Michael Yon, who should know better than anyone, reports we are losing in Afghanistan.
He suggests the solution is more troops. I don’t think so. After all, we originally won in Afghanistan with near zero troops.
Democracy has been a disaster, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The masses just do not like us much, and tend to elect people that do not like us much – or like freedom, or like democracy, or like capitalism. And especially, they do not like religious freedom.
The winner in a guerrilla war is the side that most brutally terrorizes the population. Our troops lack the stomach for what it takes to win a guerrilla war, so more troops will not help. We already have enough troops to win any conventional battle, and there is not much else to do, other than what our troops are reluctant to do. It also helps to know the locals, know the language and know the culture – so winning in a guerrilla war means arming the local killers that are on your side, and killing the local killers that are against your side. And that, of course, means arming the Northern alliance and terrorizing the Pashtuns.
There are are many views about why it didn’t work out in Afghanistan or in Iraq. I guess there’s really a big gap on understanding the cultures of these countries, that is why whatever the plans they want to pursue, it just won’t work. We just hope that it will end and they will find a better solution on this matter, because the longer it takes, the more people who will be harmed.