Meanwhile In Afghanistan

[Roman Alymov]

Russian take from Afghanistan war learnings

[beans4]

More success in Afghanistan:

 

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/17/afghan-troops-go-missing-after-fleeing-battle-taliban.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1552828939

[Roman Alymov]

Not exactly "meanwhile", but some things are not changing

[Josh]

Nerve agent LD50 varies with concentration, exposure time, and vector. It takes ten times the exposure to get a lethal dose via skin vs inhaling. But it takes ten times the exposure to inhale a lethal dose compared to absorption through the eyes.

[Stuart Galbraith]

But is it available gift wrapped?

[Dark_Falcon]

But is it available gift wrapped?

 

Only at the Internet Research Agency gift shop in St. Petersburg.

[Roman Alymov]

[Paul G.]

Son of Massachusetts.

Son of California.

Sons of America.

 

🇺🇸 Master Sgt. Luis F. Deleon-Figueroa, 31, Chicopee, MA

 

🇺🇸 Master Sgt. Jose J. Gonzalez, 35, La Puente, CA

 

We say your names.

We will remember you.

 

#HonorThem

[JasonJ]

Physician, Tetsu Nakamura, gunned down along with 5 other Afghans. He's been in Afghanistan doing the humanitarian work since 2008.

 

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A shooting ambush in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed a Japanese physician and aid worker widely respected and beloved in the war-scarred nation, triggering an outpouring of grief among the people whose lives he helped change for the better.

 

The leaders of Japan and Afghanistan expressed their condemnations of the attack that took the life of Tetsu Nakamura, and also killed five Afghans, including the doctor's bodyguards, the driver and a passenger, hospital spokesman Gulzada Sanger said.

 

Nakamura, 73, had worked in the eastern Nangarhar province for over a decade, taking the lead in water projects in rural areas, which earned him the nickname ''Uncle Murad'' for his services to the people. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani awarded him honorary Afghan citizenship in April.

 

Nakamura died of his wounds shortly after gunmen opened fire on his car on Wednesday morning on a road in Nangarhar. According to the provincial governor's spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, Nakamura was heading to the provincial capital, Jalalabad, when the attack took place.

 

He was critically wounded and underwent surgery at a local hospital but died shortly after, while being airlifted to the Bagram airfield hospital in the capital, Kabul, said Sanger.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed shock at the brutal killing.

 

"As a doctor, Mr. Nakamura made great contributions in areas of medical care in Afghanistan," Abe told reporters in Tokyo, stressing that Nakamura risked his life daily "in a dangerous and intense region."

 

Nakamura had headed the Japanese charity, Peace Medical Service, in Nangarhar since 2008. He came to Afghanistan after a Japanese colleague, Kazuya Ito, was abducted and killed.

 

Nakamura was credited with changing a vast desert stretch in Nangarhar known as Gamber to lush forests and productive wheat farmlands.

 

President Ghani's spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, condemned the killing, calling it a "heinous act and a cowardly attack on one of Afghanistan's greatest friends."

 

"Dr. Nakamura dedicated all his life to change the lives of Afghans, worked on water management, dams and improvement of traditional agriculture in Afghanistan," Sediqqi added.

 

Ghani expressed his condolences in a telephone conversation with Japanese Ambassador Mistuji Suzuka in Kabul and instructed authorities to find and punish the perpetrators behind the attack.

 

The Nangarhar governor, Shah Mahmood Meyakhail, expressed his condolences, saying that the people of the province were all saddened and remain thankful for the services the Japanese physician provided for over a decade.

 

Hundreds of Afghans posted photographs of Nakamura on their social media pages, condemning the killing and underscoring how respected the Japanese physician was.

 

In Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, where the charity is based, the organization's spokesman Mitsuji Fukumoto lauded Nakamura's work.

 

"I still can't believe it. This is unbearable," Fukumoto said of Nakamura. "He had won the people's trust by bringing not weapons but water through irrigation."

 

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the second in as many weeks targeting aid workers in Afghanistan.

 

Nangarhar police said they were searching for the attackers, who fled the scene, and that an investigation was underway.

 

In late November, an American working for the United Nations mission in Afghanistan was killed and five Afghans, including two staff members of the mission, were wounded when a grenade hit a U.N. vehicle in Kabul.

 

The Taliban, who along with the Islamic State group, operate across the province, denied involvement in Wednesday's attack.

 

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the insurgent group "has no connection" to Wednesday's shooting and does not consider the Japanese charity a target in the holy war the Taliban are waging to create an Islamic emirate.

 

The Taliban control or hold sway over nearly half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target Afghan forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.

 

Before coming to Afghanistan, Nakamura worked in Pakistan where he treated Afghan refugees and also those with leprosy. But Afghanistan captured his heart.

 

"Whenever you go to a farm or small town, there is always life there unchanged from the past," he wrote. "Our efforts co-exist with the tears and laughter of the people there."

 

"I hope with the bottom of my heart that we can become those who can gather the conscience of all people, overcoming differences of views, and become a glacier, setting our eyes on those streams that noisily appear and then disappear on the surface of our planet, overcoming challenges with conviction to build something that is enduring," Nakamura said.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20191204/p2g/00m/0na/071000c

Edited December 4, 2019 by JasonJ

[Brian Kennedy]

Well, then. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/

[DKTanker]

Deep State has some 'splaining to do. And yes, the Deep State. If we've learned nothing else during the three year nightmare that is the deep state war on Trump, we have learned that NOTHING is done without their approval and guidance.

[Brian Kennedy]

Well, it was an elected Republican president and his hand-picked cabinet (maybe they were Deep State? Was Deep State around back then?) who framed the Afghan war as an attempt to make Afghanistan be a nice place instead of just a punitive raid against Al Qaeda, and the media (are they Deep State? I hear that sometimes, not sure) who obtained the documents and published them, which frankly make the Obama administration look almost as bad as Bush's with regards to the whole thing (I'm discounting Trump out of charity but it's not like he's done very much to get us out).

 

Or could it be, gasp, the military who has a sh*t-ton of blame for this (are they Deep State? Sometimes they get that too, but only the generals and stuff).

Edited December 11, 2019 by Brian Kennedy

[Brian Kennedy]

But back to the real world, I really do think it shows that that Afghanistan is yet another example of how U.S. counter-insurgency doctrine is completely flawed. There are some corner-cases like Malaysia, the FARC, etc., but by and large, the presence of a large insurgency that the native government is unable to defeat indicates that the government (which almost always outnumbers and is better-funded than the insurgency) is incompetent and unpopular, and the only theoretical solution is to fix the government, which is basically impossible.

[Calvinb1nav]

A prime example of the military's culture of can-do, failure-is-not-an-option biting us squarely in the ass...

 

 

As an aside, a fellow alum was a Provincial Reconstruction Team commander in Afghanistan about 4-5 years, so about 14-15 years into the war. He takes his team into a valley in western Afghanistan near the Iranian border. The locals thought he and his folks were Russians. Never heard of 9-11 and didn't know there were any Americans in the country. This is 14-15 years after we arrived there!

Edited December 11, 2019 by Calvinb1nav

[JasonJ]

I guess they were illiterate or had no radio. And many small tribal groups keeps word from spreading around and to them.

[DKTanker]

A prime example of the military's culture of can-do, failure-is-not-an-option biting us squarely in the ass...

 

State Department was equally deceptive.

[Nobu]

The loss of face inherent to not declaring progress in Afghanistan may be a denominator shared by the agencies responsible for it.

[Stuart Galbraith]

There is a very good case for saying the reasons for stagnation in Afghanistan are purely political, and very little to do with the military. Lets see.

 

2001. A stunning victory in Afghanistan. A commitment to stay, a drawndown in resources to commit to Iraq, followed by Taliban resurgence.

2006 A ramping up of resources in Afghanistan, progress is slowly made, followed by indifference and stagnation.

2008 A new president, a quick ramp up in resources to ensure victory, then an even quicker drawdown, followed by stagnation and Taliban progress.

2017 A new President, promises to win in Afghanistan, ramping up of resources, followed by cold feet, a promise to withdraw and a commitment to talks with the Taliban.

 

There is a pattern there, and its an inability to find a workable strategy, stick with it, and resource it. Ill give credit to the Pentagon in the Vietnam war, they only ramped up and drew down once. In Afghanistan its been several times. And people want to hang this albatross around the neck of the military? They have surely made mistakes, but if they dont have the troops and resources to do the job that politicians after all dumped on them, what do people expect? They are generals, not fucking magicians.

 

I believe Afghanistan is still winnable. But we are now in essence in the post Tet phase, and nobody is interested anymore, because 911 is a long time ago. So we will withdraw, and probably the whole godawful mess will start again. In the modern era, you absolutely cannot leave failed states to themselves. Its proven lethal, whether its Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Beirut, Syria or Afghanistan. But do we heed the message? No.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith

[JWB]

 

A prime example of the military's culture of can-do, failure-is-not-an-option biting us squarely in the ass...

 

State Department was equally deceptive.

 

Foggy Bottom has little role to play so they must make things up in order to look important.

[JWB]

There is a very good case for saying the reasons for stagnation in Afghanistan are purely political, and very little to do with the military. Lets see.

 

I disagree sort of. The generals in the USA and USMC don't believe in nor do they understand defensive warfare which is what VN was and A-stan is. The result being failures to disrupt and interdict enemy movements across the respective borders. Instead the command went pursuing "pacification". In both wars such follies not only were useless but in some cases made things worse.

 

You are right in one sense. The US political system is rarely capable of putting an effective C-in-C in the White House.

[Daan]

The failure in Afghanistan was also produced by the incompetence of the participating military forces. On the British deployment(s) to Helmand (and Basra) the academic David Ucko wrote a highly enlightening and pitiless analysis in his book: "Counterinsurgency in Crisis: Britain and the Challenges of Modern Warfare". Second examples of this book are cheap right now, I can really recommend it. Ucko is a fair and perceptive writer.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Daan

[Calvinb1nav]

 

A prime example of the military's culture of can-do, failure-is-not-an-option biting us squarely in the ass...

 

State Department was equally deceptive.

 

The State Department is completely, utterly broken and contributes little to the national welfare compared to the resources spent on them. Virtually every treaty and trade agreement we've negotiated over the past 30-40 years has been heavily slanted against us.

[Panzermann]

Well, then. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/

 

they have also made a video:

 

 

 

Deep State has some 'splaining to do. And yes, the Deep State. If we've learned nothing else during the three year nightmare that is the deep state war on Trump, we have learned that NOTHING is done without their approval and guidance.

 

 

Well, it really is not new that there is an entrenched bureaucracy and the bureaucrats doing their own thing often. Whose idea was it to go into AFG? Not for catching bin Ladin, that has been handled pretty amateurish.

 

 

Then the engagement in the theatre like a sinus curve up and down not really having an idea. Well it keeps the Chinese and Russians out of Afghanistan. But not really as chinese firms are investing in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

 

 

And a tangent, the WaPo is owned by Bezos and Amazon got kicked out of the Pentagon cloud infrastructure deal. Hmmmmm. In case Amazon wins another big contract with the Pentagon is the Wapo to follow up on this story or are they going to conveniently forget it then?

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

There is a very good case for saying the reasons for stagnation in Afghanistan are purely political, and very little to do with the military. Lets see.

 

I disagree sort of. The generals in the USA and USMC don't believe in nor do they understand defensive warfare which is what VN was and A-stan is. The result being failures to disrupt and interdict enemy movements across the respective borders. Instead the command went pursuing "pacification". In both wars such follies not only were useless but in some cases made things worse.

 

You are right in one sense. The US political system is rarely capable of putting an effective C-in-C in the White House.

 

 

They got it right, belatedly admittedly, in Iraq. And Id argue the threat they had to face in Iraq was probably worse than Afghanistan. In Afghanistan the threat is monopolar, large and skilled to be sure, but just one type of threat. In Iraq everyone whom wanted to be anyone had a militia. I suppose against that, we can say Petreus leveraged viable allies among the same population. In Afghanistan I get the impression everyone is waiting to see who wins before joining the winning side.

 

Occasionally you have circumstances when its necessary to have a President who can override the corporate advice of the Joint Chiefs, such as Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. But Ill be honest, I cant think of a single occasion since then when a President has rejected advice of the Joint Chiefs and succeeded as a result. They have been doing it all through the Afghan war. I really cant blame the generals when nobody in the White House seems focused on the problem or listening to advice.

 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith

[Stuart Galbraith]

The failure in Afghanistan was also produced by the incompetence of the participating military forces. On the British deployment(s) to Helmand (and Basra) the academic David Ucko wrote a highly enlightening and pitiless analysis in his book: "Counterinsurgency in Crisis: Britain and the Challenges of Modern Warfare". Second examples of this book are cheap right now, I can really recommend it. Ucko is a fair and perceptive writer.

Because we made the same mistakes. We have a whole history of counterinsurgency warfare, from Kenya, to Malaya, failures like Aden, to fall back on. We had and understood a system that, by and large, usually worked. And we threw it all away because we became a cog in the US military machine that was itself under resourced for the job it had to do, just as our military was under resourced in the job it had to do.

 

In ages past, we had statesmen that had been in the military, and had a perspective of how the military worked. They might not agree, but they could speak the same language. Today, we have a class of politicians that is almost entirely devoid of military service. They dont understand the arguments, they dont understand the requirements, and they have no understanding of military strategy. They dont really understand much other than setting the ground to remain in office another 4 or 5 years.

 

This is one of those occasions when I do have a fleeting sympathy for Jack D Ripper. Parody or not, his comments are descriptive of the world in which we now live, and its why we keep going wrong when we get involved in operations of this kind.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith