Top Military Officer Urges Major Change in Afghanistan Strategy

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11 September 2008

During the Spring of 2006, it was painfully obvious that Afghanistan was spiraling into a black hole. I couldn't have written it more clearly at that time. Many readers vowed never to read this site again. Yet today, on this 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the situation is immeasurably worse. At the going rate, we will lose the war in Afghanistan.

Michael

Top Military Officer Urges Major Change in Afghanistan Strategy

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 11, 2008

The nation's top military officer issued a blunt assessment yesterday of the war in Afghanistan and called for an overhaul in U.S. strategy there, warning that thousands more U.S. troops as well as greater U.S. military involvement across the border in Pakistan's tribal areas are needed to battle an intensifying insurgency.
"I am not convinced that we're winning it in Afghanistan," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. But, ... Click here for the rest of the story.

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Comments

0 # Jim Ritchie, former Army Captain Vietnam 69-70 2008-09-11 12:47

Dear Michael: I have followed your combat reporting for the last three years through TownHall's commentators, ie Hewitt, Prager, Gallagher etc, and am grateful that your "voice" exists for a truthful honest realistic account of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan !! I hung signs and wrote Letters to Editor and Congressmen in '79-'80 against The Soviet Invasion. Thus, I'm deeply and profoundly but productively angry at the thought that "my" Pres. Bush Admin. could perform so abysmally for the Last Six Years !!! What is "The True Back-Story On Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld" ?? My question to you is, of course, rhetorical because they not you are responsible. I'm conservative and vote Republican BUT as a former Army officer with 3 Bronze Star Medals ( which I did not throw away), I WANT ALL THE FAULTS REPORTED AND DESCRIBED, WITH MOTIVES ANALYZED. What have we not done in Afghanistan which we could have done and should have done ?? I wish you would "broadcast", not a book on this, but a powerful Article for issuance and Wide-Distribution within the next ten (10) days. The Blame must be laid at the feet of Those Who Have Been Responsible and Whose Duty It Has Been to "rid Afghanistan of The Taliban Terrorists". Please consiider these expressions of my support and encouragement for your extraordinary Work, Yours In Christ and For America, Jim Ritchie (James B.) of Roswell, Georgia.

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0 # Stepperg 2008-09-15 08:58

Thank you Michael. I know I'm getting the truth when it comes from you. Bless the troops and God keep them.

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0 # Skysoldier LRS 101st 2008-09-19 08:40

A-stan is a place where we can lose. How can the CINC back a guy [Musharraff] who is playing both sides of the fence? US taxpayers got fleeced for $10 BILLION dollars, and since May the number of camps has grown to over 160. From 30 to OVER 160. The whole truth is NOT being told. The FC in P-stan often fire on us, along with ther T-ban buddies. When will we start using the heavy stuff to obliterate the camps, compounds, and madrosses? The P-stani's whine and moan about thier "sovereignty", while ceding large swaths of thier territorry to our enemies. Legally, Islamabad is NOT the gov. that rules the tribal areas, the T-ban is the gov. I can see a day when US warplanes blast P-stani aircraft outta the sky. They have been firing on us, but now its the P-stani army too. There is no way an insurgency can survive if it has no "safe haven"...air strikes would break thier backs, followed up by choppers carrying troops to eliminate those who survived the bombs. There's been a surge of strikes by small teams taking out HVT's, and I believe the forming of task forces will be essential to killing/capturing T-ban/AQ leaders. Enough of P-stans "circle talk" and threats. We are gonna see just how tough they really are.

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0 # Skysoldier LRS 101st 2008-09-20 09:31

Capt. Ritchie I commend you and thank you for your service. If it were not for guys of your ilk, these questions may never get asked. The blame starts at the top, and trickles all the way down, VP, Sec-Def, and guys like Wolfowicz, Karl Rove...you get the picture. I respect the office of CINC, but such bad judgement has caused us to take our eye off the REAL mission. Destroying the T-ban/AQ...in 2003 resources were diverted from A-stan to Iraq. The P-stani's gladly accepted our $10 BILLION, but were playing both sides. Backing Mush. was a bad play, and I bet he's laughing all the way to the bank. The strikes inside the tribal areas are long overdue, and I credit Sec-Def Gates and Admiral Mullen for spelling it out for Gen. Kayani. As you know, ROE's go both ways, and if PAK forces fire on US forces, we will return fire, 10 fold. The people you mentioned in your post, in my view, should be charged with DERELICTION of DUTY. False intel reports, forged documents. Let us not forget that genius George Tenet, who bended and lied about intel concerning Iraqi WMD's. He conviently forgets things when he has to. JAIL. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Wolfowicz, Tenet...and Gen. Myers?? He was a yes man more concerned about his job than the lives of US troops. Look there Capt. Richie, there lies your answer.

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