Taliban takes Kunduz, Afghans react with US airstrikes
I learned a long time ago when I was a private that it’s much easier to mount an effective defense than it is to mount an effective assault. But, as with everything else lately, we have to learn all of our lessons all over again. The Iraqis are faltering trying to win back Mosul and Ramadi after losing those cities to ISIS, and now the Afghans are trying to win back Kunduz after losing the city of about 300,000 souls to the Taliban over the weekend, according to Fox News;
The city fell Monday, after hundreds of Taliban gunmen launched a coordinated, multi-pronged attack at several points around the city. After a day of fierce fighting, they managed to overrun government buildings and hoisted their flag in the city square. The fast-moving assault took the military and intelligence authorities by surprise.
[…]
The Defense Ministry vowed in a statement to Reuters that the city would soon be retaken. Reuters reported that government forces had spent the night holed up at Kunduz’s airport after being driven out of the city itself the day before.
Kunduz is one of the richest cities, according to the article and it’s been Taliban-free since they were defeated in 2001. The Taliban released about 600 prisoners from the local hoosegow, about 150 of them were Taliban.
Category: Terror War
Another feather in the cap of this Administration’s foreign policy (or lack thereof).
On the subject of territory ceded to the Taliban, The Long War Journal reported the other day the the Waza Khwa district (East/Southeast Paktika) is now firmly in Taliban hands. I think COP Waza Khwa was handed over to the ANA in late 2011.
I wonder what President Johnson….I mean Obama will do now.
As much as I detest LBJ, I’ll give him at least this much credit: he wouldn’t have just packed up and gone home. The major reason that we went from less than 25,000 troops in Vietnam in Jan 1965 to over 500k troops 4 years later is that LBJ didn’t want to be remembered for having “lost Vietnam” like Truman “lost China”. By that point, things were so messed up we were screwed whatever we did.
The current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC? Who knows what he’ll do. He got good advice back in 2009 and ignored it.
I expect to see more of this kind of thing in October, but not just extremists taking over cities like Kunduz. I expect to see reversals of that. There’s also the possibility of a coup.
Hundreds? Hundreds of Taliban? And they attacked from “several points around the city?” If that’s accurate, it’s over.
hundreds in Afghan speak is like Soldier math when it comes to beer.
12 Soldiers x 2 beers each = 47 cases.
We constantly received reports from Afghans about “dozens” or “hundreds” that were 3 or 10.
To us, it makes them look like they are under serious attack and need our help. For them, it makes them look less the cowards they are when 5 guys walk in and take over the capital.
I’d guess at about 35-50 attacking.
So basically, the Afghan cits just throw down their weapons and run away?
I’m just trying to understand, nothing else.
Obama built that…
IMO, more like, “Stood by and intentionally did nothing but watch while things turned to crap – after being told what needed to be done.”
But maybe that’s just me.
Tomato, Tomato Hondo…
????
Tomato, To-MAH-to
The Obama administration has been much more engaged with Afghanistan than Bush ever was.
Troop strength in Afghanistan under Obama was more than triple the numbers under Bush.
The American people oppose remaining in Afghanistan by almost a 2-1 margin.
While public opinion should not necessarily set international policy, especially in war, it still should matter in a democracy. And sticking to the timetable it essentially in accordance with that. Even still Obama has publicly supported keeping troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016 despite the overwhelming public sentiment against it.
And more combat losses than Bush had in that wretched shithole…
God bless all of you out there that served in that miserable asshole of a country. All of you have more guts than this entire crop of politicians that are supposed to serve us…………
By that logic, LBJ’s involvement in Vietnam was far more effective than JFK’s.
More troops does not necessarily mean a better outcome if the troops aren’t allowed to do what’s necessary, or are doing things that are not militarily necessary. Or – as was the case with LBJ in Vietnam and the current Administration in Afghanistan – if you have no coherent strategy beyond “do something”.
Flexible!
How could we have known?!
No way this could have happened. The Taliban was defeated in 2012, remember?
We were winning when I left.
Ha! Classic!
Ok, I was there not very long ago and its really disheartening to think how much time and effort my unit spent there and it all went to waste
question to the old vets: how did you keep walking after learning your old AO is in the enemies hands?
I think of the same thing about Iraq and their little ISIS issue. If those dick bags wanted, I mean really cherished, democracy and a constitutional republic they’d f***ing fight for it. We sewed the seeds and if they forget to water it, screw them. Ain’t mine, yours, our problem.
When this all gets too out of hand and the world needs freemen with guns (U.S.) to unf**ck this mess, then, maybe then I might lose a bit of sleep.
To the ones over there, my deepest sympathies. I’ll stoke the fire and make sure the beers are cold for your speedy return.
When is fighting season over in Kunduz?
What we were doing in Afghanistan was never going to work in the long run. We were essentially doing it wrong in more ways than due to an incentive system created by an OER that requires quantifiable results, is one of the most important OERs of a battlespace commander’s career, usually must be completed a few months before his tour ends, and commanders were constrained by current operations and plans when they arrived leaving them an approximately an 8 month window to “make a quantifiable impact.”
So commanders were not subject to an incentive system that prioritized long term goals and the kinds of long term strategies that need to be used in an insurgency. They tended to focus instead on short sighted strategies and low hanging fruit year in and year out in order to achieve quantifiable results in a short period of time.
Add to it the constant turnover of battlespace commanders and the way we fight insurgencies is a complete mess.
It was a myopic and schizophrenic way to fight this war. The Taliban were playing the long game and too many US leaders were worried about OER due dates.
Give it up, my little Sparkle pony glitter-snorting unicorn turd-smoking Smurf-hugger. WE KNOW how full of shit you are, and I’m beginning to believe that you know you’re full of shit as well, but you’re too concrete-headed and narcissistic to even begin to accept it! Now take a hike and go smoke another marshmallow, it’s better for you than the bong water you’ve been drinking to chase down the Dutch Rudder Gang Cocktails you’ve been drinking!
In spite of the other crap spewed by L.Taylor I have to give him credit for this critique. The hearts and minds campaigns and tightened ROE really hampered my mood. We had to babysit dickheads that had been blowing us up just months prior because ‘they’d seen the light’. Always rubbed me the wrong way. Killing is kind of a big deal to me and to have it dismissed because of a realignment of political allegiance is, well, f’ing bullshit. Not to mention the massive amounts of money wasted to pay our former ememy to ‘secure’ roads and construct civil building with a substantial amount of corruption.
It all looks good as bullet points but…
Short version: we went from military operations to nation building as our primary mission, and things went to hell in a handbasket thereafter.
There were certainly elements of both prior to January 2009. But I believe the “crossover point” regarding primary mission – along with accompanying ROE changes and major changes in allocation of resources – occurred not long after then.
I thought he left us a while back.
WTF, who left the outhouse door open so he could climb out of the shitter and spew all the shit he swallowed while he was over at DU impressing them with his wisdom of the ages.
The absolute stupidity of liberals never ceases to amaze me and they prove it every time they open their mouths.
Do you have a substantive disagreement with what I said or did you just post to be a obnoxious asshat because I came back to the site for a while?
What happened to the stories about ISIS trying to gain a foothold in A-stan and the Talibums fighting them? I hope they go at it and wipe each other off the face of the Earth.
Obama: No better friend to the enemy.
Fucking nonsense. Obama has been much more hardline and effective in the fight against Islamic extremists and terrorists than any president in history, including Reagan.
Not sure how effective the President has been. It’s not from a lack of trying though.
Arguable. I think “drifting with no clear idea as to how to proceed” more aptly describes what has been going on since at least 2011.