Pakistan borders Afghanistan at the Durand Line, 1,398 miles, and runs from the Hindu Kush and the Pamir Mountains. I don't think you've been there or understand the terrain and topography to infer the U.S. and the other ISAF forces are capable of controlling this area purely with technology.
The vast majority of Taliban and Al-Qaeda stay as GUESTS of the Tribes in this area and it is an over 1000 year old custom for a Tribe to grant GUESTSHIP to anyone who asks and usually Weapons, Money or Gold are transferred. These Tribes have an ancient law that they PROTECT THE GUESTS of the Tribe at all costs. We did not understand this and after some time came to find out that another person or group could also ask to be GUESTS of a Tribe as long as they also put something of value in the pot and if they were granted Guestship one guest could not attack another guest....UNLESS....a BLOOD FEUD was declared. Now as there is NOT a lot of options for entertainment in such a place a Tribal Leader will allow such a Blood Feud to take place which usually involves ONE ON ONE COMBAT using a KNIFE. If one of the two parties attempts to flee before the Blood Feud is to occur the Tribe will track them down and kill that fleeing party sometimes if captured they will be tortured to death. I know more about this area that you could possibly realize and I have posted IN DEPTH about it on another topic and you can look this up in my Posting History. No member of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda wants any part of being in a one on one knife fight with any member of My Team. AboveAlpha
I don't think reading Tom Clancy novels constitutes an all-encompassing knowledge. I will fully admit, I don't have a solution...I was in logistical support...nor do I care to get into specifics on an open channel. However, from what I have read on the topic, from those who do offer solutions...extensive bombing campaigns over such a wide and desolate area is the equivalent to a needle and a haystack. Human intelligence is what got Bin Laden..and the CIA drone campaign is largely based on human intelligence. In order to garner human intelligence you have to appeal to a few of the bad guys to snitch. Overwhelming force will go nowhere in terms of garnering human intelligence...the U.S. will appear as brutish thugs annihilating anything that moves...perhaps a goat herder interested in nothing more than eeking out a basic living in an unforgiving landscape will be targeted as an insurgent... Word gets around...and human intel will be as dry as a popcorn fart. You can sit and there and type up a bunch of vague references, about you know so and so, and work with so and so... but it's all unsubstantiated...pixels of text. Read unclassified intelligence reports...there's plenty of information out there..and none, that I'm aware of anyway, purport that overwhelming force will actually win the war. Provide a source, I'll consider the opinion.
I have detailed this out in extensive details and I really don't feel like doing it again. I will attempt to locate where I posted this. I am searching....as I detailed the area...the Tribal Culture and I even referenced actual known data. Give me a few. AboveAlpha
LINK....http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=338048&page=38&p=1063493491#post1063493491 Post #376. More to come. AboveAlpha
LINK...http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=338048&page=35 Post #350. There is a lot more but this is enough for now. AboveAlpha
A fairly recent article published June, 2013 General David Petraeus: We must be coldly realistic over the use of force Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...e-coldly-realistic-over-the-use-of-force.html While admittedly, vacuous in terms of defining an actual strategy, I fail to coincide Gen. Petraeus words with promoting overwhelming force in the cases of these small wars.
At least you have some sense in your head. God forbid, Alpha ever makes it to the White House!! I have wondered all these years, WHY are you, the almighty Americans, THE World-Super-Power, fighting a handful of poor Afghans? Why not pick on someone more your size, like the Russian Bear or the Chinese Dragon? Scared, eh? Just as a bully in a schoolyard... harassing the little and weaker ones. Or do you have your eye on this? Mineral-Rich Afghanistan a Valuable Corporate Property Afghanistan has an extraordinary abundance of rare and strategic minerals-now all within easy reach of the global planners who installed a puppet government that they both control and protect. The country's abundance of strategic minerals has the potential to greatly enrich the Afghans-if the wealth of the nation is not plundered. http://100777.com/node/239
We tried the village by village and tribe by tribe thing and because they were in Waziristan for the Winter it would take FOREVER AND A DAY....TO GET THIS DONE THE RIGHT WAY. But...since we can target them IN MASS....and all at the same time using IR-Seeking Munitions....we should DO IT! AboveAlpha - - - Updated - - - I do NOT make policy. My JOB is to SOLVE PROBLEMS....and do so in a manner that prevents IDIOT POLITICIANS AND GENERALS from getting too many people killed. WAR...is WAR....and the U.S. Military should NEVER be used as a Police Force. AboveAlpha
If overwhelming force could sustain a peace, I see no reason not to incorporate it...in many situations, it's applicable... however not in this case. More often times, we leave a place more broken and destabilized than when we entered it. Clearly the Powell doctrine is not adaptable to all situations.
I know, it is hard to swallow one's own "imperfections"!! As an outsider I see clearer than you standing in the middle of the forest.
Unless you have personally BEEN THERE and experienced what is going on....you will NEVER understand. We knew from history that every invading army that went into Afghanistan in large numbers would just present a large number of targets for the now existing Taliban and Al-Qaeda. So...at first we did it right...we sent in small numbers of Special Forces...CIA Teams and SPECIALIST TEAMS...like mine....and with the help of Air Power a few hundred of us were able to kill THOUSANDS of the Enemy. THEN....some Politicians decided to start NATION BUILDING!! IDIOCY!!! You see nothing from the outside. AboveAlpha
This is simply a case where at a specific time we can actually target and KILL close to 98% of all Enemy Forces using High Tech. Weapons. It is not like using a 100 Ton Block to kill an ant. It is using 1000's of pebbles to strike and kill every ant that has left the colony. IT SHOULD BE DONE. AboveAlpha
War is war, I understand that. Using drones and killing innocent people, is that still war? In Afghanistan there are no opponents, except some religious fanatics. America has religious fanatics, too. Why not kill your own first and then go out into the world and kill the others? I'm being a little ridiculous, but I want to drive a point home... why fight? Why do you think so many Christians now get killed in the Middle Eastern countries? You Americans have made all of us Westerners a target for revenge through your stupid war on terror. There was no terror until you decided there was. You invented and fabricated it!
But why can you not simply stop and go home? It's so easy! Pay them for the damage you did and then leave it alone, mind your own business.
No terror? I think there are a lot of families of dead people from NYC and Washington who would disagree. Again...I do not make policy. My...JOB....is to SOLVE PROBLEMS....and keep casualties as low as possible. AboveAlpha
Look....I am aware because you really don't understand that you are saying some things that you have absolutely no idea about what it is you are talking about....you view things a certain way. But you should take care how you say certain things around certain people....as basically I know and have worked with some people who if you had said to them what this post of yours said to me....you would not be waking up the next morning. AboveAlpha
So, you believe 9/11 was not an inside job? Don't you read what so many experts say about that? If you believe the official version, then I can see, as you earlier stated, that you want to KILL the Afghans, although they had nothing to do with it. Have you undergone mind programming? If you could have your way and go and eliminate your enemy in Afghanistan, what would come next? P.S. I view things differently, because I am a normal, peaceful citizen and have not been brainwashed yet.
True. I'm not a military person, nor do I live in your country. But I do read things on the internet and listen to the news. Have you lost your mind? WHO would want to kill me? I have until now believed the United States is the one free country that allows free speech. Since when did that got changed?
I am not even going to bother arguing your idiocy posted here. I have many Canadian Relatives and I am just happy they are not so stupid as to think as you do. It is just so easy for you being so safe and sound at home with all the rights and freedoms in the world to do and say what you want never having to get off your ass to actually PROTECT those rights and freedoms. Because I know you simply not educated to the reality that the world is a VERY dangerous place because you are so safe and have never experienced what it is to be in grave mortal danger I don't take the idiotic and insensitive things you say personally....but as I have once told you before....you should be careful saying such things. Basically I am a nice guy but you have NO IDEA just who and what I am and what I am capable of....and there are a few others like me who from time to time roam the Internet although such people are few in number....an internet Political Forum IS one of the places you would meet such people. Now...you have NOTHING to fear as far as me....but if you were to say some of the things you have to such people who have lost very close friends or perhaps lost family members as another Team I know had two brothers and because of some idiocy and plan proposed by a Politician....one of the brothers was killed because he was doing something somewhere HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN DOING OR BEEN AT SUCH A LOCATION. Now....I KNOW the surviving brother sometimes posts on a Political Forum....and he has become unstable as he and his brother were BEYOND CLOSE....and I had to turn down his request to join up with my Team and since I am..."CIVILIAN"....and not Military....I do not take orders and I decide exactly who will be a member of my Team even though the members are U.S. Military and several times I had Canadian Military Team Members. This Brother took it hard I refused him and he is currently inactive due to Mental Health concerns. BUT....if you had said to HIM what you had posted to me....a person like this Brother is BEYOND CAPABLE, BEYOND WELL TRAINED, BEYOND DISCIPLINED.....and now add to that...MENTALLY UNSTABLE. So...if this Brother decided what you posted to him was intolerable....there is NOTHING you could do to prevent anything he decided to plan and enact such an action for target acquisition and rendition. You could go to bed one night and wake up after being drugged strapped down naked to a TILT BOARD while some MASKED AND ANGRY FORMER SPECIAL OPERATIONS MEMBER WORKED ON YOU. If you think this is some kind of a JOKE or if you think I am just posting this to scare you...THINK AGAIN!! My advice is this....NO PERSON even this Brother....unstable or not....would have any reason to be angry or do this to you just because you were exercising Freedom of Speech....and no one has a problem with anyone else just expressing their opinion or concepts. But what people HAVE A PROBLEM WITH....is when someone PURPOSELY GOES OUT OF THEIR WAY TO DISHONOR THE MEMORY OF A LOVED ONE....and exactly how a possible unbalanced individual judges just what constituted DISHONORING THEIR LOVED ONES MEMORY....is only known to that person. So my advice is....EXPRESS YOUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS....but take into consideration the feelings of people who have GIVEN ALMOST EVERYTHING....to help allow you to KEEP THOSE FREEDOMS. You have NO IDEA....just how capable some people are. AboveAlpha
Just to let you know...my previous post was meant TO HELP YOU. It was not meant to hurt you or scare you. Seriously...such people like I am describing are VERY REAL. And forums like this one are where you will run into them. AboveAlpha
Thanks for the advice. You sure scare me. I realize this is a military thread, although, I was the one who started it. It is better I stay out of it before I drive some people insane with my stupidity. You may continue and finish up.
I am glad you understand I am just trying to help you. Don't allow my post to limit expressing yourself and your freedoms....but PLEASE....try to be sensitive to some...as they deserve sensitivity and compassion and it is the LEAST thing anyone can do for them. AboveAlpha
