Originally Posted by
XHooker
This may have been a throw away line, but I actually agree with it. I'm reading the article thinking they're grasping at straws to find commanders who can perform miracles. Counterinsurgency operations are extremely difficult, and in a place like Afghanistan, that hasn't had the remotest semblance of civilization in decades, maybe impossible. Note to our civilian leadership... don't overreach and expect to turn the whole world into democracy loving capitalists. We don't have the resources or the willpower for it. I've always liked the "Vlad The Impaler/kids in a station wagon" approach. Stick your enemies heads on posts (the Vlad part), toss the keys to the kingdom to someone who is tolerable (probably barely) and tell him "don't make me come back here" (The kids in a wagon part... I guess it would be an SUV now).
Vlad is a hero. We are set up for that, nation building-not so much. War is only difficult when you limit the ferocity and war is only about ferocity. Anything else is just fluff and failure.
Unfortunately we keep having to come back because we lack resolve and ferocity. Dialog ends when war starts and war ends dialog.
Either you impale your enemies or leave. There will never be a middle ground and spreading manure will never resolve the problem.