<<Overheard in an Al Quieda hideout; "Good news guys ! Nato outnumbers us 50 - 1 in this area! ">>
Well, apart from the fact that you're fighting the Taliban and not al Qaeda at this point, that IS good news for them - - you need a 50-to-one ratio of forces to gain one tiny mud-walled shit-hole of which there are thousands in the country, which means that you just can't afford to stick around long enough to do the job, especially considering that you are operating in their country, at the other end of an eight-thousand-mile supply line.
<<Ok so they are winning all of the symbols so that even if they all get killed they win. I think I can live with that.>>
I think you got that one totally bass-ackward. The one winning the symbol (Marjah) is YOU. They lose the symbol, most of them survive the loss to fight again, while you ratchet up unsustainable costs and losses for a short-term symbolic gain that will obviously lose its lustre as the war grinds on. After the 5,000th Marjah, and the 5,000th promise that a turning point has finally been reached, even the moronic American sheeple will start to suspect that A-stan is a gigantic con job for the sole benefit of the military-industrial complex and whoever was hoping to run a natural gas pipeline through the place, and at that point - - trillions of dollars and thousands of dumb hillbilly lives and limbs down the drain later - - the decision will be made to pull out after declaring "victory" and leaving whatever lucky schmucks happen to be top puppets at that time in the saddle for as long as they can stay in it.
<<Every Al Queida success is a bloody mess, every bloody mess that the Nato forces is involved in is considered a failure, Al quieda goals can be met much easyer than Nato goals , that is true . . . >>
OF COURSE it's a failure if they've been there nine years and still haven't conquered the country. What the hell would YOU call it, a glorious victory?
<< . . . but who indeed benefits from Al Queda successes? >>
Ummmm . . . al Qaeda?
Again, al Qaeda can and does set up shop anywhere, and is more of an idea than a fighting force. Millions of Muslims everywhere and anywhere are inspired by the idea of al Quaeda and as long as they see America as the Great Satan, will continue to seek martyrdom in self-directed attacks on the Great Satan as long as it continues its war on the Muslim world. However, the enemy in Afghanistan is not al Qaeda but the Taliban. They're in it for the long haul, and have stated repeatedly that they are not enemies of America and are fighting only to get America out of their country.
<<It may be worthwile to spend the time , effort , treasure and blood required to to win in fact even if the Al Quieda can thereby brag about how expensive they are to defeat.>>
LMFAO. The US has never made the slightest effort to spend what it takes to defeat the Taliban. IMHO a force of 300,000 to 500,000 troops would be required and a post-pacification occupation of at least 30 years would be needed to prevent the whole thing from turning to shit again. That is an effort that the country would never agree to, and hence the bullshit campaigns of the military to persuade the sheeple that they are winning. It's Viet Nam all over again, same lies, same bullshit, same "Who ya gonna believe, us or your lyin' eyes?" Nine fucking years of failure and they're "winning." It's hilarious.
<<We have tried ignoreing Al Quieda , while they grew in the shadows of backwater regions, that strategy is a proven failure.>>
The failure is your pursuit of al Qaeda, not your ignoring them. You've already lost more American lives than were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, not even counting the wounded, totally failed in your pursuit of bin Laden, lost $3 trillion in Iraq alone and are now getting sucked into Afghanistan too - - in the process recruiting millions more Muslims into the cause and proving to millions of Muslims that it is their own corrupt pro-American governments that are the true enemies of Muslims. I would say that the al Qaeda strategy (provoking American attacks on Muslims) has worked brilliantly and has done more damage to America than any "terrorist" attack could ever have done. You'd have to be totally crazy at this point to think that America has won and al Qaeda has lost.
