreat.
Blinken made a secret pact with Taliban in Doha, let us leave, and we'll give you billions in assets and aid.
Taliban took the deal and the billions, and punked them.
Very similar to what they are doing with Hamas, Iran, etc.
They think they can buy off anyone, like China etc., bought them off.
Biden at Dover. How much longer do I have to stand here, its past my nap time.
You are too charitable, Joseph. Going out on a limb, "...its past my shower time with my daughter."
Blinken did a mean guitar in Kiev. Not many Secretaires can do that.
John Kerry just brings James Taylor
"Blinken made a secret pact with Taliban in Doha, ..."
It always amazes me that so many people know about all those "secret" deals & conspiracies, yet the information never seems to go public.
CDR S, I respect and honor your tribute to these 13 fallen heroes, how about a mention of the 5 Americans STILL held by those bastards in Gaza. The WH doesn't mention them, much less condition Gaza aid on their instant return. The MSM abets the WH by avoiding the topic.
No network anchor ends each broadcast with: "it's Day 325 and counting since 5 Americans were seized by Hamas!
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2023/10/10/american-families-plead-governments-rescue-hostages/3101696978015/
This administration sympathizes with HAMAS.
First Episode of ABC News Nightline - Iranian Hostage Crisis - March 24, 1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui3F0zHKtUU
Quick story from my year in AFG (2011) as NTM-A command historian. There were 13, yes count 'em, 13 US/NATO GOs in a command of close to 6,000 personnel. (How big of an army would you need to give 13 GOs a job?). Anyway, one of the 1-stars, who was in charge of overseeing all the training facilities across the country (one of the good ones, BTW), had an interesting counter to our counterinsurgency effort. He called it "SOGRR." It stood for "Sacks of Gold or Ruthless Retribution." Basically boiled down to telling the Afghans we'd show up with bags of gold, so long as they kept thing under control. But if they didn;t, we'd come back in heavy and will conduct another beat down like we did in the first 6 months of the war.
Can't blame the planners for the first year. It was a textbook op, and we only lost one dude (CIA operative). It was the ensuing 19 years, when the "smartest guys in the room" decided we could turn AFG into a market capitalist deomcracy. And everybody went along, to the tune of over 2K KIA, and 20 times that WIA.
AFG should have been carved up amongst it neighbors (friend and foe alike) then given the SOGRR to the new owners. Diplomats adherence to lines on a map are ahistorical. Countries and cultures rise and fall, spoils divided, and lines redrawn. That is punitive. And to the neighbors on their thrones who just had their territories expanded - it can all be taken away just as easily. Take the gold and enjoy it. This insanity of coloring within the lines and "making" new Western polities of every little box has got to stop.
A-stan is not a country. It is a circle on a map with no common ties between areas
Exactly. Carved out of the Mughal and Safavid empires in the 81th C.
Those areas share the same hatreds.
if you mean they all hate each other, and many hate the West, sure
had an interesting counter to our counterinsurgency effort. He called it "SOGRR." It stood for "Sacks of Gold or Ruthless Retribution."
"Butcher and Bolt"
- W Churchill
Count the number of FOs in the US Navy, and compare that to the number of ships.
This is why I won’t recommend military service to any of my friends or family. The moral hazard is too great and the trust is lost.