The Helter Skelter War: Afghanistan and the Lost Cause

Back in 1969, at Woodstock, the climate was a definite anti-war tone against the US in Vietnam, a country that pales in size when it comes to Afghanistan. Then, it was the band, Country Joe and Fish singing, "what are we doing there, I don't give a damn about Vietnam".

Fast forward to now

There is a small chorus of scholars and media that are now asking the same, "what are we doing there", "at best, it is a draw", "what is winning anyway"? Despite the patriotic support for the troops (you know, it was also there in the Vietnam war, also) many are looking at this long war (as they did with Nam) and question it.

This war is 50% longer than the combined US involvement in the 1st and 2nd World Wars! For the most part, Afghanistan is a US war sparked by terrorism. Afghanistan is the second worse place for a war, Somalia is the first. It is a HUGE country. The government is corrupt and created by the US, just as the US tried South Vietnam with President Thieu's regime. Afghanistan's para-military is corrupt as was much of the South Vietnamese Army despite the modern weapons given to them from 1966-74. Then, our mission was to stop Communism. Now, its another form of this system, worse, fueled by hatered of the West and Islam.

Our mission now is to clear, hold and build in key areas of the country and given the lack of troops, it creates a series of outposts, islands of democracy that once US presence exits, returns back to its former state- warlords and Taliban.

Kabul and the Karzai government only control 1\3 of the country. The rest is a free for all, many areas are pure Taliban, untouched or unfazed by the war. Take Helmand Province. Unless you realize that this province is the size of the State of West Virginia (which is 25,000 sq. miles or 62,000 sq, km) one might think little of it. However, there are only 4000 US Marines there to fight the war! They can do little more than patrol and skirmish with the Taliban in their assigned area. The local government and police are thieves. They take bribes from the Taliban, they steal, say one thing, do another when the Americans are not there. The Afghan "soldiers" indicate they are there for a vacation and seldom fight. The situation in Afghanistan is NOTHING like Iraq, where there is hope things will turn out alright. Things seem viable there. Iraqis have a history of good relations with the West.

Economically, the whole country of Afghanistan has a $23 Billion dollar budget. While it sounds impressive, it is a drop in the bucket when you realize that the the City of Boise, Idaho, has the same amount for their budget! This is a medium sized city, not a country!

Back to Helmand Province. Why is this area important? Poppies. Drug money. The province accounts for 75% of the countries opium crop, which provides revenue. But, we only have 4000 troops there trying to persuade farmers with our own "bribes" to grow other crops. None that will bring in revenue.

President Karzai, like President Thieu, does not enjoy popularity with the commoners. Many think he is corrupt, inept and predatory, according to the Economist. Some of the commoners really want a return to the "warlord" system because it is less brutal. The country will have 68,000 US troops and 9000 British troops. Commanders know from their military training that to fight this kind of guerrilla hide and seek war requires well over 150,000 troops because of its size. Nobody has an appetite for that one. Now, the recent "democratic" election has been declared fraudulent in many provinces by international observers that demand a new re-election.

But what is the purpose of destroying Taliban or al-Qaida bases there, if they are untouched in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan? They still will exist, train and grow. They still will conduct terrorist attacks. And we all know that when the Americans and British leave this country, things will deteoriate and the country will either slowly return to its former 2001 state or some variation of it.

When the US left Vietnam in 1973-4, South Vietnam only lasted until May, 1975. Despite the years of training, building, supplying its large army and airforce, when the North conducted its last attack, even they were surprized how quickly the South's troops fled and ran overall, how quickly the government fell into chaos.

Ditto for Afghanistan.
Our own "warlords" promoting this war can put any kind of spin on it they want but that is all it is. History is repeating and while we are not making all the same mistakes as in Vietnam, enough are being made and the adversary is as tough to make the outcome very similar once US troops vacate the Afghanistan premises.

Taliban Ambush in Afghanistan is Deja Vu Vietnam

Similarities to the Vietnam War

Th US forces in Afghanistan are fighting in the world's worse possible terrain against a cunning and very adaptable foe: the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. In many ways, the foe is WAY worse than the more predictable North Vietnamese Army, a more convential force,and its North Vietnamese Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, its radical terrorism group.

The similarity to the Vietnam war is not in the geography, but the tactics used by both forces and the problems faced by the American soldier in this lunar like lanscape. Like in Vietnam, the enemy was difficult to find, locate and fix because of the lush tropical landscape, even with sensors. Like the Vietnam war, combat unit formations were small in size, not much more than battalions was more often than not. Many battles in Vietnam were small unit actions comprising of company size or less. Once the US forces engaged the enemy, the inevitable call to artillery, air strikes with napalm or B-52 runs were requested. US forces were instructed to fall back out of the kill zone. The NVA or VC usually monitored the radio or instinctively heard the approach and suddenly stopped the attack and vanished. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. As was said many times during that war, the US won the battles most of the time, yet failed to win the war.

We have the same situation developing in Afghanistan. The same tactics are being used in addition trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the population, and like in Vietnam, most of the locals are lukewarm, at best, about the US presence, and easily persuaded by the money of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda to switch sides. This happened in Vietnam, but usually, the NVA or VC provided food, health care, clothes to win the locals.

In the Korangel Valley, a recent small firefight killed one US soldier. A platoon of around 40 men climbed down from their outpost and were on recon down into the small hamlets or towns around Ali-abad, mingle with the locals and try to "win" their support. The locals are cordial but remain silent when asked about "you know who". Much like the locals in Vietnam when asked about VC. A week earlier the same US platoon had killed over 15 suspected Taliban fighters in an ambush. The local leaders were angry and claimed that the men killed were actually looking for a lost girl despite being armed. The US response was essentially, bullshit. Same things happened in Vietnam. A kid would take the chocolate from a GI, smile, and suddenly five minutes later, the APC would blow up with the GI.

The US troops continued passing one local leader, Zarin, coming from a small town called Laneyal, where the US troops suspected terrorists existed. Not long after exchanging greetings and smiles with Zarin, all hell broke loose as the US platoon was caught in a three-way deadly Taliban crossfire as they attempted to scale up the terraced wheat field. The platoon really was close to chaos, hunkering down in the rocks along the river bed. The firebase, a mile away, started lobbing 120mm shells. A squad left at Ali-abad, peppered the area with machine gun fire. The terrain is ominious. Not a place to be ambushed at!

With the enemy closing in and the US holding their ground, things were getting worse, not better. Like in Vietnam, the call to airstrikes was requested. As the aircraft approached, like in Vietnam, the Taliban vanished like ghosts. The pilot told the troops incoming was a 500 pounder, get the hell out of its blast zone. They did. Other bombs followed, blowing the crap out of anything. The harrowing ambush had receded. Only one US soldier killed, no Taliban bodies were found. All in a day's life in the war . Maybe the enemy had dragged off the body.

Just like in Vietnam forty years ago. History is repeating once again at all levels.