Top 10 mistakes made in the Afghan War

2014-02-03T16:43:22-05:00

Sobering reading in this Foreign Policy article that lists the top 10 mistakes we made in the Afghan War. Do you agree with this list? Were there other mistakes we made? I personally witnessed many issues with both military units and civilian agencies trying to do stability and development operations before clearing and holding operations were concluded, wasting million of dollars on unsustainable projects. What other lessons do we need to learn from our longest sustained conflict?

The Top 10 Mistakes Made in the Afghan War

From Tora Bora to wartime fatigue, the U.S. legacy in Afghanistan was just one failed endeavor after another.

Response by SSgt George Brown made Feb 4 at 2014 6:27 PM

2014-02-04T18:27:37-05:00

My main question is WHY? There may have been Taliban training grounds there, but, we provided them the means to do so with our training of the moudjahidine to fight the USSR. The people who instigated 911 were mainly from Saudi Arabia. If it had not been for oil production, we would have attacked our attackers, but that is all water under the bridge now. We need to pack it up. We should lose NOT ONE SOLDIER MORE.

And that canard that is thrown out that it would be dishonoring to those soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines who gave their lives and limbs is just so much minutia. What dishonored them was our going in without clear objectives and tying one hand behind their backs before they could protect themselves.
As long as we continue with these "humane war" strategies, conflicts will be never ending because we are not going there to win the war. Until we get back to the hard war tactics of decisive victories and the populace of the enemy demanding their leaders capitulate by suing for peace, we will continue to spend our precious treasure of military blood and bodies in seemingly never ending conflict. President Eisenhower spoke truth when he warned us of the Military-Industrial complex, which makes billions and billions of dollars on never ending conflicts.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 31 at 2014 4:20 PM

2014-03-31T16:20:54-04:00

I believe we had to much regime change, with a popular vote from the people that was slipping away. The people of the US typically want instant results from our dollars spent. A lot of lives are spent on instant things and when the war was not one, they wanted out even though they were not there. It's a paradigm shift that is required, with the avg Afghan life being 55 years we should expect to be there that long. Look at the difference of S.Korea and Vietnam.

I think the agreement, on some terms, was signed but perhaps not published as normal.

Also lets look at what took some of our Combat 4 star level leaders out... things could have been a lot different, but I hope to not believe that the souls lost from this land could be in more vain then already addressed.

I wish the US government would put a stop to the press that hammers away on what we as military members construct. We're not all bad...

Response by PO3 Bob Walsh made Apr 28 at 2015 3:22 AM

2015-04-28T03:22:37-04:00

I believe a mistake was not to spray defoliant on the Poppy fields, then advise the tribal leaders that if they did not come to an agreement to settle this conflict they would not grow poppies for many years. There is justification because the profits were used to support the conflict, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other hot spots in the Middle East. Afghanistan produces 90 % of the Opium world wide, the thought of their poppy fields barren for years to come will get their attention.

Response by SPC Angel Guma made May 9 at 2015 8:51 PM

2015-05-09T20:51:19-04:00

1. Sticking to contractors for translation services and not expanding DLI to produce qualified people. Works over time. After a few deployments, the Army would have had all the in-house assets needed for the job.

2. A lot of political nonsense about the poppies. True, poppies are a big problem in Afghanistan, but we should have provided some sort of economic incentive to have helped the Afghans transition out of poppy production, like for example, farming or other agriculture.

3. Not sealing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

4. Karzai was a bad character to trust from the start.

5. Karzai's brothers were no better

6. Should have sealed the border between Afghanistan and Iran. That right there would have cut down the opium trade by at least 50%

7. More effort to gain buy-in with tribal leaders and less wasting time thinking the so-called Afghan government was a worthy player.

8. The Afghan Banking system was a mess from the start, Karzai's brothers looted what was left. Had that not been the case, Afghanistan could have had a small but sustainable financial sector by now.

9. Iraq took much of the focus, thus the Taliban came back

10. The Taliban should have been defined more vigorously as an existential threat to the US and its allies. Instead, the focus got shifted to Saddam and Iraq, and everyone forgot that the Taliban harbored Al Qaeda.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Mar 8 at 2021 9:39 PM

2021-03-08T21:39:31-05:00

Number 1 should be we could not solve the military problem of the Taliban spread out over the rural areas. The Taliban occupy the rural areas, which means they own the areas. We never had the resources to find all the Taliban and kill them, and occupy rural areas to provide security for COIN to work.

The Taliban want Sharia Law, but they have not been able to produce a huge army to take on the Afghan military in large battles. The Afghan government wants democracy but its large army is incapable of beating the Taliban.