Political decisions cost the lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan. The rules of engagement have been formulated such that they are prohibited from engaging proactively Taliban forces until those forces attack them. And now ISIS is in Afghanistan. How can the US military be expected to defeat our enemies and defend themselves under such restrictive rules of engagement? http://www.breitbart.com/national-s...o-attack-taliban-just-because-theyre-taliban/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/isis-in-afghanistan-school-of-jihad/
Unfortunately if policy dictates you must always be on the defensive, and you are not allowed to launch any offensives of your own...you cannot win. Sad that we have put them into the role of targets waiting to respond to attacks.
The problem is that you think the Taliban are only insurgents. There are also a civilian political-religious sect.
They are a political-religious sect who kills people who disagree with their politics and religion. And they shoot girls (one in particular named Malala) in the head for attending school.
That's the Obama foreign policy. Announce a surge and withdrawal date in the same paragraph, never mention Afghanistan again, and come up with these ridiculous rules of engagement. In one of many examples from the book "Warrior Diplomat - A Green Beret's Battles from Washington to Afghanistan" (Michael Waltz - 2014) US forces were required to travel out to the target zones after firing weapons to confirm via photographic record that no civilians were killed. What could go wrong with that ??
They are at war with not only the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but they're also at war with our US Troops. I would declare to even the UN that there's no such thing as a "civilian political-religious sect". If you're with the taliban, you're an enemy soldier until otherwise noted.
While I agree Obama has screwed up there does need to be civilian oversight of military actions. You cannot just tell the military to go win the war. The military cannot always know the politics involved in fighting, that is the job of the president. Sherman's March is a good example of a military with no oversight. While Sherman won, the political damage he caused lasted for an extremely long time.
Hope there's not a MFS hospital nearby... Losing Afghanistan: Taliban close to re-capturing key city Feb. 7, 2016 - Sangin, a district located in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, nearly fell to a Taliban assault in December last year. See also: U.S. drone strike kills 16 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan Feb. 7, 2016 - At least 29 Islamic State fighters also perished last week when a U.S. drone targeted a radio station used by the militants in the same eastern Afghan province.
And then just start killing Taliban whether they are armed or not right? Good thing the Taliban wear convenient uniforms all the time so we can tell who they are on sight.