22 June 2011 What shape is the table this time?

            http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/06/21/whatever-troops-levels-obama-maintains-the-u-s-is-spinning-its-wheels-in-afghanistan/

The U.S. Is Spinning Its Wheels in Afghanistan, No Matter What Troop Levels Obama Maintains

Posted by Tony Karon Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:22 pm

            “President Obama will announce on Wednesday the size of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan that he will order in July in keeping with the symbolic drawdown he has promised. His top military men appear to want to keep most combat troops in the field for at least another two years; other advisers want the withdrawal to involve substantial numbers of troops and an accelerated schedule. But the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan appears increasingly unlikely to decisively determine the outcome of the war…”

            “The purpose of the NATO war effort over the past two years has been to set the negotiating table more favorably to the Western side, hoping to forcefully demonstrate to the Taliban that it can't prevail on the battlefield and therefore it needs to be more amenable to U.S. terms for peace. The Taliban's purpose has been the exact opposite: to demonstrate the futility of the NATO effort so as to give it a better chance of imposing its own terms at the peace table.

Despite the surge, the Taliban doesn't appear to be feeling squeezed to accept U.S. peace terms. On the contrary, it seems to be playing hard to get, believing that time and circumstance work in its favor.

So the outcome of the war is unlikely to be determined by the troop numbers to which Obama commits on Wednesday. Instead, it will be shaped by what the U.S., the Northern Alliance and Afghanistan's key neighbors, most importantly Pakistan, are willing to accept by way of a political compromise.

Cassi Creek:    From the very first insertion of U.S. troops into Afghanistan the comparison to Vietnam has been easy and correct.  The U.S. armed forces have repeated far too many of the mistakes that they made in Vietnam. 

            They have repeatedly put our troops in low ground compounds, surrounded by enemy forces on higher ground.   They’ve agreed to rules of engagement that make it difficult to attack our enemy.  We’ve let our troops become dependent on civilian employees to deliver materiels and ordnance.  We’ve hired mercenary contractors.  We’ve sold the public the idea of changing an ages old male-dominated religion driven culture.  We sold ourselves the myth of an Afghan army and police force that will behave competently and eschew corruption. 

            Now we’re arguing about terms of peace.  We can’t defeat either the tribal or the religious components of our enemy.  Our troops die while diplomats and politicians argue terms.  Corporations urge delays in resolving this war, for added profits, of course. 

            It is time to agree on the shape of the table, stand the troops down, and bring them home.  Afghanistan can sink or swim on its own.  We didn’t break it; we don’t have to fix it.