Topic: War On Terror
Total War Against the Taliban Either we declare total war in Afghanistan or we leave. There can be no middle ground now.by Alexander Massa
(libertarian)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Unless we completely and radically change the way we fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, we will lose the war, and Afghanistan will return to Taliban rule. We have fought too long and too hard in the desolate mountains of Afghanistan to just let it fall to the Taliban again. We've simply lost too many lives and spent too much money on the war effort to just pack up and go home.
So what do we do know? The Taliban is on the march across the nation and Coalition troops are continuing to die. There is a simple solution to this problem. However, this solution will probably never be implemented by Washington, for a myriad of reasons. The simple solution to the Afghanistan problem is to wage a full and total war against the Taliban and it's insurgents.
We have been, up until now, been waging war half-heartedly. Instead of sending in young American infantry soldiers and Marines to root out insurgents, why aren't we utilizing our menacing air power? Our Air Force has the most feared air armada in the world. Instead of relying on infantry troops, we should be carpet-bombing caves and villages to root out and kill these scum.
In fact, we could probably inflict more damage on the Taliban if we simply used air power alone as opposed to using land forces. We must remember that our job is simply to kill - kill the enemies of America and damage them enough so that they can never strike us again. It is not our job to be doing the asinine nation building we are doing now. Since when has it been a soldier's job to build a school or dress up like Santa to give out gifts to the indigineous kids? Our soldiers are being used to build a new Afghanistan. That, though, isn't our job, nor should it be. That is their job. They brought the American invasion upon themselves by harboring terrorists who attacked America. If they hadn't done that, there wouldn't be anything to rebuild. It's their fault, and they can deal with the consequences of the war.
The American people need to know that there is no such thing as a war without collateral damage. It should be plain and simple to all that there will be civilian deaths during any conflict. It's simply an inevitability. We can try to reduce the instances of collateral damage, but it's important to keep in mind that we cannot completely eliminate it. A total war of the kind I envision would, unfortunately, probably have a relatively high rate of collateral damage. But that is the price we (and they) must pay for liberty. Freedom truly is not free, and many people have died to protect it. We are engaged in a struggle against the forces of radical Islam which hate freedom. We need to defeat them at all costs, regardless of the amount of civilian casualties that result from it.
If we enacted this policy of total war, we would win the Afghan Conflict before Christmas. We simply have to destroy the Taliban and leave. It is that simple. No building of roads or schools. No more trying to win hearts and minds; we simply cannot do that. Most of them see us as an oppressive occupation force, regardless of the fact that we have been helping them all these years.
In short, we either need to declare a total and complete war against the Taliban or we need to pack up and leave. We have wasted so much American blood and treasure trying to build Afghanistan. It is simply not worth it anymore. We need to kill the Taliban and leave. Otherwise, we will be there for another few years, and then we will pull out. If that happens, we will be gone, but the Taliban will be alive and well. If that happened, all of the troops that died there would've died for nothing. We owe it to our troops to wage total war against the Taliban, for if we do not, they will have died in vain.
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Posted By: Jeff Albertson
Date: 2009-11-10 10:43:30
McChrystal said that failure was a possibility even if he got his full 80,000 troops, which he won't get fast enough (he will surely say) anyway.
Obama will be blamed for losing under any scenario unless he can dither and whistle past the graveyard for 3-7 years. I'd wager that he'll do exactly that. As for the money and lives wasted already, I believe you've fallen for the fallacy of "sunk costs".
It is easy to put carpet bombing on the table when the whole reason this issue exists is the fact that failed states are breading grounds for crazies. We say it in Germany after the Second World War, we see it in Afghanistan. The only way to make the Germans decent, respectible, non-genocide committing people was to rebuild their country. Granted, the Afghans and we will never be friends, but murdering them for giggles doesn´t quite qualify as a foreign policy strategy. Your cavalier additude toward the problem leads me to believe that you have never laced up a combat boot or fired a shot in anger at another person before. Our restrain on the battlefield is not about the enemy, it is about us. We are not the Russians that placed explosives in dolls with the intent of maiming children (a parent with a lame child is less likely to fight, as they have to take care of the child), we are America. We stand for something, and we believe it is universal. That is what makes us the light in this dark and cruel world.
It is easy to put carpet bombing on the table when the whole reason this issue exists is the fact that failed states are breading grounds for crazies. We say it in Germany after the Second World War, we see it in Afghanistan. The only way to make the Germans decent, respectible, non-genocide committing people was to rebuild their country. Granted, the Afghans and we will never be friends, but murdering them for giggles doesn´t quite qualify as a foreign policy strategy. Your cavalier additude toward the problem leads me to believe that you have never laced up a combat boot or fired a shot in anger at another person before. Our restrain on the battlefield is not about the enemy, it is about us. We are not the Russians that placed explosives in dolls with the intent of maiming children (a parent with a lame child is less likely to fight, as they have to take care of the child), we are America. We stand for something, and we believe it is universal. That is what makes us the light in this dark and cruel world.
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