More
for the Meat Grinder
Reinforcing Failure in Afghanistan
by Ron Shirtz
by
Ron Shirtz
Recently by Ron Shirtz: Political
Triage
Throughout
July and August of this year, US forces suffered almost 90
soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Heeding recommendations from military
leaders and his advisors, President Obama has approved sending 17,000
troops, which includes a 5,000-member
Marine Regimental Combat Team, to support the overextended combat
troops in southern Afghanistan. While these numbers may seem impressive,
in military terms this is the equivalent of scrounging couch change
trying to pay off a balloon mortgage payment.
The desired
purpose of the additional troops is twofold: To train pro-US Afghan
troops, and help secure territory taken from Taliban forces. Concerning
the former, recent
events have demonstrated that our Afghan allies have as much
enthusiasm to fight as the ARVN did in the Vietnam War. On the latter
objective, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has hedged his bets
by telling General Stanley McChrystal to be "forthright"
in requesting the necessary forces to get the job done, while adding
this disclaimer:
"I have expressed
some concerns in the past about the size of the American footprint,
the size of the foreign military footprint, in Afghanistan, and
clearly I want to address those issues," Gates said during a visit
to Fort Worth, Texas.
"And we will
have to look at the availability of forces, we'll have to look
at cost. There are a lot of different things that we'll have to
look at once we get his recommendations, before we make any recommendations
to the president."
This is a nothing
more than a veiled confession that the US military is stretched
to the breaking point. Somehow, General Stanley McChrystal must
find a way to secure a country twice the size of Vietnam, with only
a third of the troops that were employed in that disastrous Southeast
Asian war. As a previous secretary of defense once said, "you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you
want." So much for a change from the previous administration,
eh?
This token
reinforcement of troops tragically demonstrates the cliché
of hope triumphing over experience. It reeks of the same desperation
that existed during the Battle of Stalingrad. General Paulus 6th
Army, consisting over a quarter of a million men, was bogged down
in the rubble and ruins of the city. On November 7, 1942, in a bid
to break through the stubborn Russian resistance at the factories,
Hitler personally authorized the deployment of five combat pioneer
battalions. In a brutal war involving millions under arms, much
was riding on these three thousand elite soldiers to break the stalemate.
After five days of intensive fighting, these specialized combat
engineers suffered one thousand casualties. Though they made considerable
gains in pushing back the Russian defense line, in the end they
ran out of steam, and could go no further. Twelve days later, on
November 19, the Soviets launched a massive counteroffensive, Operation
Uranus, that doomed the entire 6th Army.
While US forces
cannot be defeated in a climactic conventional battle in Afghanistan,
they will lose trying to secure the geography and defeat a people
that offer them nothing substantial to grasp as leverage for victory.
I sense that our government knows very well this token force is
nothing more than a political sop to give the impression that something
is being done to gain victory in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, President
Obama must being be feeling more akin to LBJ than FDR in attempting
to pass a national health care bill while maintaining an expensive
military occupation overseas. Attempting to build the Great Society
while making the World Safe For Democracy at the same time has as
much chance as Hitler’s Germany winning a two-front war. None at
all.
Meanwhile,
the constant trickle of US soldier’s deaths continues – One
here, a few there, day after day, persisting like a constant bloody
drip from a leaky faucet. Instead of stopping the leak, our country
chooses to be distracted by louder issues such as who will win the
next American Idol competition, or the ongoing news marathon on
the life and death of Michael Jackson. Every couple of days, somewhere
in the US, flags in various parts of the country are set at half-mast
to honor those local men and women sacrificed in this winless war.
If our government’s goal for an ongoing commitment in Afghanistan
(and Iraq) comes to pass, then I humbly suggest leaving all US flags
permanently at half-mast, to save time and effort. Better yet, upside
down as well.
September
3, 2009
Ron
Shirtz [send him mail] is
a transplanted Californian teaching Graphic Communications in Northern
(Not "Upstate") New York. His hobbies include arranging deck chairs
on sinking ships, tilting at windmills, and being fashionably late.
Copyright
© 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in
part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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