Winning the War in Afghanistan

[Valin]

Michael Yon has been embedded with UK troops in Sangin, for fiev weeks and has written an excellent first-hand account: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/bad-medicine.htm Yon is now en route to embed with USMC.

For murky reasons his embed has ended and neither side agrees why.

Stephen Grey, a UK journalist, has written a wide ranging article on the campaigning and whether the local strategy is correct: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/wp...and/index.html

davidbfpo

Thanks for the links


Cracking on in Helmand

(snip)

The public debate has rarely reflected the mixed-up reality of the war. In July, when the number of dead since 2001 overtook the total in Iraq, the debate was couched as politicians versus generals. Our troops demanded more helicopters, reinforcements and money. All of that was true—when Sergeant Johnson’s comrades kept vigil over his body for 24 hours, it was because no helicopter was available to take him off the hill. And a day earlier, many Afghan civilians had died because there were no helicopters to ferry the injured to hospital. But more men and more choppers are not going to win this war, still less address its purpose.

While this may be true, it must be asked if more men and equipment would not have provided the time needed to get the correct strategy?

Neither the air cavalry nor legions of fresh troops defeated the Vietcong.

The writer shows a real lack of knowledge about that damn war by saying this.