THE ERA OF TRUMP

[Viktorthepirate]

The Afghans are playing an infinite game. Ours is finite.

I don't see how we win within the rule set that we have defined for ourselves.

Suppose we had our trillion dollars back that this war will cost us? Would have it been in our interest to apply those resources another way?

[Okeefenokee]

The mainstream left is embracing Antifa. No more room to argue it's just a fringe issue anymore.

Keep your powder dry.

[Smitty-48]

The Afghans are playing an infinite game. Ours is finite.

I don't see how we win within the rule set that we have defined for ourselves.

Suppose we had our trillion dollars back that this war will cost us? Would have it been in our interest to apply those resources another way?

But King Dollah doesn't actually need a decisive victory in Afghanistan, as DBTrek has pointed out, it's more like containment, just keeping it tamped down so it doesn't fall under the total control of terrorist elements to operate there with impunity, and King Dollah doesn't actually have to expend more than a tiny fraction of his resources to keep it in check, and so while King Dollah may not be able to keep this up for eternity, he can keep it up for a long time, generations in fact, probably to the point where the Taliban are actually moot.

It's like Colombia, when King Dollah first went in there, it was total chaos, but forty years later, King Dollah is still running things, but them FARC capitulated, because after forty years, they had become irrelevant.

[Viktorthepirate]

The Afghans are playing an infinite game. Ours is finite.

I don't see how we win within the rule set that we have defined for ourselves.

Suppose we had our trillion dollars back that this war will cost us? Would have it been in our interest to apply those resources another way?

But King Dollah doesn't actually need a decisive victory in Afghanistan, as DBTrek has pointed out, it's more like containment, just keeping it tamped down so it doesn't fall under the total control of terrorist elements to operate there with impunity, and King Dollah doesn't actually have to expend more than a tiny fraction of his resources to keep it in check, and so while King Dollah may not be able to keep this up for eternity, he can keep it up for a long time, generations in fact, probably to the point where the Taliban are actually moot.

It's like Colombia, when King Dollah first went in there, it was total chaos, but forty years later, King Dollah is still running things, but them FARC capitulated, because after forty years, they had become irrelevant.

True.

But I don't like the idea of what fighting "terrorism" at the tempo we have for 40 years will do to us.

[Smitty-48]

True.

But I don't like the idea of what fighting "terrorism" at the tempo we have for 40 years will do to us.

Well I know the liberals see him as a satanic villain, but I think Erik Prince has the right idea, just contract it out, let contractors take over, the small footprint contractor model, no Big Army, no Big HQ, contrary to the liberal media narrative, the contractors cause less shit, and they use more locals, and they focus on development and local security rather than decisive action and kicking in doors, and so not only are they better at it, they're expontentially cheaper in relative terms to the Pentagon. Not a panacea, but still better than Big Army, Big Army just stirs up shit and gets itself into trouble.

[Smitty-48]

I have a buddy who was Canadian military, and he went back to Afghanistan to be a contractor, and he was working with Americans, they were all ex-Green Berets, and they way they put it, was that they joined the SF to be SF, but the Pentagon never used them as SF, they just got used as door kickers mostly, direct action, like Rangers basically, and the only way they actually got to be Green Berets as SF was intended, was to get out of Big Army and then come back as contractors and run it themselves.

The only way they could employ the training that they recieved at the Q course, was to take their skills to the private sector, small footprint, no Big Army at all. Apparently they just live out there with the tribes, under the locals protection, they don't hang out in FOBs, they don't wear body armor, they don't attract attention and they don't piss people off, and this is ultimately much safer for them and they get more done.

All you're really doing is aid and development and assisting the locals to defend themselves, and not only do you not need the Pentagon for that, the Pentagon actually sucks at that.

Bear in mind tho, as an entrenched interest, the Pentagon will resist this mightily, and they will go to the liberal media and try to pump the narrative of "Big Army good, Contractors bad!", and they have been, and with Trump going back to Big Army it seems, that has obviously worked.

Whenever contractors gets brought up, the liberal media just screeches "Nisour Square! Nisour Square! Nisour Square!" as if that is the monolithic and entire story of contractors, but that's just how the Pentagon likes it, particularly the Army, which is desperate to get as many Army boots in the field as they can to justify their budgets.

[Ex-California]

Just wait until Erik Prince crosses the Potomac with his own army....

[Smitty-48]

Liberals hate the private sector, they'll all be warmongering America into a quagmire, so long as it protects the public sector interests, and prolly would take a revolutionary war to overthrow them in the end.

[Smitty-48]

I mean, imagine if America had just used contractors in Vietnam? No William Westmoreland Big Army, no Operation Rolling Thunder, just Green Beret small footprint? Even if you lost in the end, would have been such a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, instead of rendering the nation assunder to this day in fact.

[ssu]

Well I know the liberals see him as a satanic villain, but I think Erik Prince has the right idea, just contract it out, let contractors take over, the small footprint contractor model

Bannon was really hot about this. But in the end it would have made Eric Prince a lot more richer. And not much else.

Thinking that they would have just contractors totally alone there with the local "taleban" and the dysfunctional Afghan Army? You see those contractors and SF guys would still need the air power. They would still need all the fucking intel backup. Still need back up in general.
Still need this and that from the armed forces. Or think that Third World contractors would do it? Yeah sure, give it Pakistanis to "solve" the thing.

Heck, Trump hasn't even visited Afghanistan. If replacing Health Care was just given to the Republicans in the Congress and then Trump basically didn't do much anything but sit and wait and then whine that nothing was passed, with Afghanistan he's even more off.

Perhaps Mattis and McMaster would have a view on how to do it, but what everything lacks is simply the political will and dedication to fight a war to win it. The whole Afghan war has been just a backburner for all purposes since the Taleban controlled Kabul fell and OBL made it to Pakistan.