cancel2 2022
Canceled
US GENERAL HAS A NERVE TO LECTURE US
LECTURING: US General Stanley McChrystal
By Frederick Forsyth
OUT in Afghanistan the new US overall commander General Stanley McChrystal tells an awestruck media that the campaign against the Taliban is not going well and may be unwinnable without a basic revamp of strategy and tactics.
Actually, this is like discovering, seven years in, that the sun rises in the east.
Now the Yankees may be our very fine allies in many things but they are not the easiest of partners.
For one thing they absolutely cannot be told anything by anyone because they know it all already. Take Iraq.
Before the US invasion of March 2003 some very shrewd heads who knew that weird country well tried to advise Washington that it would not work simply to invade, conquer and then presume all problems would be over.
In fact, the White House was informed, the problems would just be beginning.
But those two malign idiots Donald Rumsfeld at Defence and Dick Cheney as Vice-Prez knew better. The invasion and conquest was textbook but with the massive superiority in firepower why would it not be? Then came utter chaos.
Without a clue what to do next the terrible twins fired the entire Iraqi army who, unemployed but armed to the teeth, promptly became insurgents. Also fired en masse was the Baath Party and with them went any chance of administering the conquered country.
Al Qaeda had a field day. Previously proscribed by Saddam Hussein, who was a secular monster, not a religious one, the religious nutters formed common cause with the rebellious Iraqis and the death toll of American and British troops began. that lasted for six years, longer than the Second World War.
As for the cost, don’t even ask. The Afghan miscalculation has been just as bad.
The toppling of the old Taliban regime, willing host to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, was unavoidable and successful in the winter of 2001 into 2002. Presuming the Taliban were therefore finished – they were toppled but very much alive – the USA went off to Iraq for four years. That was when the Taliban re-grouped, re-funded, re-organised, re-trained, re-armed and re-recruited. then they were ready. They are more formidable now than they have ever been.
It is a simple fact that you cannot defeat a fanatical terrorist move- ment if it has four things. Limitless funds (the heroin crop), limitless recruits (the madrassah schools), a friendly border (the Pakistan sanctuary) and a discredited and corrupt spiv as the national president (Karzai).
Now General McChrystal expresses the hope he can persuade the Taliban to return to their villages and join the struggle to rebuild Afghanistan. As what? Why, as a secular democracy. But that is exactly what the Taliban loathe.
They want an ultra-harsh Sharia-governed caliphate.
It would have been nice if the IRA had all gone back to their ghettos to become hairdressers. But they didn’t. They very seldom do. Committed fanatics go on fighting until they have got what they want (Vietnam) or been utterly defeated.
A second simple fact is that the French lost in Indochina and Algeria. the Americans lost in Vietnam. The British won in Malaya, Borneo and Dhofar.
Maybe our Yankee allies should listen a bit more. We have a lot of experience and superb fighting men and women. Trouble is we also have a rubbish Government.
LECTURING: US General Stanley McChrystal
By Frederick Forsyth
OUT in Afghanistan the new US overall commander General Stanley McChrystal tells an awestruck media that the campaign against the Taliban is not going well and may be unwinnable without a basic revamp of strategy and tactics.
Actually, this is like discovering, seven years in, that the sun rises in the east.
Now the Yankees may be our very fine allies in many things but they are not the easiest of partners.
For one thing they absolutely cannot be told anything by anyone because they know it all already. Take Iraq.
Before the US invasion of March 2003 some very shrewd heads who knew that weird country well tried to advise Washington that it would not work simply to invade, conquer and then presume all problems would be over.
In fact, the White House was informed, the problems would just be beginning.
But those two malign idiots Donald Rumsfeld at Defence and Dick Cheney as Vice-Prez knew better. The invasion and conquest was textbook but with the massive superiority in firepower why would it not be? Then came utter chaos.
Without a clue what to do next the terrible twins fired the entire Iraqi army who, unemployed but armed to the teeth, promptly became insurgents. Also fired en masse was the Baath Party and with them went any chance of administering the conquered country.
Al Qaeda had a field day. Previously proscribed by Saddam Hussein, who was a secular monster, not a religious one, the religious nutters formed common cause with the rebellious Iraqis and the death toll of American and British troops began. that lasted for six years, longer than the Second World War.
As for the cost, don’t even ask. The Afghan miscalculation has been just as bad.
The toppling of the old Taliban regime, willing host to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, was unavoidable and successful in the winter of 2001 into 2002. Presuming the Taliban were therefore finished – they were toppled but very much alive – the USA went off to Iraq for four years. That was when the Taliban re-grouped, re-funded, re-organised, re-trained, re-armed and re-recruited. then they were ready. They are more formidable now than they have ever been.
It is a simple fact that you cannot defeat a fanatical terrorist move- ment if it has four things. Limitless funds (the heroin crop), limitless recruits (the madrassah schools), a friendly border (the Pakistan sanctuary) and a discredited and corrupt spiv as the national president (Karzai).
Now General McChrystal expresses the hope he can persuade the Taliban to return to their villages and join the struggle to rebuild Afghanistan. As what? Why, as a secular democracy. But that is exactly what the Taliban loathe.
They want an ultra-harsh Sharia-governed caliphate.
It would have been nice if the IRA had all gone back to their ghettos to become hairdressers. But they didn’t. They very seldom do. Committed fanatics go on fighting until they have got what they want (Vietnam) or been utterly defeated.
A second simple fact is that the French lost in Indochina and Algeria. the Americans lost in Vietnam. The British won in Malaya, Borneo and Dhofar.
Maybe our Yankee allies should listen a bit more. We have a lot of experience and superb fighting men and women. Trouble is we also have a rubbish Government.
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