After Action Report-General Barry R McCaffrey USA (Ret) Afgahanistan

[MSG Proctor]

The magnificent, resilient Afghan people absolutely reject the ideology and violence of the Taliban (90% or greater) but have little faith in the ability of the government to provide security, justice, clean water, electricity, or jobs. Much of Afghanistan has great faith in US military forces, but enormous suspicion of the commitment and staying power of our NATO allies.

�� The courageous and determined NATO Forces (the employable forces are principally US, Canadian, British, Polish, and Dutch) and the Afghan National Army (the ANA is a splendid success story) cannot be defeated in battle. They will continue to slaughter the Pashtun insurgents, criminals, and international terrorist syndicates who directly confront them. (7000+ killed during 2007 alone.) The Taliban will increasingly turn to terrorism directed against the people and the Afghan National Police. However, the atmosphere of terror cannot be countered by relying mainly on military means. We cannot win through a war of attrition. The economic and political support provided by the international community is currently inadequate to deal with the situation.
��

Sounds like a "lead, follow or get out of the way" situation to me. GEN Mac argues forcefully for the necessity of NATO and yet descibes a situation where many NATO partners are nothing but icons as far as their actual battle efficiency.

Its also hard to fathom that after 6 years there are only 63,000 combat ready ANA troops. I think that 'surge' of forces in Afghanistan is way overdue, however, as the good general describes,

Many of these troops and their leaders through general officer level are on their 4th or more combat deployments since
“911.” We have suffered 36,000 US killed and wounded. Their families are getting tired. The country [USA] is not at war. The Armed Forces and the CIA are at war. We are at the point of breaking faith with our troops.

Decisions made back in 2002 NOT to expand our active duty military are proving now to be utterly tragic. Not to turn this into a political argument, but I believe one party is adamant about not growing the Armed Forces.

I've been saying since 911 that we need at least 4 more divisions with the MTOE [design] of 10th Mountain Division.