General Milley drops 15 megaton truth bomb
US Army General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the country’s highest ranked military officer has just spoke to our efforts in Afghanistan.
“We believe now that after 20 years, two decades of consistent effort, that we he have achieved a modicum of success,” he said.
Boom! What a honest assessment of what has transpired there after 19 years and counting of effort. A modicum, defined by Oxford as “a small quantity of a particular thing, especially something considered desirable or valuable.” There you go. We’ve secured a small quantity of success. At the cost of about $1 Trillion, more than 2,300 American lives, and thousands more injured. Let’s pat each other on the backs. Where’s that Mission Accomplished banner when you need it?
Thanks for the story tip goes to Jeff LPH 3
Source; Military Times
Category: Afghanistan, Big Pentagon, Foreign Policy, Guest Link
The “modicum” of success will be when we are completely out of that Tar Baby.
The boy-lovin’ locals can go back to shooting only each other.
“A modicum of respect” HALO 5.
https://youtu.be/M0YkQ4YKOSw
So when you try to recreate the statue of David with a big pile of shit as your medium you still just end up with a pile of shit? Who knew?
Is “modicum of success” sort of like “Mostly Peaceful”?
Hindenburg passengers enjoy a cross-Atlantic trip that enjoyed a modicum of success.
“Titanic passengers enjoy a cross-Atlantic trip…”
Casey Jones’ passengers enjoyed a train ride that had a modicum of success.
Amelia Earhart took a round the world plane trip that had a modicum of success.
See where I’m going with this?
Apollo 13 got to fly around the moon, a modicum of success.
As a sport pilot, Bernath had a modicum of success.
Don’t forget, as transatlantic passenger service, the Hindenburg had a modicum of success.
Just like Bernasty’s their flight was not bad. It was when it came time to land that the modicum of success went to sh^t…or in his case…to the pines.
Fortunately, Bernasty has had more than a modicum of success in maintaining his minus 6 feet of AGL altitude AND his social distancing.
He finally excelled at something besides douchebaggery.
With regard to that last flight, his only modicum of success was limited to the takeoff.
Maybe one day we’ll finally grasp that the Marshall plan success doesn’t translate to nation building anywhere.
The policy of “exporting democracy” and thinking it will all work out everywhere is not a good idea either.
It’s almost as if our big picture planners/leaders never learned the lesson that human beings throughout history have consistently chosen despots, monarchs, etc.. as forms of government. Democracy, as we know it today, is a blip on the radar. It’s a precious and rare commodity.
Correction, anywhere should’ve been everywhere.
►Maybe one day we’ll finally grasp that the Marshall plan success doesn’t translate to nation building anywhere.
Indeed. Expecting democratic styles of governance to take root with equal success in any country is like thinking men and women are the exact same. There are differences that are plain to most, but never those experts who CHOOSE not to see the difference.
It would seem that democracies take root pretty well with Europeans. I would suppose it is because of our ancient linkage to Greece – it’s in the DNA you might say. It perhaps worked better in America because we had only a brief taste of monarchy (and didn’t like it). It didn’t take root as well in Europe (I think) because all those years of monarchy may have preconditioned them to a strong government. Tribal areas (Africa and the Middle East) don’t seem to do it as well. My guess is because of ancient quarrels and being used to family and social ties being in walking distance. (Although it seems like a place where federalism would be appealing.) Asia seems to be a place where anything can really take hold. I guess the one tie there is stronger central governments, but you do have examples of communism, authoritarianism, democracies, monarchies, etc.
There’s an interesting book to be written there (I’m sure some have been already). Getting over people’s immediately equating it to racism may be difficult, but what the heck isn’t racist nowadays.
On the other hand, where did Communism and it’s bastard stepchildren originate?
Fair, but where did it really take hold? The poor Russians went from being ignored by their Czar to being never left alone by the Soviets. No wonder their so pessimistic.
As for Asian Communism, not sure why it really took hold there other than they are just receptive to anything. I guess anywhere a strongman figures out he can live a life of luxury “taking care” of his comrades, he’s going to give it a go. Sometimes it works other times it doesn’t. (Sorry, there are no “strongwymin”.)
“No wonder their so pessimistic”
*They’re
*(or perhaps) No wonder their ATTITUDES ARE so pessimistic
Pick a correction
The only reason Europe didn’t go communist, is the USA. Also why theories crashed and burned.
So pale genetics isn’t the issue. They are paler than us.
Much paler.
Whaaaat? “Theories” ?
“The Soviet Union”
I am quite able to make my own typos, thank you. I really don’t need Auto-corrupt.
I suspect the Babel project was sundered by sudden arrival of spell-check.
Next will be fact checker. It will automatically remove anything a random Google editor thinks is untrue.
Maybe one day we’ll finally grasp that the Marshall plan success doesn’t translate to nation building anywhere.
– First you have to completely strip the old system away. If you build a solid house on a weak foundation you still end up with a crumbling house…just not as soon.
We need to stay long enough for the Taliban and the GOA to decide (on paper) how to divide up the country. Of course NATO will want to stay longer, but since they can’t seem to evacuate themselves without the US help, they will also have to declare victory and head home. I’m sure their troops will hate the pay cut!
Its a Modicum!!!
Pashtunwali is still very much alive and present as a cultural norm there. American style democracy will never work in Afghanistan as long as their current belief system/social norms remain the same.
And since we aren’t willing to go to the lengths necessary to force cultural change, there is nothing more productive to be gained for anyone by us remaining there.
He was being kind.
Gotta make it sound positive as a general, you know…
I doubt that the souls of those lost over there in that mess through the years will agree with his opinion.
Like young Adam Wolff, KIA 6-20-2014, Helmand Province Afghanistan.
Godspeed to all those that gave their lives for the rest of us…..
Just had to stir up them dust bunnies, didn’t ya ‘stixx? “…lest we forget!”
God’s Blessing continue to bring Comfort to the Gold Star Families. There, but for His Grace, go any and.or all of us.
A modicum of success that will vanish as soon as we leave.
If by modicum of success you mean now negotiating with the very people you tried to wipe out to place them back in a position to retain some power and authority, then sure that was “achieved”…
Now do Iraq…or Yemen, or Syria, or Pakistan or any of the other nations in which we retain troops in Africa and let us know General what you think success looks like in any of those nations.
If you arent willing to kill everyone, from babe to old woman, you have to talk at some point.
True statement, that being the case 19 years later seems a bit of a long time to come around to that simple true statement.
Only an idiot would think that Afghans were going to become a freedom loving democratic republic. As we knew that reality going in the plan should have been built around that knowledge instead of being a fudge it as we go operational plan.
We lack the will of Rome when their position was Oderint Dum Metuant (let them hate, so long as they fear)
The people we tried to wipe out are pretty much all dead now. There is a whole new crop of people that hate us because we aren’t like them. Talking to them is no good. Can’t talk to someone who only wants you to leave so they can go back to doing what they were doing when you aren’t there to make them stop.
I don’t mean to be offensive, but your line of reasoning reflects the poor decision making of our previous administrations.
Others don’t think, act or believe like us. Why should we expect them to react the way we would when we intervene?
No argument from me that we’ve been slow to pick up that message. I was probably slower than most since I spent time there and in Iraq over a few deployments.
What frustrates me is the pointy end of our national policy seems to willfully ignore our recent failures/issues.
We went into Iraq without a defined end state. Then we said “No more Baathist”. We threw out everyone who knew how to run a functioning government and created a power vacuum. Chaos ensued. You would think the people who created the plan would’ve bothered to read TS Elliot’s book. Clearly they didn’t because just about every issue we ran into there he addressed in his writings.
We went into Afghanistan to get OBL. That morphed into nation building. Ignoring the historical fact that clearly demonstrates attempting to do so in that country is a fiscal and life drain.
We essentially green lit Mubarak in Egypt. Ended up with a dead Ambassador and chaos. We even have modern day slave markets happening there now.
I could go on and on.
Our leadership, of both parties, have either never read a history book or actively refused to learn any lessons from the books they did read.
Modicum of success is General Officer speak for defeat.
They are in a political position after all.
Military force is a tool and like all tools, it’s only good for certain things. You can’t pound in a screw with a hammer, you can’t drill a hole with a band saw, etc.
As I said in the other thread, anything we achieved in Afghanistan, we achieved in the first couple of years. After that, the things we wanted to have happen (a liberalized or at least stable government) are not things that military force can provide.
Unfortunately, we as a society have become addicted to quick and easy fixes. We seem to think that every war is going to end with the other side signing a surrender document on the deck of a battleship.
But if you look at recent history you can see that most wars and low-intensity conflicts don’t end that way, they just peter out until both sides get tired of fighting and figure out a way to get on (see, for example, El Salvador, Lebanon, Former Yugoslavia, Angola, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Libya, Egypt, East Timor, Eritrea, India/Pakistan, etc.)
The Taliban and the other troublemaking groups in Afghanistan know we don’t want to be there and they know that as long as they’re willing to fight one day longer than us, they’ll never be “defeated” in the traditional sense.
But that’s OK because, really, besides the Taliban, who WANTS Afghanistan anyway? I sure as hell don’t and I imagine most of us feel the same way. The Taliban can have it as far as most Americans are concerned.
As long as they don’t harbor terrorists or use the country as a training base from which to lash out at the Western world, they can have that shit pile with our blessing.
The Romans had a way of dealing with the Commander claiming a “modicum of success”. The Commander received the thanks of the Senate and then, was sent off to Fall on his Sword. This statement is so weak, pitiful, bureaucratic, and sad. Really a whine. One would expect a French general to say it after the Fall of Sedan/Paris in 1870. What a Debacle.
Name changed to protect PII.
AW1
“The graveyard of empires…”
Just ask the French, British and Russians!
And Gengis Khan, Alexander the Great, et al.
Reminds me of watching ISIS take Mosul ten years after my battalion left. 7 dead for no reason. Good to see that my old stomping grounds in Zabul province have become Taliban strongholds. Don’t care what the CoS call it, just get the hell out already.
I believe this is the TAH consensus. It may have taken some a bit longer to arrive, but here we are.
With this in mind, remember Biden is batting 1000 in bad foreign policy calls, and has for nearly 50 years.
He’s yet to meet a war he didn’t like…
Except for Vietnam. Worked pretty hard to avoid it.
But did his damndest to keep Vietnamese refugees out of the US.
Gee, I wonder why?
Because he has been an effing POS his entire adult life. The only person Gropey Joe cares about is himself.
Maybe some of this had to do with Milley and others trashing the Army’s standards…?
Speaking of dropping bombs, Maybe it’s time to stop messing around and send the Party Posse: