Thread: How do we win the War on Terror in Afghanistan under these conditions?

Ok, I'm a military history buff and also know much about current governments around the globe. My question is- Faced with the reality of a government that is weak in stance toward terrorism because of political correctness, NATO who won't send additional troops or combat troops to certain "hostile" areas because of government caveats, will not cross into Pakistan where terrorists mainly operate out of, will not pressure Pakistan to go after terrorists (or their ISI to stop training and funding them), but will still give Pakistan billions in aid, will allow Iran to continue to give support to terrorists with no threat of reprisal, will allow Saudi Arabia to continue to fund and spread wahabbiism/terrorism, all the while, calling them our allies. Will allow terrorist front groups (CAIR and other hardline islamic groups) to continue to operate on US Soil, how do we win? Does anyone in our government, or free governments around the globe, have any clue at all that the purpose of war is to win? Does anyone realize that we are facing the biggest threat to freedom in all of history? Are we the big dog in this fight or not? Somebody please explain how we aren't acting ignorant compared to past civilizations/wars of history. Also, no anti-war/anti-American posts please, I don't care about your "opinion" or your loony ideas.Sorry laughter if I hurt your "feelings", but I stated I don't want any Anti-American sentiments about how we are at fault, but how our strategy should be geared for winning. And to the other guy "self righteous", I've been to Afganistan twice in the Army, show me where any of what I stated is not true. Go to Kandahar and ask the ANA or ANP or any of the Afghan government supporters who the real enemy is and they'll point to the mountains of the Paki government. I'm asking legitimate questions on how to better effectively fight a war.GoSailor, I can't agree with you because you are wrong about Afghanistan when comparing it to Vietnam. Yes, N. Vietnam was fighting their "revolution", but islamic fundamentalist are fighting according to their professed belief in Muhammed and the teachings of the Quran. Making this about their "god" compared to fighting for a independent government, and remember, they targeted civilians on 9/11 openly first. Also, how many Soviet soldiers could freely visit Afghanistan after their war was over compared to Vietnam today? This is a war against freedom with a twist. Al Qaeda's chief goal is to form a Islamic caliphate and usher in the Mahdi (islam savior) to spread Islam by the sword and maintain Shariah law the world over. That is the problem here, most people don't even know what our enemies main goal actually is. Also, on Iraq, you are also wrong. Al Qaeda mainly targeted sunni and shiites in order to incite sectarian violence between the two. Now AQ is out and things settled down.

If you don't want opinions, don't ask a question that requires opinions. Until you can define an objective condition under which we "win," there is no answer.

under the current condisions it is imposible to win we need to change strategy and polictical leader ship and we let the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing go free! what the hell? he killed 17 american soldiers he should be sent to gitmo for the rest of his life , oh ya obamas closeing it too and bringing all the terrorists to the USA

Just a little self righteous.

well unfortunately you are completely correct on how you are lining up what is wrong with this so called "War on Terror"right now with the very few supporters of the wars in the Middle East, and even before they lost support, the war should have been declared "unwinable" since you said that you are a military history buff i would like to invite you to look at the Vietnam War and think about the same items(granted different names)Vietnam=Afghanistan, the country we are fighting in to put down a government that was/is anti AmericanPakistan=Cambodia/Laos, turning a blind eye to what is actually going on within their borders and allowing people and arms to be moved around almost at complete willIran=China, being a major supplier of arms and men to the pro-Taliban fighters in Afghanistan think of them as the Chinese supporting the pro-Communism North VietnamAmerica=America, overstepping our welcome and taking control of an area where we are virtually alone with little if any help from countries outside of the country we are fighting in(not to be anti-American but think about it and its kinda true)"Policy of Containment"="War on Terror", both expend millions+ of dollars of the tax payer to try to contain or defeat something that can't be stopped i don't know where i heard it but "for every one we kill another 10 are born"so in the long run we are just taking the mistakes of our parents generation and making them our own in a different section of the world against a different cause

Yea, if you're a history buff you should study something called the VIETNAM WAR to have a better understanding of what a quagmire is. They aren't fighting us because they hate freedom, or the apple pie or the eagle or anything like that, they fight us due to our imperialistic policies and something called interventionism (along with a deep hatred for the Israelis, who we keep on life support with billions in aid each year).If you've ever seen any video's of Vietnam how it is in the modern day, its actually a tourist destination that Americans can visit freely. They didn't hate us for who we are, they fought us because they viewed the war as a war of independence (not because they were communist). The people of Afghanistan have historically been xenophobes, being extremely paranoid of even other Middle Easterners who come into their lands. Iraqi's don't like us because we invaded their country and now its worse off than it was in the days of Saddam (between sectarian violence, constant blackouts, hundreds of thousands dead, etc.)However, odds are that we will be in a position to hand over operations to the Iraqi government pretty soon, who will then have to enforce a totalitarian rule similar to Saddam if they hope to remain in power for very long. That place of the world has always been extremely volatile and always will be. If you still believe the whole "Terror" spiel, you should read up on something called the "Domino Effect" and how it was proved to be illogical (after we pulled out of Vietnam and other surrounding countries didn't succumb to Communism).