Kandahar Province: catch all thread

[IntelTrooper]

Disclaimer: The assessment provided is the author's alone and does not necessarily reflect my opinion nor the views of the SWC.

How Short-Term Thinking is Causing Long-Term Failure in Afghanistan

"In Afghanistan, second and third-order effects are largely overlooked," Morgan Sheeran, a Sergeant First Class who teaches at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul, told me. The result, Sheeran said, is that decisions are often made in the moment without understanding their long-term consequences.

The men of Tarok Kalache were enraged by their homes' destruction. "These dudes were extremely angry," Captain Patrick McGuigan, a subordinate of Flynn, later told Stars and Stripes. "The elder (of Tarok Kalacheh) wouldn't even talk to me for three weeks, he was that [angry]." Some compared the U.S. force to the Soviet occupiers. But leveling the village was just the beginning.

[Bob's World]

"The war in Afghanistan is, ultimately, a tactical war, fought at the local level over year-long deployments. When those small, tactical decisions are made for the wrong reasons, it can add up to big, strategic failure."

This is true, but only because:

A. Lead for operations is in the hands of a military headquarters, and such headquarters do not take on political objectives and are also subject to the effects of regular rotations; and

B. Current COIN doctrine, so rooted in the colonial experience, defines success as the preservation of the current regime through a construct of "warfare;" and

C. Failing to fully appreciate the causal effects radiating outward from the Karzai government, we create a functional sanctuary for the government to operate from. This protects and emboldens them to act with ever greater impunity toward their own populace, with little incentive to identify and address areas requiring substantive changes, or to seek reasonable reconciliation with the insurgent leadership of the issues that are most central to their illegal challenge and resistance.

[davidbfpo]

Abu M has two relevant posts on the discussion of COIN tactics in Afghanistan, the first 'Exum and Foust on Tactics in Afghanistan', link:http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...ghanistan.html and part two 'If you only read one thing today ...', link:http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...ing-today.html

I tried to follow it initially and gave up - a storm with The Beltway?