NATO defence ministers will get together tomorrow to review the alliance's mission in Afghanistan. One topic for discussion will be civilian casualties or "collateral damage" as they call it. At this late stage (better late than never) they want to review procedures to find ways to reduce the deaths of civilians that threaten to undermine the NATO mission and the Karzai government.
Here's a prediction. The one thing that won't cross their lips is the only solution - stop using artillery and air strikes to make up for a gross shortage of troops on the ground. Waging war on the cheap inevitably results in unnecessary civilian deaths.
Did you ever notice that when we have these airstrike catastrophes, it's almost always when our troops are on the defensive. We send them out on patrols. They get ambushed. To save their own skins our troops have to call in air support. Civilians get whacked - by mistake of course.
We get ambushed because the bad guys control the territory, not us. If we controlled the territory they wouldn't have the freedom of movement to set up ambushes at their leisure and to take our troops by surprise when and where they like. No, we claim that we control this territory but they're the side setting up the ambushes.
We don't control the territory because our forces are grossly understrength. The NATO ministers know that and so do their generals. But they'd rather drive stakes through their hearts than admit it. Admitting it would mean that we have our soldiers over there giving their lives to buy time for a failing and corrupt government that continues to lose popular support. That's a candle that's burning at both ends.
The irony is that the problem is a woeful shortage of troops but the answer isn't more troops. The answer lies across the border as the following item explains.
Here's a prediction. The one thing that won't cross their lips is the only solution - stop using artillery and air strikes to make up for a gross shortage of troops on the ground. Waging war on the cheap inevitably results in unnecessary civilian deaths.
Did you ever notice that when we have these airstrike catastrophes, it's almost always when our troops are on the defensive. We send them out on patrols. They get ambushed. To save their own skins our troops have to call in air support. Civilians get whacked - by mistake of course.
We get ambushed because the bad guys control the territory, not us. If we controlled the territory they wouldn't have the freedom of movement to set up ambushes at their leisure and to take our troops by surprise when and where they like. No, we claim that we control this territory but they're the side setting up the ambushes.
We don't control the territory because our forces are grossly understrength. The NATO ministers know that and so do their generals. But they'd rather drive stakes through their hearts than admit it. Admitting it would mean that we have our soldiers over there giving their lives to buy time for a failing and corrupt government that continues to lose popular support. That's a candle that's burning at both ends.
The irony is that the problem is a woeful shortage of troops but the answer isn't more troops. The answer lies across the border as the following item explains.
No comments:
Post a Comment