Last Plan for Afghanistan

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Stewart Nusbaumer
Independent journalist roaming the world

Last Plan for Afghanistan

Year after year, the Pentagon doles out mega-billions for the most sophisticated and expensive war-fighting armaments. And year after year ragtag hostiles with primitive arms and no formal military training circumvent and neutralize our most expensive and sophisticated and deadly weapons. From conflicts in Southeast Asia to the Middle East to Northeast Africa to Central Asia, our generals on the blue Potomac River have been stymied and confused.

The Pentagon's initial plan in Afghanistan, let's call it Plan A, was simple and direct: kill the bad guys! The problem is the bad guys know all about Plan A, and they refuse to play the role assigned to them by the Pentagon. Instead of hanging around open areas to be pounded into smoldering charcoal, the wily creatures scoot into hiding places ... disperse throughout the region ... slip into villages and towns ... evaporate into the civilian population.

Without a clear, stationary target to pulverize, Plan A quickly went limp and staggered to a fork in the strategic road.

To the left, Plan B said rein in the firepower. Turn our hard-charging warriors in the field into potted plants on garrisons. Yikes -- was the collective cry of our military establishment. To the right was the default strategy: pursue the bad guys into the villages and towns and blow them to smithereens.

Unfortunately, Plan C blew to smithereens more than bad guys. It disassembled grandmas and grandpas, little kiddies, uncles and aunts ... turning them into smoldering charcoal. Where this did not happen, the Taliban lit roaring propaganda fires.

Plan C turned out to be an expertly designed, superbly executed, stunningly effective recruitment program -- for the bad guys!


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-nusbaumer/last-plan-for-afghanistan_b_343853.html