I am not saying, "I told you so," to anyone. However, the problem outlined by CBS News in the report (above) is indicative of the inevitable results we will see from US intervention in Afghanistan. And it should give us pause when we decide to ask people to risk their lives in causes that will only result in pyhrric victories. (see Roman Army vs King Phyrrus of Epirus - Asculum 279BC)
The quote that is attributed to King Phyrrus by Plutarch goes something like this, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."
The Greeks under Alexander, the British in successive Afghan Wars and more recently, the Soviet Union, occupied Afghanistan, and in each successive the occupiers found what we in our hubris, failed to learn. You can hold the place with enough soldiers and treasure - but when you leave, the place resorts to its previous condition.
4 comments:
There wasn't/isn't anybody in our military that expected anything different? Is there?
Race - Politicians felt that inside of every Afghan, there was an American screaming to get out. Missionaries felt that if you provided soap, Bibles and toothpaste that there would be a different outcome. "Progressives" believed that we could change the world. The problem is that the world doesn't want to change...
They are not Americans or westerners in any way. Sad to risk our men for temporary control of a few buildings.
"They're really just like us," is a flawed thought process we run into time and time again. But we never learn. As Forest said, "Stupid is as stupid does."
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