The strategy that fails in Iraq is not winning in Afghanistan either and like in Iraq, there is only one idea on the table how to put lipstick to the pig of defeat.
Officials: Afghanistan Needs More Troops
More troops and sophisticated equipment are needed to bolster Afghanistan’s security forces, but it is not clear whether more U.S. troops will be deployed there, U.S. and Afghan defense officials said Tuesday.
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U.S. military leaders have been pushing NATO members to meet their commitments and provide more troops in Afghanistan.
There are some 30,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan including 10,000 U.S. troops plus 12,000 U.S. troops not under NATO command.
Pressure for more troops is felt in Germany. The Germans have 2,900 troops in North Afghanistan and are providing security (for themselves) and lots of police training for Afghan policemen in the Northern Provinces. So far they have avoided any battles. (There are also some 100 German special forces fighting in the South, but nobody talks about these.)
Chancellor Merkel so far withstood the pressure:
The German mandate as agreed by parliament stipulates that its troops be stationed in the north and help out in the south only on an ad-hoc emergency basis.
"The German army will continue to assume its responsibilities under its current mandate, but I can envision no additional military responsibilities that go beyond the current mandate and I’d like to make that clear right here," Merkel said in a speech to parliament.
The German public is against using any troops in peacemaking operations and a locally prominent lawsuit is threatening to stop Merkel’s strategy of slowly turning the German army into empire mercenaries.
The Pashtun in Afghanistan and Pakistan tribes hold close to their Pashtunwali tribal code and will never allow others to have more than a formal hold over them. If you kill some of them, they will take revenche.
That is why U.S. and NATO tactics like these will only have negative results.
In Afghanistan Nov. 20, U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers provided close-air support for International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Kandahar. The F/A-18s expended a guided bomb unit-12 and cannon rounds on enemy positions.
"Taliban extremists" are tribal Pashtun people with a certain religious based agenda. The Western establishment, media, politicians and military, seem not to understand that differenciation. The primary Pashtun loyalty has never been the religion (there are Shia, Sunni and a few Jewish Pashtun) but their tribal code. You can not bomb that away.
That code did beat Alexander the Great, the British imperial army, the Sowjets and it will beat George the Minor too.