world

U.S. Marines, Afghan troops clear last pockets of resistance in Marjah

27 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

27 Comments
Login to comment

Marines and Afghan troops cleared the last major pocket of resistance in the former Taliban-ruled town of Marjah on Saturday

This kind of wishful thinking by the US military, the AP and the politicians is another reason why wars tend to drag on endlessly.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Marines take Marjah. Villagers exibit hostility toward marines by throwing rocks. Some people just can't take a hint! The seven year see-saw ride goes on! "I'm up daddy! Oh noes, I'm down again! Now I'm up!" Hard to believe anyone is still supporting this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Although Marines say their work in Marjah isn’t done, Afghans are bracing for a bigger, more comprehensive assault in neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban where officials are talking to aid organizations about how to handle up to 10,000 people who could be displaced by fighting.

The priority should have never shifted away from killing insurgents. We got so pent up with restructuring and Iraq that we temporarily lost sight of the true objective. Hopefully commanders will now be allowed to do what they were ment to in the first place.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Killing people in their own country should be a priority? Surely you have some better ideas?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Killing people in their own country should be a priority?

Yes. The mission was to find OBL and to eradicate the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies. Having failed the first we focus on the second.

Surely you have some better ideas?

Only that we up the offensive. The continuation of a war of attrition is not in our favor and quitting is not an option. Our armed forces work best when they have a clear objective, a simple battle plan, and a unity of effort.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban"

That's a cursed place.

Future real estate agent: I have a nice cozy 2-bedroom cottage in Kandahar province, birthplace of the Taliban, that's a steal.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TheQuestion, okay, so your great idea is, rather than kill or capture the people behind 9/11, to kill all the people of their group even if they were not involved, even if they only joined after 9/11? Great plan! I wonder why anyone would hate America?

And continuation of the war of attrition? You do know this has been going on for over nine years? The war of attrition has been going on for quite a while now. Quitting is an option unless your head is too hard to admit being wrong.

Our armed forces do work better under those conditions you mention, none of which ever were or ever will be present in Afghanistan.

And the stated mission was to kill or capture top Al-Quaida leaders, destroy Al-Quaida and remove the Taliban from power. All of those stated goals which can done within Afghanistan, to any degree that is reasonable, has been done and was done long ago. Running around there now is a waste of time, resources, lives, and not least of all, our reputation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And the stated mission was to kill or capture top Al-Quaida leaders, destroy Al-Quaida and remove the Taliban from power. All of those stated goals which can done within Afghanistan, to any degree that is reasonable, has been done and was done long ago. Running around there now is a waste of time, resources, lives, and not least of all, our reputation.

The Taliban did return to power in Marjah and have controlled the town and the area for a very long time. We have not removed the Taliban from power in all parts of the country......Kandahar and Helmand provinces. We have not accomplished the third part of the mission yet. Marjah is a complete VICTORY in making that happen.

The Taliban just got their asses kicked and lost a vital city and base. Spring is fast approaching, the only time the Taliban can really mount any kind of offensives because of the weather and Marjah is no longer a safe haven for cash or support. This is going to be a tough spring for them now to mount any serious offensives against our troops as they will also take advantage of the weather to use Marjah as a base now to hunt them down and either kill them or capture them.

This a great day for Afghanistan, its Government and NATO. Only a person immersed in left-wing America hating academic ideology could come to any different conclusion.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Remove from power", what does that mean sailwind? I used the word "reasonable" in my post and it was not there to be fluff. Removing them from power in every town and every region and every Rotary Club and every PTA is not reasonable! The federal government of Afghanistan and most of the country is out of the hands of the Taliban. They are out of power and have been for a long time if we are using reasonable definitions. Preventing them from ever getting power again was not part of the mission. Even Baathists are going to be back in the military in Iraq! One way or another the people of the Taliban are going to have to be reintigrated in some form.

And it still remains that our problem was not with the Taliban on a level to warrant 9 years running around in the sandbox to catch them!

Yes, we will use Marjah as a base...while the locals throw rocks at us! The Taliban will find another town, maybe a new one in Pakistan! Nine year see-saw ride! Your up today! I will see you when you are down tomorrow!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Remove from power", what does that mean sailwind? I used the word "reasonable" in my post and it was not there to be fluff. Removing them from power in every town and every region and every Rotary Club and every PTA is not reasonable!

It is "reasonable" in every sense of the word. Once removed from power or control of every town by Military force if necessary, and every rotary club and PTA they will be marginalized so bad that they themselves will be forced to either accept defeat or carry on a doomed insurgency that no longer has the support of the local population. The military actually thanks to Obama now has enough manpower defeat them totally in the areas they now control, the military side of the mission will be a complete success just as the Surge was in Iraq, which as you alluded to laid the actual basis for the former Baathists to actually start to be re-integrated in Iraq society under duly and freely elected Shia dominated Government.

U.S Military given the manpower and resources will do what is always does best defeat the enemy. It is now up to the civilians and that would be folks like you to build on that foundation of this victory over them and ensure that it lasts and the Taliban never again return to power anywhere in the country and Afghanistan can move finally move forward into the 21st century and not stay stuck in the 13th century instead.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

U.S Military given the manpower and resources will do what is always does best defeat the enemy.

An imaginary enemy of its own making living in their own country thousands of Km from US territory, and minding their own business. The real question, not asked here, is how many civilians are considered to be just collateral damage in this offensive (great description that) ? Or don't they matter? Amorality at best, US savage indifference at worst.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

An imaginary enemy of its own making living in their own country thousands of Km from US territory, and minding their own business.

The twin towers on Sept 11th?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

HeyLars

You do know this has been going on for over nine years?

Over nine years? A little exaggeration, no? I recall OEF-A kicking off in October of '01, which would make it quite a bit less than 9 years.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TheQuestion, okay, so your great idea is, rather than kill or capture the people behind 9/11, to kill all the people of their group even if they were not involved, even if they only joined after 9/11?

Pretty much. If someone's shooting at me they're my enemy, I don't much care about the motivation for it. If they would like to debate the merits and flaws about the U.S invasion I would be happy to oblige but thus far that has not been on their agenda.

I wonder why anyone would hate America?

Most people in the states don't really care what the world thinks of us. You can hate the U.S all you want but if you raise arms against us then we have a problem.

And continuation of the war of attrition? You do know this has been going on for over nine years? The war of attrition has been going on for quite a while now.

I believe that I stated that "The continuation of a war of attrition is not in our favor". By that I mean we should hit the buggers wherever they rear their ugly heads. Our attempts at rebuilding a country that is fundementaly flawed detracted from that mission, we beat the Taliban into the ground but failed to deliver the death blow and now they're back. We will not make the same mistake the second time around.

Quitting is an option unless your head is too hard to admit being wrong.

Giving the enemy an environment to thrive and grow in is foolish. We thought them beaten before and then we got the results in the form of the, thankfully, failed attempts by the 'christmas day bomber' and the 'NY subway bomber'. If they think their struggle has any hope of succeeding than our job is not finished.

Our armed forces do work better under those conditions you mention, none of which ever were or ever will be present in Afghanistan.

Of course they can, we just need to give them the space to operate free of politics. Forces have been split between reconstruction, guard duty, and offense. That is not simple, that is not unity of effort, and that is not a clear objective.

And the stated mission was to kill or capture top Al-Quaida leaders, destroy Al-Quaida and remove the Taliban from power. All of those stated goals which can done within Afghanistan, to any degree that is reasonable, has been done and was done long ago.

OBL is still alive, Al-Qaeda is still trying to hit the U.S civilian population, and the Taliban are still kicking. Nothing has been done.

Running around there now is a waste of time, resources, lives, and not least of all, our reputation.

Running around is, hitting enemy strongholds, burning down their opium fields, and blowing their mountain hidey-holes to kingdome come is not. And once again, why should we give a damn about what other countries think of us?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It is now up to the civilians and that would be folks like you to build on that foundation of this victory over them and ensure that it lasts and the Taliban never again return to power anywhere in the country and Afghanistan can move finally move forward into the 21st century and not stay stuck in the 13th century instead

And just how feasible and realistic is that objective?

The people in places like Marjah have more contempt for the Kabul government than they do for the Taliban. Most correctly see the central government very much as we would view the Corleone family, with Fredo as the public face.

Compounding that is the main thing that keeps the Afghans in the 13th century: the massive rate of illiteracy. That will not change any time soon. You simply can't expect an Afghan military force to conduct the kind of sustained operations, nor set up government institutions, when few people know how to read and write:

"Last year, Major General Richard Formica, who was then overseeing the training of Afghan security forces, spoke to me about the difficulties of creating an army in a country where only one in four adults is literate. 'When I was down in Helmand, where the Brits were training police officers, they said that not only could none of them read but that they didn't understand what a classroom was. How can you train officers when they can't write arrest reports?' " (Dexter Filkins, reviewing Seth G. Jones' book In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

U.S. Marines, Afghan troops clear last pockets of resistance in Marjah

They'll be back in a couple of years in force. And the local leaders will find down the road that the drug trade is once again more lucrative when the U.S. payoffs dry up.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They'll be back in a couple of years in force. And the local leaders will find down the road that the drug trade is once again more lucrative when the U.S. payoffs dry up.

The 13th century prevails pathat?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The people in places like Marjah have more contempt for the Kabul government than they do for the Taliban. Most correctly see the central government very much as we would view the Corleone family, with Fredo as the public face.

Compounding that is the main thing that keeps the Afghans in the 13th century: the massive rate of illiteracy. That will not change any time soon. You simply can't expect an Afghan military force to conduct the kind of sustained operations, nor set up government institutions, when few people know how to read and write:

That is where civilians like you fill the gap after folks like me the military have finished our job. What's wrong Yabits too hard for you to take over?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Done, Done, on to the Next one, Done done done and its on to the next...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That is where civilians like you fill the gap after folks like me the military have finished our job. What's wrong Yabits too hard for you to take over?

The presumption that your average American civilian could just go over and teach literacy to Pashtuns or Baluchis (etc.) is representative of the kind of genius that got the U.S. mired in that mess in the first place.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Did anybody ever stop and think "Maybe the Afghans like the 13th century?"

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Did anybody ever stop and think "Maybe the Afghans like the 13th century?"

Yes, and the answer is "no." The non-Afghans who really know the country best communicate that native Afghans want nothing more than education for their children.

Nothing would advance the nation forward towards a modern society is the education of women. Women are the key.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, they're ALL wrong? You're right? And THIS justifies US slaughter of innocents in their own homes? Shame on you.

Show me the body and I'll believe he's dead.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

sailwind wrote:

The 13th century prevails pathat?

The leader in Kabul cannot create a viable, centralized state that subsumes the control of local leaders in the large numbers of tribal areas in Afghanistan. We don't have the money or forces-with or without our NATO allies-to stay in "cleared" areas and control them. Staying for much longer than another year or two in most areas of the country will ultimately have our forces viewed as occupational ones anyway.

The Afghan people, with all their diversity within the modern borders of their nation-will have to determine their future. We cannot do it. And what we think is best for us in our never-ending role as world policeman is not necessarily what they will do-not by a longshot.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Incidentally, sailwind, the U.S is broke if you haven't realized it, and we continue to try to remake the Middle East to be what we desire utilizing borrowed time and money. I can't see any conceivable way for us to keep occupying one country after the other in that part of the world after a few more years.

There are other ways to fight the war on terrorism without using the 9/11 tragedy for a decade or more for imperial adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and who knows where next. Perhaps Iran?

We have a long and generally failed history post-WW II from Indochina to the ME at present of sticking our collective noses into geopolitical situations that we don't understand and, for the most part, have no real bearing on the defense of the U.S.

We never learn. I thought we had learned the lessons of Vietnam, but our conduct over the past decades proves otherwise.

I served in the U.S. Navy as you did. However, I don't feel the need to toe the company line with our ME policy in order to feel patriotic.

We have too many problems at home and continue to largely ignore them at our own peril.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The War in Afghanistan is an . ism .. An ISM CANNOT BE KILLED WITH BOMBS AND BULLETS,,iT HAS TO BE UNDERSTOOD , ONLY THEN WILL WE FIND a PATH TO THE ANSWERS...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

johnny7

The War in Afghanistan is an . ism .. An ISM CANNOT BE KILLED WITH BOMBS AND BULLETS,,iT HAS TO BE UNDERSTOOD , ONLY THEN WILL WE FIND a PATH TO THE ANSWERS...

LOL! Hey you got that fortune coookie too!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites