“UK ex-commander says Afghanistan mission ‘worthless’" so why is the US sending more troops?

[jody]

UK ex-commander says Afghanistan mission "worthless"

Ex-SAS commander Maj. Sebastian Morley, who resigned last year in protest at the handling of the conflict, said operations were being undermined by a lack of troops and resources.

"I don't think we have even scratched the surface as far as the conflict goes," he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview published on Saturday, his first since stepping down.

"I think the level of casualties and attrition is only set to rise. This is the equivalent to the start of the Vietnam conflict, there is much more to come," he said.

"We hold tiny areas of ground in Helmand and we are kidding ourselves if we think our influence goes beyond 500 metres of our security bases," Morley said.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"I had to resign. I had warned (the MoD) time and time again that there were going to be needless deaths if we were not given the right equipment, and they ignored this advice. There is blood on their hands," he said.

[bigtree]

1. neo-lib type opposition

. . . he'd be fine with it if they had more "troops and resources"

[jody]

3. More "troops and resources" may not be enough. Others have tried and failed:

[bigtree]

4. worse

they are ultimately counterproductive and work to perpetuate the resistant violence.

[jody]

6. "The Pashtun time bomb" is good background on the problem.

The Pashtun time bomb

[Cleita]

2. I hope that they are sincere about trying diplomacy as well. I hope Hillary can

figure out what it would take to leave Afghanistan and insure that they don't harbor any more terrorists in their country. Going after the Taliban is like going after the Viet Cong. It will get us nowhere. I think we need to do a Marshall type plan to help them rebuild their country with a few caveats like insisting on women's rights in exchange for what we give them.

[bigtree]

5. They'll need other nations to provide the security to support those diplomatic efforts

And it's not like those efforts aren't going on right now. They have been for years in Afghanistan.

The problem is that our grudging military mission against 'al-Qaeda' and the 'Taliban' has compelled growing numbers to advantage themselves of whatever resistance to the U.S. and NATO that they terrorist organizations offer and have created a counterproductive atmosphere for the original military mission against the fugitive 9-11 suspects to succeed. There's no sign that either side is backing away and we're left with this swelling stalemate.