Re: Marines urinate on dead Taliban
This is far too complicated to answer simply and I don't need to throw much more at this, a few brief thoughts.
#1,, Our young men in uniform are remarkable for how they perform under impossible circumstances. The rules of engagement are borderline suicidal.
#2,, our political leaders are (IMO) mismanaging the situation. While it was far from clear cut or simple, it seems a center of gravity has been tipped, but what we have now is instability, and without clear (positive) influence that could turn out as bad as the former dictators or worse. A dangerous time for the region.
#3,, What we are seeing play out in Afghanistan is the result of telegraphing that we would withdraw no matter the situation on the ground. I have written at length about the conundrum of stabilizing Afghanistan (and Pakistan). Not enough wealth (to support) and tradition (to advise) rule of law, so in that vacuum we get what we get, Shariah and other brutal forms of local administration. Iraq has the wealth and tradition, but may need a little more time (we will see). The original plan in Afghanistan to use a relatively small force to stamp out the terrorist and mostly ignore the Taliban, seems a little wiser now. Nobody has controlled Afghanistan completely in a very long time and several have tried. Applying a successful Iraq tactic (surge) to Afghanistan, ignores the differences between the two nations.
#4 I expect many peace activists will mistake withdrawing troops, with promoting peace. I have fingers and toes crossed, hoping that Iraq can hold it together and not degenerate into civil war. I have my fingers crossed that Iran doesn nuke tel Aviv or close the straits of Hormuz, etc etc... War sucks, but sometimes the alternative sucks worse.
Sun Tzu was very wise on this topic thousands of years ago.. Let the generals wage warfare, and keep the politicians out of it. Generals want the quickest end to hostilities and lowest loss of life, politicians often interfere with the prosecution of even simple goals, by being political, as is their nature and end up with unintended consequences from the political behavior.
sorry /rant...
JR
PS: I was drafted and while I sure didn't like it at the time, I think the mechanism was relatively fair, and the negative feedback that gets applied across the entire population was useful to damp the urge to expand future conflicts casually. All sacrifice associated with service needs to be shared by us all. This will make us much more thoughtful about more adventure.
