http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/world/asia/04imam.html?hpwInterview with retired Pakistani soldier with close ties to the Taliban on why the U.S. can't win. Pretty much what I've been saying all along, the Taliban live there and have wide support among the people, the U.S. is a foreign invader. They'll get tired of this bullshit in another four or five years when they see the talk of U.S. "progress" is mostly BS and the situation on the ground will look about the same then as it does now.
<<“The Taliban cannot be forced out, you cannot subjugate them,” he said. “But they can tire the Americans. In another three to four years, the Americans will be tired.” >>
Col. Imam doesn't really address here the U.S. claim that they are clearing the areas that the Afghans themselves will be holding. But what legitimacy can the Afghan national government have, when its troops can only enter the land after the Americans have cleared it out, either single-handed or "fighting alongside" the Afghan army? In name only, it will look like an Afghan army is occupying the cleared-out territories, but how could the Afghans who live there be fooled? They know who those "Afghan" troops and their "Afghan" political masters are serving.
<<He criticized President Obama’s decision last year to send more American troops into Afghanistan. “They are doing what you should never do in military strategy, reinforcing the error,” he said.
<<“They will have more convoys, more planes, more supply convoys, and the insurgents will have a bigger target,” he added. “The insurgents are very happy.” >>
Again, seeming to make the point I made before. They're sending more troops, etc., but not enough more. It's not that they couldn't ever pacify and restructure Afghanistan, it's just that they're WAY below the levels of commitment in numbers, in money and in time, for them to have any permanent effect. By increasing troop numbers but still at a pathetically inadequate level, they're just guaranteeing the Taliban a higher body count, which means that the Afghans will get to the Magic Number, whatever it happens to be, a lot faster than they normally could, and, on the other side of the coin, the number of Afghan civilian dead will rise faster than ever, escalating anti-American sentiment and recruiting even more locals into the struggle.
<<The plan by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, to win over the Afghan people while pressing the Taliban militarily could have worked in 2003 or 2004, when the Taliban were weak and had less support, but now the Taliban had a presence in virtually every province, he said. >>
Anyone wanna comment on this one? I didn't think the plan could ever have worked, simply because the Afghans don't cotton to foreigners, especially infidels, coming in and telling them at gunpoint how to organize their own country. But at this point, it seems moot, since the Colonel says the Taliban is now established nation-wide.