Article

2008-07-06 Afghanistan

WaPo: Afghanistan is once again the new Vietnam

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by ryuge 2008-07-06 09:22|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 "...won't be effective unless the Taliban's own ability to escalate from Pakistan can be disrupted."
Wapo urges US to attack Pakistan to break escalation cycle. Sort of.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2008-07-06 10:40|| 2008-07-06 10:40|| Front Page Top

#2 Actually, Afghanistan always had a lot more bad potential than Iraq ever did.

That is, Pakistan has 51 MILLION males, 15-64 years old (CIA factbook), which means that they can keep up a steady stream of suicidal dumbasses almost without limit. Even if only .1% (point one percent) of these are willing to fight, this is over 5 MILLION men. .01% (point oh-one percent), still 5 HUNDRED THOUSAND.

Even if you take just the retards, mental cases, and utter losers, you still have a huge potential unconventional army that needs killing for Afghanistan to be stabilized.

And this is why Afghanistan is a serious problem. Since almost half its border is shared with Pakistan, thankfully much of that border is impassable. However, even to properly defend the passes between the two countries would take a huge number of soldiers.

So what do you do?

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-07-06 13:36|| 2008-07-06 13:36|| Front Page Top

#3 Well, you don't ignore decimals when dealing with percentages; .1 of 51 million is 5.1 million. but .1% is 51,000. etc.

But there are a lot more lunatics with nothing to lose in Pakistan than just about anywhere else in the world, so your point is correct.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-07-06 14:51|| 2008-07-06 14:51|| Front Page Top

#4 So what do you do?

H5N1 or the like.

And make sure the same population that thinks polio vaccine is an evil infidel Western conspiracy also treats any vaccine for it the same. Let nature take its own course.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-07-06 16:27|| 2008-07-06 16:27|| Front Page Top

#5 So what do you do?

You split Pakistan. Pakistan's very existence and much more important, the money and mpower of its elites depend on Pashtuns, Sinds or Balochs forgetting their national differences 'and where the money goes) because "we are all Muslims". Therefore Pakistan's elites have an interest in radicalization. Split Pakistan and that interest disappears.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-07-06 16:52|| 2008-07-06 16:52|| Front Page Top

#6 JFM's on the right track, but first we need to give Pakistan (and primarily the Pashtuns) a dose of what it means to be on our "dirty stick" list. Napalm and ARCLIGHT the valleys leading into Afghanistan until a Galopagos Tortoise wouldn't have a problem handling the grade, and a buzzard would have to pack a lunch to cross. Take out the major cities of Pakistan with old-fashioned bomber raids reminiscent of Germany and Japan during WWII. Rip their "military" apart so badly that a half-dozen Boy Scouts armed with blunderbusses could defeat them. Divide what's left between Afghanistan and India, and the deal's done. The world will be a better place.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-07-06 18:55|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-06 18:55|| Front Page Top

#7 Afghanistan is a conventional ethnic civil war, unlike Iraq. The West backed the Tadjiks, Uzbecks and others, against the Pashtuns because of the Osama/Taliban factor.

This means it is not amenable to the solutions used in Iraq and is in my view, unsolvable in the medium term. And in long term will be solved by one ethnic group comprehensively defeating the other at great human cost, or by some kind of partition. A taboo subject in our UN worshipping world.

After a reasonable notice period, we should walk away from Afghanistan and let them sort it out themselves.

Posted by phil_b 2008-07-06 19:35|| 2008-07-06 19:35|| Front Page Top

23:21 Anonymoose
23:08 Anonymoose
23:05 ed
23:05 JosephMendiola
23:02 JosephMendiola
22:57 Cheregum de Medici2624
22:54 JosephMendiola
22:51 JosephMendiola
22:43 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:39 Kirk
22:33 trailing wife
22:25 DarthVader
22:17 FOTSGreg
22:01 Old Patriot
21:46 JosephMendiola
21:41 JosephMendiola
21:28 JosephMendiola
20:59 Abdominal Snowman
20:54 JosephMendiola
20:50 Abdominal Snowman
20:45 JosephMendiola
20:25 JosephMendiola
20:18 JosephMendiola
20:05 Mizzou Mafia