AfghanNam

WHY WE LOST

(I'm not going to learn by not doing so here goes nothing)
After a very long retrospective look(40 + years) at what we foot soldiers did to contribute to the loss in Vietnam. I can only conclude we beat ourselves without even knowing we were doing it. I now believe we are doing much better at beating ourselves in Afghanistan. Try as they may Gen McKrystal and Admiral Mullens are to late in their effort to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people. Howard Zinn was correct when said:

“In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls,
but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.”


In Vietnam we didn’t have the revenge motives these kids in Afghanistan and Iraq had thrust upon them by an administration that nodded and winked and giggled behind our backs at violations of the Geneva Conventions. My Lai was an anomaly. Sure, war is not a gentleman’s game. Making friends is. Our relationship with the civilian population was based strictly on the venue where we met. We where friendly and playful down “the Ville”, and serious and destructive out in the countryside and the in the villages away from our bases. Rarely did these villages contain military age men, who would be bound and detained. I don’t know where they took them or if they ever returned to their families. The surprise of The Tet offensive clearly indicates we had lost the support of the people in the countryside who where complicit in the VC/NVA’s ability to infiltrate the major cities. Most of the people in the LRRP Company I served in knew something was up.
In the beginning of our war in Afghanistan Special Forces people, being the true professionals they are, sent the Taliban packing. It seemed to be game ,set, match, but that was before we sent in our regular soldiers and Marines. The Special Forces people befriended and worked with the Afghani people who didn’t look upon them as interlopers intent on occupying their country.. The arrival of regular Main force Army and Marine units soon changed the playing field. We have to remember the literacy rate in Afghanistan is around 28% ,and most of those people who can read live in metropolitan areas. Suddenly our main force troops came in like gangbusters with a chip on their shoulder and an anti-Muslim fervor that rivaled American feelings toward the Japanese on 08 Dec 1941 . The Demonizing of the Taliban as the worst of the worse in the Islamic world gave the troops more reasons to square off with an enemy they knew nothing about. Somebody forgot to mention our friends the Saudi’s are almost as harsh in their treatment of women, but I suppose we only demonize them that oppose us and who are responsible for sending planes crashing into our buildings and embassies.
We moved on from routing out terrorist to nation building. Like Vietnam forty years earlier we gave no consideration to the culture and the customs of the Afghani people. We of knew they treated their women abusively by our standards. They had to cover their faces and weren’t allowed to go to school. I don’t know what gave us the right to change customs that where in place before we were a nation.

. That leads us to the following Video I got off of You tube which has been bothering me for at least a year:
Why we lost in Afghanistan
The video shows an American Officer talking to a village elder through an interpreter, he say’s :
“We are here to look for the Taliban and kill them. If you are helping the Taliban the American soldiers will find out and kill you too.”

What was that officer thinking when he told that elder he was going to kill people of his village if they helped the Taliban. Put yourself in that elders place. Before those soldiers got out of sight I would have been thinking of ways to take the fight to them. When the elder tells the people of the village what was said , I am sure young boys not yet of military age at that time are going to be chomping at the bit waiting to get even for that officers indiscretions. I don’t know when that video was made but some of those kids are probably already involved in the fighting. Worse, I don’t know how any nation can expect to end a war and expect to win by recruiting for the other side.
To me the behavior of that officer falls squarely on the Bush Administration and their rush to war. I have no problem with the initial Special Forces involvement, but problems with Begram prison and interrogation methods can justifiably be used by Al Qaeda to justify claims that we are the bad guy’s.
Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.

In all fairness to the young soldiers who served and still are serving there. I realize they arrived in Afghanistan with a blank slate about the people and culture. They did however have a wealth of knowledge that was based on ignorance. I’ve often wondered how different things would have been if we didn’t have Chicken Hawks ruling the roost when 9/11 occurred. Personally I think they should be tried as war criminals. Than again I think Calley should have been executed.