What are your thoughts on the troop increase into Afghanistan?

William Hay — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 13:52:46 -0500

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 8 at 2018 1:56 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 13:56:03 -0500

Time to kick ass and take names and finally end that mess.

Response by SFC Stephen Atchley made Mar 8 at 2018 1:57 PM

SFC Stephen Atchley — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 13:57:24 -0500

This story seems apropos...

Response by Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen made Mar 8 at 2018 2:05 PM

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:05:39 -0500

Here we go again!

Response by SPC Joseph Wojcik made Mar 8 at 2018 2:11 PM

SPC Joseph Wojcik — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:11:14 -0500

I don't like it. We need to stop worrying about the rest of the world and focus on our own nation. No more foreign occupations, no more directly or indirectly funding "rebel" groups, and no more letting the media antagonize nations like Russia.

Response by 1stSgt Nelson Kerr made Mar 8 at 2018 2:13 PM

1stSgt Nelson Kerr — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:13:08 -0500

How many generations will it take?

Response by Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth made Mar 8 at 2018 2:13 PM

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:13:45 -0500

Not for it in any way. Let them have that dang piece of real estate.

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 8 at 2018 2:43 PM

LCDR Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:43:13 -0500

Mr. Hay-Might I recommend reading the following books. 'The Bear went over the Mountain' by David Glantz, 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by T.E. Lawrence, and 'The Wrong War' by Bing West.

From Alexander the Great, to the British, the Soviets and ourselves...nations have repeatedly underestimated and or misunderstood this region, its people, and their mindset. I'm no expert, but with the right focus, maybe we could do it with less...with the wrong focus or goals, perhaps no amount is enough.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 8 at 2018 2:44 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:44:05 -0500

It's another effort on our part to turn a 5th world country into a 4th world country. Maybe in another few years, we'll be able to turn it into a 3rd world country. I mean, what's another few billion dollars?

Response by Susan Foster made Mar 8 at 2018 3:13 PM

Susan Foster — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:13:26 -0500

There are some things we just need to admit we can't fix and walk away from. After all these years, I don't know why we haven't said this is one of them.

Response by SSgt Ray Stone made Mar 8 at 2018 3:23 PM

SSgt Ray Stone — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:23:29 -0500

Mo money mo money mo money. Received recruiters email regarding a contract position in Kabul

Response by 1SG Dennis Hicks made Mar 8 at 2018 3:27 PM

1SG Dennis Hicks — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:27:27 -0500

I would ask what is the end state that we want to accomplish there? Corruption in what they call a government is rampant, The afghan Army and Police make the French look good as far a changing sides and surrendering at the drop of a hat. They break lose or steal anything we give them to use, they show no real interest in developing their nation or improving the standard of living there. They are sitting on Trillions of dollars or Minerals in their mountains but cant decide on who can steal the money first. I say we waste not one more American life for that country. We should just keep a drone operation going to identify future targets or gatherings of enemy personnel, maybe a few late night meet and greets and the Occasional BLU-96B thermobaric bombs on target facilities of interest or to rotate stock. I see zero upside to boots on ground since all we have done is waste American lives and allow the locals to steal money from us. Put a fork in it its done.

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 8 at 2018 3:31 PM

CPO Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:31:39 -0500

No, having been there and Iraq. I say no to another surge in Afghanistan. Iraq I was there when we closed it, and we should have stayed two more years as was suggested by some Military officials. Afghanistan is too tribal and we just need to let them deal with things.

Response by SN James MacKay made Mar 8 at 2018 4:18 PM

SN James MacKay — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 16:18:19 -0500

It's been several years since I read the quote, so I'll paraphrase it to the best of my memory. A then, recently retired General, was asked what he thought about the long term chances of change in Afghanistan, if we continued our presence there. His answer was the if we stayed there for a hundred years, we might drag the Afghani's, kicking and screaming, out of the 12th century, into the 13th.

Response by Cpl Mark A. Morris made Mar 8 at 2018 5:13 PM

Cpl Mark A. Morris — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 17:13:35 -0500

Endless war. Without declaring war. Let's focus. Get the job done and get back out to sea. Let special operators and Intel let us know when to launch overwhelming force. Then, get back to sea.
Rotate every six months our groups.
My arm chair Quarterbacking for the day.

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Mar 8 at 2018 9:15 PM

Capt Tom Brown — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 21:15:05 -0500

I don't think that anyone has ever convinced a majority of US that somehow what goes on in Afgan is so critical to US that it warrants our armed intervention and the deaths of several thousand Americans. The same in RVN. If the Taliban-types took over the country tomorrow how would it hurt me here in my little cubby-hole of the world? No one knows except the Generals who never saw a possible war they didn't like.

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Mar 8 at 2018 9:47 PM

Sgt Wayne Wood — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 21:47:25 -0500

Either win or leave

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Mar 8 at 2018 10:34 PM

Sgt Wayne Wood — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 22:34:12 -0500

MSG Dan Walther read your analysis & position.

I don’t believe the ANA can beat the Taliban anymore than ARVN could beat the NVA and for the same reasons.

1) Kabul ain’t THEIR gov’t
2) they have no tradition of democracy
3) we haven’t recognized the situation as it exists as opposed to how we wish it to be... tribalism.
4) mostly, like the peasants squatting in the rice paddies, they want to be left alone to get on with their lives.

I will bow to your superior first hand knowledge, i haven’t been there.

I’m just calling it like it see it.

Let’s not confuse war with nation-building

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Mar 9 at 2018 4:13 AM

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:13:59 -0500

William Hay "Afghanistan, Where Empire goes to Die" What makes us Think We will succeed where many others have failed? Nope Call it Game Over and Pull Out. Waste of Resources and Time. If Problems there come back to Haunt Us again we can always go back.

Response by PFC Elijah Rose made Mar 10 at 2018 12:16 PM

PFC Elijah Rose — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 12:16:17 -0500

Well, the Afghan government and the Taliban has taken to killing each other now, with a smattering of ISIS pockets. While this isn't enough troops for the amount of COIN we were doing a decade ago it is enough to prevent Afghanistan from going full Yemen.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Mar 10 at 2018 5:20 PM

SGM Bill Frazer — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 17:20:26 -0500

Son- it's fluid, up and down- we had hopes their Military would respond quicker, but its hard when its so easy to turn their folks.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 11 at 2018 6:57 AM

PFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 06:57:14 -0400

I say we leave and as the last of the troops are out we just level the country and be done with it. This has been going on far too long now. We have done what we can, it seems that they no longer want our help just our weapons and money to support them.

So let’s pull all our troops and just blow that country up. They started it on 9-11 on our soil so let’s finish it for good on theirs.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 4 at 2018 7:42 PM

PFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 19:42:46 -0400

Well I would love to be deployed, I'm just hoping there'll be room for me lol