Analysis: Taliban remains a threat across Afghanistan. Your thoughts?

2015-05-19T07:59:19-04:00

More than a decade of war and billions in U.S. funds to build up an Afghan military force have failed to defeat a Taliban insurgency that remains a threat across the country.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/18/us-fails-to-defeat-taliban-in-afghanistan/27234763/

Response by SGT David T. made May 19 at 2015 8:24 AM

2015-05-19T08:24:34-04:00

Rooting out the Taliban is not the same as trying to defeat a nation state. The amount of resources in money, and personnel to actually defeat them would be far more than we already expended. I think the best we can hope for is for the Afghan forces to be able to keep them at bay on their own, but even that will still require massive levels of support from us.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made May 19 at 2015 8:52 AM

2015-05-19T08:52:43-04:00

Omar there with his "wooden ducky" is making me quake in my boots :-)

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made May 19 at 2015 9:46 AM

2015-05-19T09:46:23-04:00

Afghanistan is a country and culture that has been at war for hundreds of years what makes us think when we pulled out that it would end and be ok. Are our leaders really that gullible?

Response by SPC Nate Lamphier made May 19 at 2015 10:17 AM

2015-05-19T10:17:13-04:00

From my experience in Iraq....well, we were so restricted in what we could do it hampered our mission. Our ROE and "aggressiveness" were equivalent to a far talented team playing their starters for two minute, only to pull them when they got a double digit lead to put their bench in.

The Taliban are not idiots. They understand the rules that have been laid out by the powers that be and they are using them to their advantage.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made May 19 at 2015 10:28 AM

2015-05-19T10:28:42-04:00

Wait... That cant be right!

I thought victory was declared!

Response by SCPO David Lockwood made May 19 at 2015 10:39 AM

2015-05-19T10:39:22-04:00

They will always be a threat. We/they will have to maintain a constant watch on them to make sure they do not become major threat to where we/they can not handle.

Response by CPO Greg Frazho made May 20 at 2015 12:06 AM

2015-05-20T00:06:13-04:00

It's a sad state of affairs, Gunny, but there you have it. They don't call that place the Graveyard of Empires for nothing. It would seem, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that our policies and strategic ambitions have been mostly failures. But certainly not for lack of trying.